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Psychopathy and the Face of Control in Supermax

University of Washington, Seattle, USA lrhodes{at}u.washington.edu

In `supermaximum' or control prisons, inmates described as the `worst of the worst' are held in solitary cells under intensive surveillance. Ethnographic work in these settings shows how the prolonged isolation imposed on these prisoners occurs in the context of classification and placement within the prison. The category of psychopathy is used to designate inmates regarded as dangerous and to interpret their use of language through a merging of clinical and moral discourses. Diagnosis, conditions of confinement and public images of criminality are shown to mutually reinforce a logic of exclusion in which isolation comes to seem `inevitable' for some prisoners.

Key Words: prisons • maximum-security confinement • psychiatry • diagnosis • psychopathy • antisocial personality disorder • ethnography • United States

Ethnography, Vol. 3, No. 4, 442-466 (2002)
DOI: 10.1177/1466138102003004016


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