Abstract
In this chapter, we discuss the incidence of narratives on war and death in shaping penitentiary experience in Colombia. Based upon the case of La Modelo prison in Bogotá, we depict how penitentiary discourses are transmitted to newcomers (and are reproduced by them) through initiation rites that introduce them into the world of confinement. These discourses make their way from the captivity of the prison to the free world through ex-convicts’ memoirs, press accounts, social media and judicial documents written by court officials who visit the prison. Based on this case study, we argue that to achieve a contextual interpretation of carceral violence, it is indispensable to trace, reconstruct and comprehend the trajectory of its foundational discourses.
A similar version of this chapter was published in the International Criminal Justice Review. See Ariza, Libardo and Manuel Iturralde (2020). “The Bullet in the glass: War, Death, and the meaning of penitentiary experience in Colombia”. International Criminal Justice Review, 30(1): 83–98. Copyright © 2019 Georgia State University. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1057567719836475
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Notes
- 1.
In the year 2005, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC in Spanish), right-wing paramilitary groups– negotiated their demobilization with the Colombian government, led by president Álvaro Uribe. As a result, Law 975/2005, better known as the Justice and Peace Law, established the legal and institutional framework that allowed for reduced prisons sentences to be accorded with those subjects who, upon handing over their weapons and undergoing demobilization, should choose to collaborate with judicial investigations and contribute to truth and reparations efforts for victims. As part of this process, the denominated open testimonies have proven to be an important source of factual accounts on the atrocities committed during the conflict, thus reinforcing the on-going research carried out by the Commission on Historical Memory.
- 2.
“Judicial statements of paramilitaries block known as Bloque Centauros”. Available at: https://www.verdadabierta.com/justicia-y-paz/versions/526-bloque-entauros/2638-los-desaparecidos-de-la-modelo
- 3.
Interview with JA, Long-term prison officer at La Modelo. Bogotá, November 2019.
- 4.
Interview with JA and AR, Long-term prison officers at La Modelo. Bogotá, November 2019.
- 5.
Interview with JA, AR, HC, Long-term prison officers at La Modelo. Bogotá, November 2019.
- 6.
“Judicial statements of paramilitaries block known as Bloque Centauros”. Available at: https://www.verdadabierta.com/justicia-y-paz/versions/526-bloque-entauros/2638-los-desaparecidos-de-la-modelo
- 7.
- 8.
Every prison context has “its own sets of normative expectations and criteria of legitimacy, and its durability as a form of “order” in large measure depends on these being fulfilled”. (Sparks and Bottoms 1996: 301).
- 9.
This perspective is grounded on a governmental perspective, which emphasizes the informal arrangements for power sharing.
- 10.
As Kalinich and Stojkovic pointed out, “the contraband market place is a factor that is instrumental to the development of a legitimate form of inmate governance. Contraband is defined as materials that are unauthorized by the formal prison administration (…)” (1994: 214).
- 11.
Sykes argues that “much of the behavior of inmates could be interpreted or understood as attempts, conscious or unconscious, to meet and counter the problems posed by the deprivations of prison life, including the potent threats to the ego” (Sykes 1995: 82).
- 12.
As Goffman pointed out, “Another dimension of variation among total institutions is found in what might be called their permeability, that is, the degree to which the social standards maintained within the institution and the social standards maintained in the environment society have influenced each other sufficiently to minimize differences.” (Goffman 1961b: 28).
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Ariza, L.J., Iturralde, M. (2021). The Ghost of the Massacre Still Tells His Tale. Death and Social Order in Colombian Prisons. In: Darke, S., Garces, C., Duno-Gottberg, L., Antillano, A. (eds) Carceral Communities in Latin America. Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61499-7_13
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