Disrupting ‘healthy prisons’: Exploring the conceptual and experiential overlap between illness and imprisonment

Abstract

Our aim in this conceptual article is to theoretically reimagine the concept of ‘healthy prisons’ in a way that more thoroughly grounds it in the everyday experiences of prisoners. Our point of departure is the observation that there seems to be an intriguing conceptual and theoretical overlap between first-person oriented empirical studies of two spheres of human experience that are normally seen as separate: serious illness and imprisonment. Our analysis leads us to reimagine the term ‘healthy prisons’ in a way that increases its usefulness for anyone interested in making prisons healthier and more constructive and reinventive institutions.