Assemblages of penal power: Women's Respect Units in Spanish Prisons

Abstract

From a Foucauldian perspective, the evolution of the modes of exercising punitive power does not follow a linear progression, but rather, new and old practices, logics, and discourses of penal governance mutate, hybridize, and assemble. Through a qualitative study of the Women's Respect Modules in the Spanish prison system, this work analyses contemporary penal practices through an examination of the assemblages of three fundamental forms of power exercise: sovereignty, discipline, and governmentality, from a feminist approach. The study reveals that the functioning of the Women's Respect Modules, under the umbrella of responsabilization, mobilizes what has been termed "the strategy of re-domestication". In this sense, certain historical trends of women’s punishment, particularly the emphasis on constructing a model of domesticity based on attributes traditionally associated with women such as care for the environment, submission, and obedience, are reinforced. On the other hand, the implementation of certain "technologies of freedom"/"technologies of citizenship" is demonstrated. These practices take on particular profiles in their interaction with the traditional characteristics of punishment in Spain, and particularly the punishment of women. Within the women's Respect Modules, forms of classification, responsibilization, and government at a distance are introduced, which articulate their exercise through discipline, punishment, and obedience, characteristic of the history of penalization in Spain.