ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the pains of imprisonment beyond the focal point of the prison, and explores how these pains may be generated before entrance to the institution, as well as how they may pertain beyond the physical boundaries of the walls. Goffman speaks of 'mortifications' and Sykes refers to 'deprivations' and the 'pains of imprisonment'. These are the traditional discourses utilized to examine how a person becomes a prisoner, a process inherent to the institution in which a person is incarcerated. The deprivation of security is recognized as the most obvious of the 'pains' of imprisonment because prisons are perceived as 'dangerous'. The prison is a mutable entity that is subject to the vicissitudes of time, political influence and shifts in penal discourse. With every shift comes the potential for new deprivations and pains. Attempting to make a new life after prison is hard, but in some regards a former prisoner cannot move beyond their conviction.
