ABSTRACT
While this was at first a pragmatic decision for them as researchers, it became for me a conceptual premise and research framework: only by studying the prison from outside and after imprisonment can the researcher see how it carries value beyond its spatial and temporal confines. Putting these narratives next to each other, a common pattern came to the fore, illuminating how the prison experience was revived beyond its physical and temporal boundaries, for the purpose of capitalising on and extracting value from that experience in one way or another. SG went on to explain that this ex-prisoner was, unfortunately, a bit ‘too real’ of an ex-prisoner, as his parole conditions prevented him from travelling outside of South Africa. The reliving of the prison experience, enabled through the interview process after having been in prison, yields the necessary detail that allows for the desired form of witnessing and the desired effects it produces.
