EHESS (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales) - Paris

Post-Doc, Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire sur les enjeux Sociaux

Other Affiliations: MSH-PN CNRS, Axe 2 : Body, Health and Society

About

I am sociologist, former “allocataire de recherche” of the ANRS, and since 2009 a postdoctoral fellow in sociology at the Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire sur les enjeux Sociaux, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris.

I teaches at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques of Lille ("Agregation" of Social science).

My primary research interests are penal system, mental illness, drug addiction, and sociology of social problems. I completed my PhD on the experience of drugs (particularly among inmates) at the Toulouse University in 2007.

In my current research, I studies the moral and emotional issues involved in interactions between inmates, interveners and prison guards in France. I focuses more specifically on "social treatment" of immigrants in juridical precariousness and adolescents in prisons.

Since the late 1970s, in France as in most industrialized countries, principles of human rights have penetrated inside the prison, putting prisoners' rights on the political agenda. At the same time, however, criminal law has become more repressive towards the socially vulnerable, especially immigrants and youth from underprivileged areas. Selective sanctions such as banishment for non-citizen offenders and « zero tolerance » policies in underprivileged areas have created a situation of precariousness for a vast portion of the prison population. The prison administration has therefore to deal with a dual demand : implementing repressive policies and promoting the humanization of prison. This humanization consists in maintaining the coercive dimension of prison, while granting prisoners with attention and moral recognition. The notion of the rule of law, prisoner's rights and prisoners' access to law is a core dimension of this process of humanization.

This research focuses on practices of this dual demand of repression and humanization. We observe local configurations in which prison workers and other persons in charge (judges, doctors, chaplains, volunteers...) deal with prisoners, express moral evaluations, discuss about issues raised by their legal status or social background. The tension between repressive policies and humanitarian rationale, between stigmatization and recognition are particularly perceptible at the local level. Moral criteria prescribing the appropriate attitude towards prisoners can be analyzed under the concept of moral economy, referring to how moral values, moral feelings and moral judgments are produced, used and diffused. We can thus observe at the local level how the moral imperative of dignity is translated into practices of protection of physical integrity on the one hand, and better access to law and litigation on the other hand.

The empirical research is conducted in the Parisian region, in jails counting a large proportion of foreigners (up to 30%) and youth from immigrant descent. I am studying the moral and emotional issues involved in interactions between inmates, interveners and prison guards, and the « social treatment » of  immigrants and youth. My fieldstudy includes more specifically staff meetings and disciplinary boards which individual cases are evaluated and judged.

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