Multilayered Institutional Thoughtlessness: A case study of the transition from being a deaf prison officer to being imprisoned

Abstract

Existing studies have explored the experiences of both prison officers and imprisoned people in significant depth. However, to our knowledge, no research publication in the UK has considered individuals who experience both roles. This article explores the case study of ‘Ashley’, an individual who committed an offence whilst being a prison officer and went onto be imprisoned. Adding a further dimension, Ashley was deaf.

Throughout, we consider the ways in which Ashley’s deafness shaped their experience of prison (as both a prison officer and imprisoned person), and how Ashley’s prior experience as a prison officer shaped their subsequent experience of being imprisoned.

In exploring Ashley’s case, the article shines a light on the little understood topic of prison officers who become imprisoned, as well as the ways in which such experiences (and the transition between them) are negotiated as a minoritised person. Throughout we show that prisons are “institutionally thoughtless” (Crawley, 2005) in relation to the needs of deaf people, regardless of their position within the prison.