In this article, we discuss the incidence of narratives on war and death in molding penitentiary experience in Colombia. Based upon the case of la Modelo National Prison in Bogotá, we illustrate the way in which penitentiary discourses are transmitted and reproduced through two rites that initiate newcomers into the local world of confinement. The first, the tale of terror, told by veteran guards, of the cemetery filled with the bodies left by the war between rebel fighters and paramilitary soldiers. The other, the dense description of the bullet holes in the glass shield at the Main Guard Post, which leads to the main cellblocks, which give proof to the guards’ endurance when faced by the violent power struggle that rages inside the penitentiary. At the same time, we show how these discourses on the horror of the war inside the penitentiary make their way from within the confines of prison out into the free world through ex-convicts’ memoirs, press accounts, and judicial documents written by court officials who visit the prison. Drawing on this case study, we argue that to achieve a contextual interpretation of carceral violence, it is indispensable to trace, reconstruct, and comprehend the trajectory of its foundational discourses, thus allowing for the assembly of the pieces that give meaning to penitentiary experience at the local level.

中文翻译：

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玻璃中的子弹：战争、死亡和哥伦比亚监狱体验的意义

在这篇文章中，我们讨论了在塑造哥伦比亚监狱体验中关于战争和死亡的叙述的发生率。基于波哥大的拉莫德洛国家监狱的案例，我们说明了监狱话语通过两种仪式传播和复制的方式，这些仪式将新移民带入当地的监禁世界。第一个是由资深警卫讲述的恐怖故事，墓地里堆满了叛军战士和准军事士兵之间战争留下的尸体。另一个是对主要看守所玻璃盾牌上的弹孔的密集描述，通向主要牢房，这证明了看守在面对监狱内激烈的暴力权力斗争时的忍耐力。同时，我们展示了这些关于监狱内战争恐怖的论述如何通过前罪犯的回忆录、新闻报道和访问监狱的法院官员撰写的司法文件，从监狱的范围内进入自由世界。借鉴本案例研究，我们认为，为了实现对监狱暴力的上下文解释，追踪、重建和理解其基础话语的轨迹是必不可少的，从而允许将赋予监狱经历意义的片段组装起来。地方层面。