In prison studies, research tends to be divided by lines of geography, language, and academic discipline. This special issue aims to bring current research on prisons in Latin America to an English-speaking audience and into conversation with prison scholars across regions of the world. Prisons research in Latin America has largely been the domain of legal scholars, especially with a focus on doctrine and legislation. Historians have documented the evolution of penal systems in contexts of colonialism. Sociological and political science research has explored prisons in Latin America as a space of marginalization and state abandonment. There is also a growing body of empirical research, based on fieldwork and primary data, about prisons in the region. This special issue brings together five new studies, from different disciplines, methods, and countries, to put a spotlight on research conducted inside prisons in Latin America. The authors of these studies are all participants in the Americas Prisons Research Network, established in 2016 to encourage collaboration in this field throughout the Western Hemisphere. Three of the studies are qualitative, rooted in ethnographic methods and based on extensive fieldwork inside prisons and with people who have spent time incarcerated. Each provides a new lens on key issues in prison studies: narratives of violence, prison gangs, and prison riots. From Colombia, Ariza and Iturralde weave together the history of prisons during different eras in the country’s armed conflict and in the context of rising incarceration for drug trafficking and common crime. Blending stories, memories, visual images, and the rhythms of daily life, they reveal the ways that prisoners and guards understand the place in which they are confined. On the U.S.-Mexico border, Gundur traces the evolution of a prison gang, showing how the conditions and context of prisons in Texas and Ciudad Juárez influence the characteristics and tactics of the group. This piece is unique in that it draws on lengthy interviews with one of the founders of the group, who is now deceased. Weegels, an anthropologist working in Nicaragua, delves beneath typical explanations of prison riots. Drawing on direct accounts from prisoners who experienced two different riots in Nicaraguan prisons, she shows how the riots, relatively rare, relate to prisoners’ efforts to negotiate authority among themselves and with prison staff—all in a very fraught context of political tension.

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简介：美洲监狱暴力特刊

在监狱研究中，研究往往按地理、语言和学科领域进行划分。本期特刊旨在将拉丁美洲监狱的最新研究带给讲英语的观众，并与世界各地的监狱学者进行对话。拉丁美洲的监狱研究主要是法律学者的领域，尤其是对理论和立法的关注。历史学家记录了殖民主义背景下刑罚制度的演变。社会学和政治学研究探索了拉丁美洲的监狱作为边缘化和国家遗弃的空间。还有越来越多的实证研究基于实地调查和原始数据，关于该地区的监狱。本期特刊汇集了来自不同学科、方法、和国家，将重点放在拉丁美洲监狱内进行的研究上。这些研究的作者都是美洲监狱研究网络的参与者，该网络成立于 2016 年，旨在鼓励整个西半球在该领域的合作。其中三项研究是定性的，植根于人种学方法，并基于监狱内和曾被监禁的人的广泛实地调查。每一个都为监狱研究的关键问题提供了新的视角：暴力、监狱帮派和监狱骚乱的叙述。来自哥伦比亚的 Ariza 和 Iturralde 将在该国武装冲突的不同时期以及因贩毒和共同犯罪而被监禁的人数不断增加的背景下，监狱的历史编织在一起。融合故事、记忆、视觉影像和日常生活节奏，它们揭示了囚犯和看守如何理解他们被关押的地方。在美墨边境，Gundur 追溯了一个监狱团伙的演变，展示了德克萨斯州和华雷斯城监狱的条件和背景如何影响该团伙的特征和策略。这件作品的独特之处在于它借鉴了对现已去世的该集团创始人之一的冗长采访。在尼加拉瓜工作的人类学家 Weegels 深入研究了监狱骚乱的典型解释。她借鉴了在尼加拉瓜监狱中经历过两次不同骚乱的囚犯的直接叙述，展示了这些相对罕见的骚乱如何与囚犯在他们之间以及与监狱工作人员谈判权力的努力之间存在联系——所有这些都是在一个非常紧张的政治紧张局势中。