Criminologists are increasingly concerned with how incarcerated persons navigate dominant carceral discourses. Insights from narrative criminology reveal that individuals draw on a variety of available discursive resources to adopt, subvert or negotiate dominant messages around what it means to be punished. This article draws on yearlong ethnographic observations inside one US state women’s prison to examine whether and how religion matters for responsibilization discourses promoted by state actors. Examining a case study of Protestant prison activities, I find that religious discourses served dual purposes in light of responsibilization. Interpretively, by describing prison as part of God’s plan, they offered a meaningful counterpoint that mitigated punitive discourses from prison officials. In practice, responsibilization discourses, filtered through the coercive carceral context, re-emerged through a normative religious lens with regard to prison rules and state authority. Considered at the intersection of race, class and gender, this article interrogates how women may draw on discourses from competing institutions such as religion in constructing self-narratives and enacting responsibilization, and how this matters for state control.

中文翻译：

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“你不是在服侍时间，你是在服侍基督”：新教和女子监狱中的责任话语

犯罪学家越来越关注被监禁的人如何驾驭占主导地位的监禁话语。叙事犯罪学的见解表明，个人利用各种可用的话语资源来采纳、颠覆或协商关于惩罚意味着什么的主导信息。本文利用美国一所州立女子监狱长达一年的民族志观察，研究宗教对于国家行为者所倡导的责任话语是否以及如何重要。通过研究新教监狱活动的案例研究，我发现宗教话语在责任方面具有双重目的。解释性地，通过将​​监狱描述为上帝计划的一部分，他们提供了一个有意义的对立面，减轻了监狱官员的惩罚性言论。在实践中，责任话语，通过强制性的监禁环境过滤，通过关于监狱规则和国家权威的规范宗教镜头重新出现。考虑到种族、阶级和性别的交叉点，本文探讨了女性在构建自我叙述和制定责任时如何利用宗教等竞争机构的话语，以及这对国家控制的重要性。