This article introduces the concept of carceral communication to focus attention on the role of communication in mass incarceration’s racialized, criminal justice process. To argue that a communication perspective helps explain how individuals, neighborhoods, and prisons are linked together, the article uses publicly available indictments that charged three New York City youth gangs with violent crimes. It identifies three facets of carceral communication to demonstrate how and why mass incarceration is a communicative phenomenon. First, computer-mediated communication (CMC) has become the most sought-after type of criminal evidence because of its visibility and permanence. Second, law enforcement uses the interpersonal communication and neighborhood networks of incarcerated Black men for crime control and surveillance purposes. Third, carceral communication operates as a communication feedback process, in which marginalized, young, Black men under surveillance know they are being watched and respond to that surveillance with resistance that is also subject to criminalization.

本文介绍了监狱沟通的概念，重点关注沟通在大规模监禁的种族化刑事司法过程中的作用。为了论证传播视角有助于解释个人、社区和监狱如何联系在一起，文章使用了公开的起诉书，指控纽约市的三个青年团伙犯有暴力罪行。它确定了监狱交流的三个方面，以展示大规模监禁如何以及为什么是一种交流现象。首先，计算机媒介通信（CMC）因其可见性和持久性而成为最受欢迎的犯罪证据类型。其次，执法部门利用被监禁的黑人男子的人际交流和邻里网络进行犯罪控制和监视。第三，