Resisting Devoto: Challenging practices from a federal male prison in Argentina

Speaker: Ramiro Gual, University of Buenos Aires. Chaired by Máximo Sozzo, National University of Litoral. Abstract: Incarcerated people in Devoto prison obtain cell phones on the prison's illegal market and use them in the privacy of the cells. They also set up temporary tents in the courtyards to enjoy moments of privacy with their visitors, although they do so in full view of everyone. Sometimes, they file individual administrative and judicial claims against prison conditions they consider unjust or illegal, appropriating the language of law. When these claims are initiated by imprisoned university students, they often acquire a collective dimension. This widespread use of the language of law does not eliminate other typically prison-based forms of protest, such as hunger strikes and noisy protests that in Devoto are called batucadas. Collective resistance strategies can lead to persistent organizations, such as the Grupo Universitario Devoto (GUD), which brings together imprisoned university students, or the union of imprisoned workers (SUTPLA). This paper seeks to describe, analyze and categorize several prisoner resistance practices in Devoto Prison, a federal male prison in the City of Buenos Aires in Argentina. Its time of creation, the functions assigned at the beginning and its persistence as the only prison in operation in the city of Buenos Aires make Devoto Prison a particular facility, where interactions between prisoners and prison officers are much more frequent, visible and fluid, and especially permeable to the involvement of other civil actors who daily cross its walls. This ethnography draws on extensive fieldwork conducted for three years in this Federal Men's Prison, including observations, focus groups and interviews with prisoners, prison officers and external actors linked to Devoto Prison everyday life. By focusing on the description of such varied strategies, the article aims to engage in dialogue with the extensive literature from the Global North that has worked on open and collective forms of resistance, individual and institutionalized ones, and even other more surreptitious strategies, identifying how these different forms of resistance can complement and balance each other in different degree depending on the prisoners who attempt it, the objective they seek and the moment in which their capacity to interact with penitentiary officials and external stakeholders is found. Bio: Ramiro Gual is an adjunct professor at the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina), where he also teaches at the university-in prison program. He holds a PhD in Social Studies at National University of Litoral (Argentina). Ramiro has written different papers about university-in prison programs, prisoner workers Union and other forms of coproduction of prison order in Argentina. This workshop is part of the Social Analysis of Penalities Across Boundaries series which is co-organised by Professor Richard Sparks and Professor Máximo Sozzo. Photo courtesy of Grupo de Padres de Devoto