Time experience in incarceration

Abstract

Using a four-layered psychological and anthropological analysis, the article focuses on how adult males experience the passage of time in incarceration. Subjective assessment, which is in strong cor relation with power relations and coping mechanisms, as well as the embededdness of the sentence, i.e. its correlation with the identity and career-plans of the inmate are key concepts in the analysis. Furthermore, the questions of “inner” and “outer” time, family conflicts, prison holidays and memories are discussed.