Angela Hattery & Earl Smith present Way Down in the Hole, with Mary BuserThursday July 20th, 2023 @ 7:00PM - 8:00 PM
P&T Knitwear is pleased to welcome Angela Hattery and Earl Smith for a discussion of their book Way Down in the Hole: Race, Intimacy, and the Reproduction of Racial Ideologies in Solitary Confinement. Based on ethnographic observations and interviews with prisoners, correctional officers, and civilian staff conducted in solitary confinement units, Way Down in the Hole explores the myriad ways in which daily, intimate interactions between those locked up twenty-four hours a day and the correctional officers charged with their care, custody, and control produce and reproduce hegemonic racial ideologies.
Angela and Earl will be joined in conversation by Mary Buser, a founding member of Social Workers & Allies Against Solitary Confinement and the author of Lockdown on Rikers: Shocking Stories of Abuse and Injustice at New York’s Notorious Jail. After the talk, Angela and Earl will sign copies of their book.
RESERVE YOUR SIGNED COPY OF WAY DOWN IN THE HOLE
AVAILABLE TO SHIP MOST PLACES
RSVP HERE
Smith and Hattery explore the outcome of building prisons in rural, economically depressed communities, staffing them with white people who live in and around these communities, filling them with Black and brown bodies from urban areas and then designing the structure of solitary confinement units such that the most private, intimate daily bodily functions take place in very public ways. Under these conditions, it shouldn’t be surprising, but is rarely considered, that such daily interactions produce and reproduce white racial resentment among many correctional officers and fuel the racialized tensions that prisoners often describe as the worst forms of dehumanization. Way Down in the Hole concludes with recommendations for reducing the use of solitary confinement, reforming its use in a limited context, and most importantly, creating an environment in which prisoners and staff co-exist in ways that recognize their individual humanity and reduce rather than reproduce racial antagonisms and racial resentment.
- This is a free in-store event with limited amphitheater-style seating
- We encourage all guests to wear masks.
- The talk will be followed by a book signing. Books signed at P&T Knitwear events must be purchased from P&T Knitwear. If you would like a signed copy and cannot attend the event, we're happy to take your pre-order. We ship most places!
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Angela J. Hattery is a professor of women and gender studies and co-director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Gender-Based Violence at the University of Delaware in Newark. She is the author of eleven books, including Policing Black Bodies: How Black Lives Are Surveilled and How to Work for Change and The Social Dynamics of Family Violence (both with Earl Smith).
Earl Smith is a professor of women and gender studies at the University of Delaware in Newark. He also holds the position of Emeritus Rubin Distinguished Professor of American Ethnic Studies and Sociology at Wake Forest University. He is the author of thirteen books, including Policing Black Bodies: How Black Lives Are Surveilled and How to Work for Change and The Social Dynamics of Family Violence (both with Angela J. Hattery).
ABOUT THE MODERATOR
Mary Buser is the author of the award-winning book, Lockdown on Rikers: Shocking Stories of Abuse and Injustice at New York’s Notorious Jail, which is based on her work as an assistant chief of mental health at Rikers Island. Since leaving Rikers, she has been an advocate for the incarcerated, especially the mentally ill and those held in solitary confinement. Her op-ed, "Solitary Confinement’s Mockery of Human Rights" was published in The Washington Post. Additional articles have appeared in Politico, VICE, The New York Daily News, The Daily Beast, America Magazine, The Crime Report, and Filter Magazine. In 2019, she testified before a congressional subcommittee in support of reforms to solitary confinement. She is a founding member of Social Workers & Allies Against Solitary Confinement.