A Power in Death: Death as a Site of Resistance in Prison

The prison is often discussed as an institution that imposes death, be it physical, social, or spiritual death. Resistance to prison, likewise, is often depicted through processes that affirm life—in “acts of living”, such as creating strong peer networks, developing daily routines and practices of self-care, collective organizing inside or outside the prison or, more generally, actively hoping for and working toward release from prison. For some, however, resistance centers not only on life, but on death—seeking to control one’s death, fighting against death as it is imposed by the system, or making efforts to die on one’s own terms. Drawing on extensive interviews with older people living with chronic illness in 11 prisons in a US State, including a prison hospice in the State, this article examines ways in which incarcerated people approach death by choosing to die in ways that have meaning to them. We examine how incarcerated people create alternative pathways for autonomy and community in the death process, through “everyday death resistances”, including refusing to accept prison medical care, strategizing to die on the mainline rather than in prison medical clinics, and finding a “good death” in hospice.