‘Prison is one place you don’t want your sexuality’

This paper explores intimate linkages between race, sexuality and mass incarceration in the state of California in the USA. While stories abound about the ubiquity of prisoner sex, interviews with 48 formerly incarcerated behaviorally bisexual Black men reveal men’s varied experiences of sex and sexuality within carceral institutions. We suggest carceral intimacies as an integrative framework that captures how power is negotiated by prisoners through intimate relationships in prison settings.