Prison rebellions are instances of resistance which make visible and articulate the systemic injustices of the carceral system. This work directs focus towards the tactical repertoires found in the cases of the 1971 Attica Uprising, 1974 August Rebellion, and 2011 & 2013 Pelican Bay Hunger Strikes. In doing so, I seek to answer questions of how different tactics and framings mobilized by incarcerated people reflect alternative claims to citizenship, how different tactical repertoires inform alternative conceptions of popular sovereignty, and what alternative types of popular sovereignty can be identified. By conducting content analysis of archival materials regarding these cases, I find that these cases share the attribute of incarcerated individuals engaging in reframing themselves through alternative claims to citizenship grounded in traditional legal frameworks as well as radical, revolutionary ideologies. Such reframing reflects incarcerated people's reconstructions of notions of citizenship, power, and collectivity. I mobilize the concept of "countergovernance" in order to capture how the tactics used by incarcerated individuals amount to three distinct alternative, provisional forms of popular sovereignty: popular sovereignty as an inversion of the carceral hierarchy of authority through the use of violence, popular sovereignty as an organized communal ethic of care, and popular sovereignty as a decentralized, embodied practice. This research reveals potential alternative ways prison resistance can be theorized to challenge prevailing notions of citizenship, governance, and power.
Saba Johnson (Sun,) studied this question.