Punishment and the Body: The COVID-19 Pandemic in Incarcerated Populations

Abstract

This study traces the history of punishment and prison healthcare in the United States from public execution and torture in the town square to formal incarceration as we know it now. Through exploration of the most recent scholarship and inmate narratives, this thesis argues that although nominally the mode of punishment has shifted from harming the body to reforming the soul, prison today still affects a physical hold on the incarcerated body. In the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this physical hold on the incarcerated body manifests itself as an increased risk of contracting communicable disease when comparing prison health metrics with those of the general population. With the specific goal of exploring the how the design and administration of prison healthcare delivery detriments the health of inmates, this study aims to illuminate preventable patterns of excess morbidity and mortality from communicable diseases in prison.