Spiritual life and the rationalization of violence: the state within the state and evangelical order in a Venezuelan prison
This chapter explores inmate rule and religious mediation within a complex power structure that regulates and rationalizes violence inside a Venezuelan prison. It argues that the State seemingly delegated (or relinquished) the internal control of the facility to prisoners. In turn, the “inmate gover...
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| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
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2021
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| In: |
Carceral communities in Latin America
Year: 2021, Pages: 321-338 |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Summary: | This chapter explores inmate rule and religious mediation within a complex power structure that regulates and rationalizes violence inside a Venezuelan prison. It argues that the State seemingly delegated (or relinquished) the internal control of the facility to prisoners. In turn, the “inmate government” delegated certain regulatory and disciplinary functions to the Evangelical community. In this manner, the structural issues of Venezuelan and Latin American penitentiaries intertwine with a very particular context in which, it is argued here, a state-within-the-state instrumentalized religious structures to consolidate its power and regulate violence. The first two sections describe the way in which evangelicals understand/represent the current power structures in the prison, and the relationship between the religious and the secular. The rest explains the economic and social functions fulfilled by the religious sphere in the prison. |
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| Item Description: | Literaturverzeichnis: Seite 337-338 |
| Physical Description: | Illustrationen |
| ISBN: | 9783030614980 |
