“Irene Marti’s Doing Indefinite Time is an exemplary work of prison ethnography that demonstrates the power of grounding critical theories of penal institutions in the experiences of those most impacted by them. … Its profound and moving account of their struggles for some semblance of an ordinary life within the prison illuminates the value of her methodological and theoretical approach, and will hopefully inspire similar research in other contexts.” (Jason Danely, Royal Geographical Society, carceralgeographies. co. uk, October, 2025)
This open access book provides insights into the everyday lives of long-term prisoners in Switzerland who are labelled as ‘dangerous’ and are preventatively held in indefinite, probably lifelong, incarceration. It explores prisoners’ manifold ways of inhabiting the prison which can be used to challenge well established notions about the experience of imprisonment, such as ‘adaptation’, ‘coping’, and ‘resistance’. Drawing on ethnographic data generated in two high-security prisons housing male offenders, this book explores how the various spaces of the prison affect prisoners’ sense of self and experience of time, and how, in particular, the indeterminate nature of their imprisonment affects their perceptions of place and space.
It sheds light on prisoners’ subjective, emplaced and embodied perceptions of the prisons' various everyday time-spaces in the cell, at work, and during leisure time, and the forms of agency they express. It provides insight into prisoners’ everyday habits, practices, routines, and rhythms as well as the profoundly existential issues that are engendered, (re)arranged, and anchored in these everyday contexts. It also offers insights into the penal policies, norms, and practices developed and followed by prison authorities and staff.
