Paper short abstract:

The paper explores the use of incarceration in Argentina from 2003 to 2012 in the context of the social and economic recovery during this time. It critically analyses the legacies of the 2001 crisis and social policies responses in the context of current global security policies.

Paper long abstract:

The number of people incarcerated in Argentina grew exponentially during the years of Menem's administration and the implementation of neoliberal policies. In only six years, from 1996 to 2002, the total prison population in Argentina doubled. This trend has been especially acute for women: from 1990 to 2002, female prison population in federal prisons nearly tripled. While social and labour conditions improved considerably in the country since 2003, incarceration rates continued to increase.

This paper will look at imprisonment and incarceration as a relevant site to study the consequences but also the limitations of economic, political and social recovery in the context of the global security paradigm. Based on a varied methodology, including ethnographic work in prisons and with prison families, l critically analyse penitentiary as well as the progressive social and labour policies promoted since 2003. The paper will argue that prison is a key governance mechanism in contexts of crisis and that there is a need to disentangle the study of imprisonment from the study of crime in order to unveil the specific ways in which imprisonment contributes to multiply borders and dilute the definition of citizenship in post-crisis contexts.