Repression meets responsibility: Canadian penal governance in the 'age of transformation'

Abstract

In December 2007, the Ministry of Public Safety published the Report of the Correctional Service of Canada Panel Review, a comprehensive analysis of Canada's federal prison system. The release of this report, and the 'transformation' agenda that it presents, is being hailed as a pivotal moment in Canadian corrections, one that will significantly change the manner in which prisons and prisoners are governed. Using a form of Foucauldian discourse analysis, this study 'unpacks' the various meanings and effects that are produced by this report. Drawing on these findings, and through an application of the work of Michel Foucault and the governmentality approach, it then engages with the different ways in which mentalities and strategies of government, discipline and sovereignty are implicit in the 'transformation' agenda that is put forth. In doing so, it engages with Foucault's notion of the 'triangle' of governmentality. The conclusion of this study explores how the agenda presented constitutes a programme of governance with a dual mandate of repression and responsibilities, one that vacillates between strategies of coercion and subjugation and more 'gentle' and 'distant' technologies of self-government.