EMERGING CRITICAL HEALTH GEOGRAPHIES OF MASS SUPERVISION

Abstract

This dissertation examines how the nature, extent, and consequences of mass supervision shape the health outcomes of individuals living under parole and probation. It addresses gaps within the geography literature concerning systems of parole and probation, as well as offering a contribution to examinations of the health impacts associated with these pervasive forms of carceral control. Using qualitative approaches, I explore the following research questions: 1) What are the structural conditions through which mass supervision impacts individual and community health? 2) How are structural dimensions of mass supervision experienced, and how might these embodied experiences shape pathways to ill-health? 3) How might the health impacts of mass supervision relate to processes of racial formation? In answering these questions this study draws on and synthesizes literatures from carceral geographies, biosocial theory and theories of racial capitalism. Key to understanding the health impacts of supervision is an integrated analysis of both the structural and the embodied and experiential pathways. By examining the impacts of and interrelations between these pathways, this study provides important context for the development of future research into persistent health inequities and the role of carceral control in spatial, political-economic and racial processes.