Prison Work Programs: Poverty, Flexibility, and Precariousness

This paper considers the penal world as a microcosm reflecting, in an exaggerated fashion, power relations present in society. It examines why few laws exist in France about prisoners’ work whereas Belgium has had a law on prisoners’ rights and duties in place since 2005. In its draft phase, this law foresaw giving social security to all incarcerated people. Based on a Foucauldian approach, this paper views work as an instrument of power. It first discusses the need to clarify what work would bring to those who are imprisoned. Then, it discusses reasons why such legislation is absent and makes analogies between work inside and outside the prison setting.