The Presence of Time in the Lives of Prisoners: Implications for Literacy Workers

In criminal justice terms, time is a commodity used to punish transgressors. However, we examine time from the perspective of the prisoner's lived experiences--not how time is done to prisoners but what prisoners do with time--and describe ways time serves as both a constructive resource and an obstacle to growth and learning. Our project applies Bergson's Duree and Barbara Adam's Timescape theories to the problem of understanding what time means to incarcerated adults. As literacy workers we ask: How do prisoners do time? Are there qualitative differences in the ways time is experienced? Which experiences are conducive to learning? Our findings suggest that the lived experience of time is fundamental to growth and learning. Prisoners' abilities to access past experiences and imagine future ones are key to building new knowledge, maintaining relationships, and constructing new identities. We reflect on the value that prison education policies place on prisoners' experiences--including prisoners' temporal experiences--and consider the implications of these insights for correctional literacy programs.