Justin Piche

Justin Piché (PhD, Carleton University)

Assistant Professor

Sociological Specialties / Areas of Interest

Sociology of punishment with a focus on Canadian penality
Public social research
Prison writing

Professor Piché has conducted studies in three related areas: 1) the normalization and proliferation of imprisonment inside and outside the penal system; 2) alternatives to incarceration; 3) cultural representations of confinement and punishment. He is Co-managing Editor of the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons (www.jpp.org).

Future research will focus on contributing to knowledge on the history and geography of punishment in Canada, beginning with a study that that will examine how Kingston, Ontario became home to nine federal penitentiaries since Confederation. In working towards a social geography of these prisons, this study will also examine the architecture and spatial practices that shape interactions within these facilities, explore how staff and prisoners resist these structures that aim to control their lived geographies, and investigate how these institutions are depicted in local culture and contribute to the formation of the region's identity. Other projects include a study with Dr. Kevin Walby (University of Victoria) that will examine the emergence of prison museums across Canada as historical sites and tourist attractions, how and what narratives about confinement and punishment are communicated to visitors, and how visitors interpret the messages they encounter. Another project with Mike Larsen (Kwantlen Polytechnic University) will examine the phenomenon of carceral retasking, whereby immigration and security detention spaces are transformed into prisons and vice-versa to meet the imperatives of the coercive arm of the Canadian state, both in the contemporary context and historically.

Currently a member of the Policy Review Committee for the Canadian Criminal Justice Association (http://www.ccja-acjp.ca), Professor Piché has authored and presented policy briefs to committees in the House of Commons and Senate. A frequent commentator in print, radio and television, some of his research findings and related commentary can be accessed on his blog Tracking the Politics of 'Crime' and Punishment in Canada (www.tpcp-canada.blogspot.com).

Selected Publications

Piché, Justin and Kevin Walby (forthcoming 2012). "Carceral Tours and the Need for Reflexivity: A Response to Wilson, Spina, Canaan", Howard Journal of Criminal Justice.

Piché, Justin (forthcoming 2012). "Accessing the State (of Imprisonment) in Canada: Information Barriers and Negotiation Strategies", in Mike Larsen and Kevin Walby (eds.), Brokering Access: Politics, Power and Freedom of Information in Canada, Vancouver: UBC Press.

Piché, Justin (2012). "'Going Public': Accessing Data, Contesting Information Blockades", Canadian Journal of Law and Society, 26(3): 635-643.

Walby, Kevin and Justin Piché (2011). "The Polysemy of Punishment Memorialization: Dark Tourism and Ontario's Penal History Museums", Punishment & Society, 13(4): 451-472.

Piché, Justin and Kevin Walby (2010). "Problematizing Carceral Tours", British Journal of Criminology, 50: 570-581.

Piché, Justin and Mike Larsen (2010). "The Moving Targets of Penal Abolitionism: ICOPA, Past, Present and Future", Contemporary Justice Review, 13(4): 391-410.

Larsen, Mike and Justin Piché (2009). "Exceptional State, Pragmatic Bureaucracy and Indefinite Detention: The Case of the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre", Canadian Journal of Law and Society, 24(2): 203-229.

Larsen, Mike and Justin Piché (2009). "Public Vigilance Campaigns and Public Participatory Surveillance after 11 September 2001", in Sean Hier and Josh Greenberg (eds.), Surveillance: Power, Problems, and Politics, Vancouver: UBC Press, pp. 187-202.