Emotion Management and Feeling Rules in Lithuanian Women’s Prison

Introduction

This article focuses on expressing and managing emotions in Panevėžys Correctional Facility, the only correctional facility for women in Lithuania (Sakalauskas et al., 2020; Tereškinas et al., 2021). It discusses this facility’s emotional atmosphere and emotional competencies of female inmates, which help them build and maintain relationships and communicate their attitudes toward the reality they experience in prison.

The Panevėžys Correctional Facility located in the fifth largest city in Lithuania houses 217 inmates. The women’s prison community here is diverse and includes adult and underage women, as well as mothers with children under the age of three. The majority of convicted offenders are women who committed offenses related to narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, theft, and murder (Aebi et al., 2023). This prison still has elements of Soviet-era organizational structure, known as “carceral collectivism” (Piacentini & Slade, 2015). Communal living, insufficient staff presence, and unwritten rules are some of its manifestations. Female offenders at Panevėžys Correctional Facility must adapt to communal living conditions with limited access to showers and toilets. The living quarters here are divided into two blocks, separating women with multiple sentences from those with first sentences. Both blocks are self-governing: the prison administration elects a warden responsible for maintaining order in her wing. In both wings, women live in dormitory-style rooms of ten, seven or, if luckier, five each.

As regards women’s imprisonment, it is important to note that between 2004 and 2012, the proportion of incarcerated women in Lithuania almost doubled to just over 40%, but since 2012, with some fluctuations, this number has been decreasing. The share of women in prison increased from 3.2% in 2004 to 5% in 2017. Although the total number of incarcerated persons has decreased by 34.2% over the last 10 years, the proportion of incarcerated women has remained fairly stable. The share of women in prison was 4.6%, which is very close to the European average of 4.7% of the total prison population in 2020 (Tereškinas et al., 2021).

Keeping in mind Panevėžys Correctional Facility’s specificity, this inquiry is based on the assumption that imprisonment is a highly emotional experience for many individuals, evoking frequent, and intense affective states. Navigating these feelings is a crucial and personal aspect of the sentence. For some offenders, being in prison can lead to a profound encounter with their own emotions (Laws, 2022). Emotions play a fundamental role in shaping social interactions and informing decision-making processes and a range of situational behaviors (Rustin, 2009).

Many studies on the effects of imprisonment do not adequately address the emotional aspects of the experience, leading to a lack of understanding of important dynamics within prisons. Similarly, accounts of women’s prisons have tended to neglect significant emotions such as anger, disappointment, sadness, frustration, and fear (Liebling, 1999, 2009). These studies fail to access prisoner experiences with regard to their own “subjective, cognitive, or affective contributions” (Liebling, 1999, p. 287).

Emotions in Lithuanian prisons, especially for women, have not been analyzed; they have only received some mention in studies of men’s prisons (Petkevičiūtė, 2015; Tereškinas et al., 2016; Tereškinas & Petkevičiūtė, 2013). However, as Mary Bosworth and her co-authors note, the reluctance to discuss how male or female inmates openly display or conceal feelings of anger, frustration, fear, and rage is related to a tendency to ignore the emotional side of the research itself. By not acknowledging their own emotions and feelings, criminologists and sociologists tend to mask the pains of imprisonment that inmates experience in prison. This, in turn, weakens prison research and the ability to criticize the penal system (Bosworth et al., 2005). By analyzing the emotional experiences of incarcerated women, this article attempts to fill this gap in the research on emotions in Lithuanian prisons.

This qualitative study draws on the insights of emotion researchers on how emotions are communicated, shared, and managed in inmates’ everyday practices. Emotions are easier to understand if we explore the processes by which they are created, interpreted, and expressed in interaction with others. This lets us grasp how emotional norms and rules are developed and disseminated (Hochschild, 1983, 1990). In analyzing the emotional experiences of female inmates and the circulation of emotions in prison, it is possible to contribute new knowledge about prisons (Crewe et al., 2014; Jewkes, 2014).

The article begins with a literature overview of emotion and emotion management strategies, followed by a discussion of the psychic costs of imprisonment and gender in emotion management. The research methodology is then described, and the subsequent parts examine predominant emotions in Panevėžys Correctional Facility and the ways that female inmates deal with them.

Emotions and Emotion Management: A Literature Overview

In the literature overview, three main aspects are discussed: the social nature and connectivity of emotions, coping strategies employed by prisoners to deal with their emotions, and the relationship between gender and emotions. The article presents the theory of emotions as a social glue and the theory of emotional infection or contamination. It also explores the different ways in which prisoners cope with their emotions.

Emotions such as anger, frustration, fear, love, hope, hatred, and envy are often defined as forms of intensity that are transmitted from one body to another and as resonances that bounce back and forth between these bodies (Seigworth & Gregg, 2010). They give color, tone, and texture to people’s everyday experiences (Grossberg, 1992). Emotions also function as a form of capital, which is accumulated during circulation in both the social and psychic spheres. By circulating, emotions create links between the individual and the collective, the psychic and the social spheres.

Emotions are not only psychological states but also social and cultural practices (Hochschild, 1983). Jeff Hearn describes them as material-discursive processes that contextualize and construct embodied experience. According to him, “emotions tend to occur and circulate when hopes or expectations, on one hand, and realities experienced, on the other, coincide or conflict, or are experienced as such” (Hearn, 2008, p. 185). Similarly, the philosopher Martha Nussbaum argues that “the particular depth and the potentially terrifying character of the human emotions derive from the especially complicated thoughts that humans are likely to form about their own need for objects, and about their imperfect control over them” (Nussbaum, 2003, p. 16). It is through emotions that individuals enact cultural definitions of what counts as a person (Illouz, 2009) and “formulate a particular life, with its struggles, incoherencies and contingencies” (Duschinsky & Wilson, 2014, p. 5).

The psychic costs of imprisonment point to an archive of emotions that may include shame, despair, sadness, anxiety, escapism, self-hatred, guilt, loneliness, bitterness, regret, defeatism, and passivity, an excess of which has been noted by prison researchers (Crewe et al., 2014; Laws, 2018, 2022). In general, the prison is seen as a specific emotional field that influences the identities of prisoners and may create specific emotional geographies. Impression management (Goffman, 1959), central to subcultures of prisoners and prison staff, further highlights the primacy of emotions in prisons (Garrihy & Watters, 2020). According to Crawley (2011), emotions are not an accessory to prison life. Instead, the language of emotions is a crucial means of conveying what it is like to live and work in a prison.

Emotion regulation refers to the methods that individuals use to manage their emotions, including how they feel them, how they experience them, and how they express them. These methods can be automatic or controlled, conscious or unconscious, and may have an impact at different stages in the emotion-generating process (Gross, 2014). Some scholars (Laws, 2022) distinguish two theories of emotion regulation in prison: the theory of emotions as a social glue and the theory of emotional infection or contamination.

First, emotions play a crucial role in prisoner relationships as they function as “social glue.” This idea is clearly demonstrated through the sharing of emotions among prisoners in prison. It is essential to note that the emotional aspects of prisoner interactions work as social glue, contributing to the intimacy and harmony of their relationship. Emotions act as social glue between small groups of prisoners, allowing them to share their feelings with each other. This social sharing of emotions provides a way for prisoners to ventilate their emotions and build stronger bonds with each other. Establishing trust, intimacy, and communication through emotion sharing is essential for stabilizing prisoner relationships (Laws, 2018; also see Davidson & Milligan, 2004; Fischer & Manstead, 2008).

Another way to understand emotion regulation in prison is by examining emotional contagion or emotional contamination, which refers to the transmission of emotions from one person to another (Hatfield & Cacioppo, 1994; Laws, 2022). Emotional contamination is a term used to describe the spread of negative emotions or behaviors among individuals in a confined environment, such as a prison. This phenomenon is especially relevant in the context of incarceration, where inmates are exposed to various stressors, violence, and tough living conditions. In prisons, negative emotions like fear, anger, aggression, hopelessness, and frustration can easily spread from one person to another. The close proximity of inmates in a relatively small and often overcrowded space increases the likelihood of emotional contagion, where negative emotions can quickly spread among inmates due to their shared environment and frequent interactions. The idea of emotional contamination also highlights how inmates may attempt to avoid being influenced by negative emotions and emotional states.

Besides these two theories, prison researchers also categorize emotion management into different techniques such as “bottling up,”“diluting,”“distilling,” and “discharging” emotions (Laws, 2022). Other scholars identify five types of emotional coping techniques: seeking distractions, spiritual pursuits, repression, self-reflection, and humor (Greer, 2002). It is common for inmates to employ a combination of these techniques, which they have discovered to be advantageous in safeguarding their well-being. In general, prisoners have varying responses to emotions, ranging from actively transforming difficult feelings to suppressing emotions altogether (Greer, 2002; Laws, 2022).

Regarding the expression of emotions and the specificities of emotion management in prisons, it is important to bear in mind that emotion management is related to individuals’ intimate needs, caring for loved ones, creating and maintaining social and emotional bonds, and attention to health and hygiene (Boris & Parreñas, 2010). When emotions are shared, they can create multifaceted friendships (Fassin, 2016). Repressed emotions can erupt in violent forms (Laws, 2019). Since prisoners are constantly under the gaze of not only other inmates but also prison staff, i. e. the “bureaucratic gaze” that is constantly judging them (Crewe et al., 2014), their every action and emotional display becomes an object of this bureaucratic gaze and part of an emotional geography. Understanding prison as an emotion-filled space allows for analyzing the diversity of emotions and their distribution (Garrihy & Watters, 2020). Emotion management and feeling rules constitute a fruitful field of research on fundamental aspects of prison life (Laws & Crewe, 2016).

At the same time, prison is a gender-differentiated institution where gender and emotional expression are linked: maintaining gender norms is inseparable from the emotion work inherent in different genders (Crewe et al., 2014, 2017; Garrihy & Watters, 2020). When analyzing women’s prisons from this perspective, it is often argued that more open expressions of emotions and emotion management are more typical of women. While no major differences in the emotions experienced by men and women in prison have been observed (Laws, 2018), it is noteworthy that, according to Kruttschnitt and Gartner (2005, p. 144), prison staff describe female inmates as “more emotional, manipulative, and generally more troublesome than their male counterparts.” Some other studies (Laws, 2022) show that female prisoners’ emotions differ in their level of expressiveness: women express more emotions and show them more openly and in a more intimate way than men in prisons. Imprisoned women more openly demonstrate their attachments to others; they talk more and touch upon deeper topics. Despite this view, it is important to remember that the expression of emotions is not only influenced by gender but also by the institutional arrangements of the prison itself, which make emotion management a universal experience for women and men. Moreover, gender roles and emotion norms are not fixed and show variation over time and space. Emotional differences between genders are strongly influenced by socialization and the contrasting societal roles assigned to men and women. These differences collapse the notion that certain emotions are exclusive to one gender.

Methodology

Twenty semi-structured interviews with women serving prison sentences in Panevėžys Correctional Facility were conducted in August 2020. In formulating the guidelines for the semi-structured interview, the experience of previous research in Lithuanian prisons (Petkevičiūtė, 2015; Sakalauskas et al., 2020; Slade & Vaičiūnienė, 2018; Vaičiūnienė & Tereškinas, 2017), as well as the methodological approaches and guidelines of international researchers (Crewe, 2009, 2011; Jalili Idrissi, 2020; Jewkes, 2005, 2012) were taken into account. The interview guidelines consisted of nine blocks of questions asking about the court process and punishment; life before and after the crime; daily life in the prison; employment; adaptation to the prison environment; relationships with other women, staff, and relatives; female identity and appearance; emotions, emotional support, emotional survival; and future prospects. In the block of questions on emotions that are used in this article, the inmates were asked about what feelings are associated with their incarceration, which emotions can be expressed openly and which are better left hidden, how negative emotions are handled, and from whom they are the most likely to get emotional support. The interviews lasted from 16 min to 1.34 hr. The average length of the interviews was 48 min.

Purposive sampling (Staller, 2021) was used to select prisoners of different ages and with varying lengths of incarceration and from different wings to ensure diverse participants. The sample included women aged 22 to 54 imprisoned for various offenses: drug possession and distribution, theft, injury to a person’s health, physical violence, fraud, robbery, and fraudulent bookkeeping. Purposive sampling involves selecting the most relevant, information-rich, and diverse data to gain an in-depth understanding of prisoners’ emotional lives. The principle of theoretical saturation guided the determination of sample size in this study. According to this principle, the researcher needed to analyze the data collected and assess whether it was adequate based on the level of repeated content, details, and shared meanings across interviews (O’Reilly & Parker, 2013; Staller, 2021).

Each informant was requested to provide her consent to participate in the study; she was informed about the study’s objectives and allowed to withdraw at any time. During the interviews, the informants’ anonymity was ensured: their names were not used, and no specific questions were asked that may identify them. The interviewees’ names have been changed in the article. The research was conducted with the approval of the Prison Department under the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania.

The interviews with female inmates were recorded, transcribed, and then thematically analyzed using MAXQDA software. The analysis was conducted by assigning thematic codes and sub-codes on a line-by-line basis to two interviews. Afterward, the coding process was thoroughly examined, resulting in the development of a cohesive framework of codes and sub-codes. The remaining interviews were then coded using the established code system, with various clarifications and additional codes being incorporated throughout the process as needed. The following coding categories were used in this article to process the interview data using MAXQDA software: life in prison, the stigma of imprisonment, impact of imprisonment, life in prison, physical and emotional state in prison, and emotional support. These categories have been subdivided into smaller sub-categories. The categories and sub-categories were useful in analyzing inmates’ emotions and emotion management through their stories and voices.

The study utilized interpretive phenomenological analysis (Hughes et al., 2021) to examine inmates’ lived experiences and individual meaning-making processes in prison. By using this methodology, the researcher gained a better understanding of how inmates manage their emotions while in prison. The approach not only led to a better understanding of the prison environment but also provided an opportunity to delve deeper into the perspective of women prisoners. By exploring how they perceived their situation and derived meaning from it, the researcher gained valuable insights into the experiences of female inmates in the prison system.

Although the Covid-19 pandemic prevented a larger-scale ethnographic study (interviews took place between two quarantines), 20 semi-structured interviews with women imprisoned in the Panevėžys Correctional Facility allowed the researcher to outline the main features of their punishment and imprisonment experiences. It should also be noted that the interviews with the inmates were conducted after the first quarantine had ended, which made women long for contact with the outside world (for several months, no one from outside the Correctional Facility was allowed to enter except the administration).

Results

Discussion

Emotions are challenging to observe, identify, and describe, especially when researchers work in radically different prison environments. However, this study shows that emotions are central to the inmates’ everyday lives, even when they exist in latent forms. Prison is filled with negative emotions that inmates have to deal with on their own or with the help of their relatives, prison staff, and psychologists.

Data from a previous quantitative survey conducted in 2016 in Lithuanian prisons reveals that a quarter of women in Panevėžys Correctional Facility considered the conditions of imprisonment to be bad, and almost half (47.7%) said that the conditions had worsened during the period of their imprisonment. Poor conditions in Lithuanian penitentiaries are a regular subject of discussion on the politicians’ agendas, in the media, and in court hearings. In 2018, Lithuanian national courts awarded 820,000 euros in compensation to prisoners for inhumane, torturous, and degrading conditions. Several hundred thousand euros in compensation were paid out based on amicable agreements with the Government of the Republic of Lithuania that were filed with and reached before the European Court of Human Rights alone. Poor detention conditions are most often linked to dormitory-type prison facilities, which become a source of emotional dissatisfaction and fatigue for the inmates (Sakalauskas et al., 2020).

This study suggests that in the prison environment, the suppression of emotions is the primary method used by inmates to manage their emotions. Negative emotions are often concealed from others, as they are viewed as a weakness. Some prisoners preferred to distract themselves from their emotions by engaging in group activities, talking or playing games. For many, keeping their minds busy was essential to avoid the negative effects of the prison environment. My research also showed that openly displaying emotions was not an acceptable strategy for emotion management; instead, emotions were often filtered and expressed in a restrained way. Women were generally more likely to internalize difficult emotions. There was no clear strategy for transforming and altering the negative impact of difficult emotions through direct engagement. The prevalence of emotional suppression among both male and female prisoners has been confirmed by numerous studies that highlighted the importance of prisoners constructing a “mask” or “shield” to protect themselves from other inmates (de Viggiani, 2012; Jewkes, 2005; Laws, 2022).

It has become commonplace to assume that women and men have different emotional tasks to perform daily. Hochschild (1983) argues that women manage negative emotions by suppressing them and turning them into overt sweetness. In contrast, men hide fear and vulnerability by behaving aggressively. The prison environment corrects these ideas. As the research shows, similar to men’s prisons (Petkevičiūtė, 2015), the norm of emotional restraint prevails in Panevėžys Correctional Facility. It functions as an instrument for adaptation to the prison environment and for coming to terms with the punishment. The norm of emotional restraint or “bottling up” also prevails when expressing positive emotions such as joy and admiration. Although positive emotions can help build friendly relationships with other inmates and foster a sense of camaraderie in the work environment, most female inmates felt that there was no space for the release of emotions in the Correctional Facility. Emotional independence was demonstrated by being emotionally strong and presenting oneself as a tough person.

At the same time, it was the reality of being a woman in a penitentiary. Some informants argued that women who openly expressed negative emotions, including aggression and anger, resembled men, as it was believed that men were more likely to externalize complex emotions such as anger, hatred, and aggressiveness. This view undermines the perception of emotionality as an essential component of femininity (Evans & Wallace, 2008; Fivush & Buckner, 2000). At the same time, it suggests that emotional competence in prison is related to the ability to hide emotions and to open up to only a limited number of inmates who become emotional support networks. Consequently, women limited their participation in emotion work comprised of creating and maintaining social and emotional bonds. It is, therefore, possible to argue that the limited emotionality of women in prison is not only due to gender but also to the specificity of the prison, which is based on mutual mistrust and emotional claustrophobia. The institutional arrangements of the prison make female inmates targets of emotional stagnation and force them to distance themselves from their feelings. Emotional suppression is thus considered a relatively universal prison experience, whether it is a women’s or men’s prison (Laws, 2018).

The fear of emotional contamination noted by prison researchers is the reason behind the pervasiveness of emotional suppression, with negative externalization being heavily discouraged by most inmates. Suppression served as a crucial and effective psychological defense mechanism that helped to reduce the impact of painful emotions and harsh realities experienced by prisoners. There appears to be a strong similarity with the findings of Grounds (2004), who discovered that prisoners often suppress their painful emotions, avoid communication, and keep their distance to deal with stress and pressure. However, this study also highlights the importance of positive emotions as a social glue in the life of inmates and how it enables them to build a supportive community within the prison. When prisoners share their emotions and ways of coping with one another, it fosters a sense of camaraderie and understanding. This emotional connection between inmates contributes significantly to the formation of social bonds, providing them with the necessary emotional support they need.

This study examines emotional expressions within their local context, rather than treating emotions as distinct entities (Beatty, 2019; Laws, 2022). While it may be possible to consider the study of imprisonment that focus on separate emotions like anger, fear, and sadness, such an approach contradicts the interconnectivity of emotions. Positive and negative emotions often cannot be easily separated. Moreover, studying emotions inevitably raises questions about the inseparability of qualitative research strategies from emotions (Drake & Harvey, 2014; Jewkes, 2012). This study is also based on the assumption that there is always some emotional content between researchers and research participants when interpreting the stories of female inmates (Jewkes, 2014; Reiter, 2014), and therefore it is important to bear in mind the anxiety and other feelings of the researchers that may have influenced the interpretations of the inmates’ stories (Phillips & Earle, 2010). To prioritize the unique experiences of incarcerated women, emotional responsiveness and acknowledgment of their criminal histories were emphasized in this study.

The article attempts to voice, document, and reveal the multiple and multi-layered experiences of women’s encounters with the Lithuanian penal system. Focusing on direct contact with women prisoners, it provides a thick summary of women’s prison experiences, interpreted in the light of their opinions, explanations, doubts, and beliefs. Furthermore, by attempting to provide a more nuanced understanding of the emotional experiences of prisoners, this study aligns with recent critical studies of imprisonment that have emphasized the emotional complexity of imprisonment and sought to reintegrate emotions into academic discussions (Crawley, 2004; Crewe et al., 2014; Laws, 2019, 2022; Liebling, 2014).

Conclusion

The article offers insight into the emotional competencies of incarcerated women, which not only help them create and maintain interpersonal relationships but also express their attitude toward the lived reality in prison. The results of the study shed light on how female inmates understand their emotional well-being and develop ways to manage their emotions. The findings show that being in prison can lead to a lot of stress and negative feelings because of the limited space and constant presence of other inmates. The poor living conditions, particularly the shared dorm-style accommodations, also contribute to emotional dissatisfaction and exhaustion.

In the Panevėžys Correctional Facility, women experience emotional claustrophobia, which is the fear of being hurt by openly expressed emotions. They also have to manage their emotions due to the “emotional contagion” effect, where negative emotions from other women can affect their mood. Emotions are contagious, and some women complain of prisoners’ negative energy in dormitory-style facilities. As a result, the women feel the need to maintain a tough facade and engage in facade management to cope with these challenges.

However, emotions also serve as social glue among inmates, as they try to form small, dependable groups for emotional support. The shared experience of imprisonment enables them to empathize with each other, fostering understanding and compassion. By engaging in various routines and activities like cooking, gaming, and talking, women prisoners reinforce their social bonds.

During the interviews, the women shared insights on emotional literacy and competencies that aided them in managing their emotions and dealing with challenges in prison. They found that these skills helped them maintain positive relationships and cope with feelings of loneliness, abandonment, and despair. Overall, emotional competencies proved to be a valuable social resource for adapting to the prison environment.

To effectively address emotional management in prisons, a comprehensive approach is necessary. This includes providing mental health support, training staff to manage their emotions and interactions, improving living conditions, implementing rehabilitative programs, and fostering a positive and supportive environment within the prison system. As the study results show that women in prison tend to avoid sharing their experiences with others and professionals working in the institution, the availability of psychological support for women prisoners in prison, with a view to their well-being and mental health, should be improved. Using specialists (psychologists) from external organizations and social partners can help increase women prisoners’ willingness to seek psychological help. It should be noted that the principle of confidentiality is fundamental in providing psychological assistance. Interventions and programs aimed at improving emotional intelligence can also have a positive impact on the social dynamics and emotional well-being of incarcerated women. By acknowledging the role of emotions as a social glue in the prison setting, it becomes possible to develop effective strategies to improve conflict resolution, communication, and overall well-being of prisoners.

Despite the limitations of this research, the study of the emotional aspects of imprisonment provides tools to rethink the new penology and culture of control in prisons. The analysis of emotions allows us to look at gender-differentiated experiences of imprisonment and the ways that (mis)trust between inmates, their emotional well-being, and competition for power function in the correctional system. This study not only extends previous research on the relation of imprisonment to experiences of emotional isolation and the pain of incarceration (Laws, 2018, 2022) but also points to the importance of emotional competencies based on emotional restraint and relatively rigorous management of emotions in the correctional facility.

Further research on women’s prisons should acknowledge the multiplicity of emotional norms and their central role in shaping the relationships between inmates, which are regulated by institutional feeling rules. By observing the dynamics of emotions, it would also be possible to see how emotional orders are created and what alternative ways could be employed to maintain emotional balance and a positive emotional climate among inmates.