Thinking Allowed Prison violence, sound and survival
Feb 10, 2026
Kate Gooch, a criminology professor who studies violence and hierarchies in young offender institutions, and Kate Herity, an ethnographer of prison soundscapes, explore prison life through violence and listening. They discuss how sound signals safety or threat. They describe daily routines, coping with constant noise, shifting power on the wings, and how environment and design shape harm and survival.
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A Year Living On The Wing
- Kate Herity spent over a year hanging on the wing, talking and listening to gain familiarity with Midtown's soundscape.
- She sometimes participated in programmes and stayed overnight to sense how spaces change after lights-out.
Shouting As Practical Prison 'Sonar'
- Constant noise drives prisoners to raise their voices, which can be misread as aggression.
- Herity explains shouting functions as practical 'sonar' to be heard during short windows of daily activity.
Nighttime Quiet Masks Distress
- Overnight wing life can feel paradoxically quiet yet deeply distressing when people are in crisis.
- Herity reports loneliness and sensory afterimages persist long after leaving the prison environment.
