Doin' Time: Entertainment and Exploitation at Decommissioned Prison Museums in the United States

This thesis aims to explore how decommissioned prison museums in the US, such as Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary (BMSP), shape societal attitudes and understanding of the carceral system as a whole and the presence of systemic racism within by addressing three questions: (1) What histories do prison museums tell, and which are erased?, (2) How do objects displayed in prison museums reflect past and present racial attitudes toward the incarcerated?, and (3) Does visiting or working at a prison museum affect individual attitudes regarding the US carceral system? Grounded in James Scott’s (1992) concept of “hidden transcripts” and Michel Foucault’s (1986) concept of heterotopias, this study explores how these sites obscure the realities of systemic racism while promoting the dominant narrative of a necessary carceral system. Analysis focuses on the development of BMSP through the ratification of the 13th Amendment, the Tennessee convict leasing program, enacted after, and the Coal Creek War of 1891 to contextualize BMSP’s role in the perpetuation of systemic racism and exploitation of minority individuals. Through semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and archival research, this research demonstrates how decommissioned prison museums perpetuate dominant carceral narratives while erasing the subversive. Through its public record, the prison is framed as a “stone-cold fortress” marked by “notorious crimes and chilling deaths,” a place forever known as “the end of the line.” Findings suggest that these sites, while marketed for tourism, reinforce the erasure of Black voices in history and normalize the injustice experienced in these spaces.