ABSTRACT
Sexuality and incarceration might seem strangely juxtaposed. Sexuality, in its modern and idealized form, is often aligned with liberation and self-determination. Incarceration, by contrast, connotes radical unfreedom and constraint. Histories of sexuality and incarceration, though, have been closely, even constitutively, linked: incarceration has been foundational to understandings of sexuality, sexual identity, and sexual normativity over more than two centuries of American history. Conversely, concerns about sexuality have been central to the design of the modern prison and to experiences of incarceration.
