Kirby Sokolow, a School of Arts & Sciences Ph.D. candidate in religious studies, wants to challenge stereotypes around incarceration and religion.
2 min. read
When seventh-year doctoral student Kirby Sokolow began researching religion in prisons, she noticed a common trope throughout popular culture and news: how it could “transform” angry, hardened criminals into peaceful, compassionate members of society—so much so that this idea of redemption through religion inspired the first U.S. penitentiaries.
As she got further into her research, Sokolow realized that when incarcerated people embrace Buddhism, the redemption narrative gets especially pronounced, ultimately leading to a complex sense of exceptionalism that makes an unequal system even more so. “There’s this idea that there are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ people in prisons—that certain people are redeemable, or even innocent, whereas others are not,” she says. Sokolow is in the final stages of completing her Ph.D. in the Department of Religious Studies at Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences with adviser Jolyon Thomas, associate professor of religious studies. “Religion can be a factor in shaping the impression of who does and does not deserve prison, even if the reality is far more complex.”
She dove into that complicated topic in a recent Pacific World article, published by the Institute for Buddhist Studies. Stemming from a chapter of Sokolow’s larger dissertation, the paper looks at the unique privileges and status Buddhists in prison often attain based on perceptions and stereotypes surrounding their religion. While many incarcerated people are viewed as angry and violent, those who take part in Buddhist programs in prison are frequently celebrated, attaining a celebrity status of sorts for evolving into “calm and compassionate bodhisattvas”—essentially, a person on the path to achieving enlightenment.
Sokolow says that phenomenon is a key part of her research. “Rhetoric about people transforming from criminals into ‘Buddhas’ in prison really relies on a number of stereotypes”—like those about race or religion, Sokolow explains, pointing to how Black communities, for example, are often criminalized. “Ultimately, this all comes together to reinforce the ideas that enable mass incarceration and the carceral system.”
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