The work of disgust

Chapter 5 is dedicated to a case study of Ashley Smith’s imprisonment and death in light of the approach to disgust developed in previous chapters. Ashley Smith died in 2007 while in federal custody at the Grand Valley Institution for Women (GVI-W) in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. She died from self-inflicted strangulation while correctional officers watched. The officers had been ordered not to enter her cell in part because of the history of “disgusting” incidents wherein Ashley would smear feces, throw urine, and spit. The analysis in this chapter signals at what repulsion and fascination can signify when disgust is configured as a meeting of two subjects, rather than a meeting between a disgusted subject and a disgusting object. The chapter argues that the disgust encounters that unfolded between Ashley and the penal institution were more significant than what may initially be assumed—they contributed to the circumstances that led to her death. This significance becomes evident when the disgust encounters that unfolded between Ashley and the institution are analyzed from a relational framework via Benjamin, and as encounters that were relevant to processes of selfhood and meaning-making. The chapter considers what implications an examination of disgust in Ashley’s imprisonment and death may have for institutional policies and practices more generally.