Lived Experience of Mümessillik Within Prison Culture

Abstract

This article examines everyday life in the criminal wards of modern prisons in Turkiye and the transition from the traditional koğuş ağası system to the contemporary ward representative (koğuş mümessili) system. Based on qualitative fieldwork and in-depth interviews with two former criminal inmates of Silivri Prison, the study reveals that incarceration operates through a dual system of control shaped by both formal, institutional disciplinary power and informal inmate hierarchies. Despite being officially denied, the representative system persists as the fundamental mechanism through which the administration indirectly manages the wards and through which inmates establish power over one another. Control over scarce resources, such as the division of labour, the use of space, and daily routines, transforms representation from symbolic authority into a form of everyday domination. Violence, arbitrary rules, and a point-based “good conduct” system are intertwined, often increasing rather than reducing inmates’ dependency on informal leaders. The study combines the theoretical perspectives to interpret the prison as a complex social and spatial phenomenon, where architecture, surveillance, and inmate hierarchies’ function together to produce a carceral order grounded in survival, opportunistic solidarity, and gang organization.