The Prison Experience

1
Chapter 11

• The Prison Experience

2
The Prison Experience

• Prison Society
• Norms and Values
• Prison Subculture Deprivation or Importation?
• Adaptive Roles
• The Prison Economy
• Violence in Prison
• Violence and Inmate Characteristics
• Prisoner-Prisoner Violence
• Prisoner-Officer Violence
• Officer-Prisoner Violence
• Decreasing Prison Violence

3
Inmate code

• a set of rules of conduct that reflect the values
  and norms of the prison social system and help to
  define (for inmates) the image of the model
  prisoner

4
prisonization(Donald Clemmer)

• the process by which a new inmate absorbs the
  customs of prison society and learns to adapt to
  the prison environment

5
degradationceremony

• a conspicuous ritual that is played out in
  various stages of the criminal justice process
  that is designed to degrade, dehumanize,
  humiliate an individual. By design or effect, it
  informs an inmate/criminal that s/he is outside
  of beneath society, that s/he is no longer
  regarded as honest, honorable, trustworthy,
  upright, good.

6
adjusting to prison society
values
inmate subculture
customs
roles
language
7
Gresham Sykes inmate code
dont interfere with inmate interests
inmate code
dont trust the guards
dont weaken be tough
dont quarrel with inmates
dont exploit inmates
8
inmate social systemprison roles
right guy upholder of inmate values
square John non-criminal self concept
basic inmate roles
punk passive homosexual
rat squeals or sells out to authorities
hustler entrepreneur, supplies goods services
9
Sexual Violence

• The Myth Because state prisons are filled with
  predatory, violent offenders who are deprived of
  heterosexual relationships, sexual violence
  happens with great regularity.
• The Reality In 2005, there were 1,865
  allegations of inmate-on-inmate sexual violence
  in state prisons holding nearly 1.26 million
  inmates. Put differently, the rate of
  prisoner-prisoner sexual assault is approximately
  1.5 attacks per 1,000 inmates.

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how inmates adapt to prison
gleaning exploit prison programs
opportunities try to succeed
doing time prison brief interruption in
criminal career stay comfortable
jailing cut selves off from outside develop a
life, power, influence in prison
adaptive roles
disorganized criminal cant develop any of the
other three roles often disabled cannot adjust
to prison life develops emotional disorders
11
major prison gangs
12
prison subculture where does it come from?
13
Bases of inmate violence
AGE youth, machismo, identity
key factors
ATTITUDE subculture of violence
RACE convict code, gangs
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causes of prison violence
inadequate supervision by staff inmate-staff
relations
high level of tension caused by close quarters
main causes
housing dangerous nondangerous inmates together
architectural design, including size condition
easy availability of deadly weapons
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strategies for reducing violence in prison

• improve classification
• separate violence-prone inmates from others
• create opportunities for fearful inmates to seek
  staff assistance
• increase custody staff size, diversity, training
• redesign facilities
• improve surveillance eliminate blind spots
• use smaller institutions
• install grievance mechanisms or ombudsman
• augment rewards system to reduce pains of
  imprisonment

16
unit management

• organizational tactic for reducing prison
  violence by dividing facilities into a number of
  small, self-contained, semi-autonomous
  institutions