Alienation and the correctional officer: A multivariate analysis

Walters, Stephen

doi:10.1007/bf02899748

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…As such, this is a site ripe for the investigation of whether the penal harm movement is in fact emerging, yet most of the research on COs is quite outdated (Crouch & Marquart 1980;Duffee 1980;Poole & Regoli 1981;Lombardo 1981;Kauffman 1988) or takes a decidedly occupational focus. Here we are referring to the research that either describes how officers think and feel about their job and whom they work with (Thomas 1972;Jacobs 1978;Lombardo 1981;Kauffman 1988;Herberts 1998;Liebling & Price 1999Stojkovic 2003;Crawley 2002), or focuses on the effects of working in an institution, the occupational culture it instills, and the stress, conflict, anxiety, alienation, and job turnover it induces (e.g., Poole & Regoli 1981;Sharma & Sharma 1989;Walters 1991;Wright 1993;Camp 1994;Triplett et al 1996;Lancefield et al 1997). 1 What, however, can be said about the role of COs in implementing the new penal policy and shaping prisoners' perceptions of institutional life?…”

Section: The Importance Of Cosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prisoners' Adjustment, Correctional Officers, and Context: The Foreground and Background of Punishment in Late Modernity

Vuolo

Kruttschnitt

2008

Law Soc Rev

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Past research indicates that front-line criminal justice workers are the critical players in determining whether innovations in penal policy are realized. Recent attempts to understand the diversity in the application of the penal harm movement have, however, sidestepped the primary audience of these policies, the population of convicted offenders. This article uses data from two prisons to examine the effects of correctional officers on women prisoners' adjustment to prison life. Using regression models and interview data, we find that correctional officer behavior has a profound impact on women's ability to adjust to prison, and this effect is largely independent of the prisoners' characteristics and the institutions in which they are housed. On a theoretical level, the findings speak to recent calls to examine the background and foreground of penal culture. On a practical level, they highlight the need to understand the environments from which women are emerging, not just the communities into which they are released.The way that these people treat us, it's as though emotionally and physically they feel we will never get out of prison, so they can do whatever they want to us. They forget that . . . the way they treat them will be reflect[ed] back on them, because these people, some of them will get out . . . but they don't think about that. And it sounds like a threat, but it's not really a threat. That's just an old saying that goes around prison, because the way that some of these people treat the inmates, you would swear that they think we were rabid dogs or something like that.( training (Britton 2003;Irwin 2005). Public concern shifted to isolating and managing the ''dangerous classes'' rather than reforming or helping them to change their ways. While all of this has been well documented and heralded as hallmarks of the ''penal harm movement'' or the ''new penology '' (Feeley & Simon 1992), an equally compelling thesis points to an uneven and incomplete transformation in penal policy, one that varies across social contexts and one that reflects criminal justice actors' differential abilities to absorb new ideologies about punishment (Kruttschnitt & Gartner 2003:59;Lynch 1998;O'Malley 1992 O'Malley , 1996Garland 1985 Garland , 1990 Garland , 1997 Garland , 1999. According to Garland, ''[t]his ongoing attempt to reorient criminal control institutions and revise their relations to a changing social environment [is] very much a matter of patchwork repairs and interim solutions rather than well thought-out reconstruction' ' (2001:103).Some scholars have tried to explain this ''patchwork'' effect, or the noted variation in the assimilation of the penal harm movement. Simon and Feeley (1995), acknowledging the limitations of their own conceptualization of the ''new penology,'' argue that there is a disjuncture between populist views about crime and criminality and actual penal policies. More recently, Cheliotis (2006) suggests three rationales. First, at the point of implementation of criminal justice poli...

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Section: The Importance Of Cosmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prisoners' Adjustment, Correctional Officers, and Context: The Foreground and Background of Punishment in Late Modernity

Vuolo

Kruttschnitt

2008

Law Soc Rev

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“…Such a finding would lend support to the generalizability of deprivation theory to understanding officer and staff experiences. It also would underscore the potential for the punitive turn in corrections to exert wide-ranging impacts not only on the targets of punishment but also on those charged with its implementation (Griffin et al, 2009;James & Todak, 2018;Kinman et al, 2017;Liebling et al, 2011;Lombardo, 1989;Walters, 1991).…”

Section: Theorizing the Effects Of Solitary Confinement Work On Priso...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Captives of the “Society of Captives”: Working in Solitary Confinement

et al. 2023

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Solitary confinement may affect incarcerated persons. Yet, what is known about those who work in solitary confinement units? Drawing on Sykes’ classic, The society of captives, on the “pains of imprisonment,” we argue that solitary confinement work may adversely affect correctional personnel. This study extends prior work on deprivation theory, solitary confinement, and research on work in prison by testing this argument through analyses of qualitative data. We find that those who work in solitary confinement units report deprivations analogous to what incarcerated persons experience. The article concludes with a call for expanding theoretical and empirical research on solitary confinement and the impacts of contemporary penal practices.

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