“We keep the nightmares in their cages”: Correctional culture, identity, and the warped badge of honor*

Abstract

Correctional scholarship has demonstrated concern over the dehumanizing implications of the carceral state for incarcerated people. This concern has been paralleled by an interest in understanding the work of prison staff and how correctional subculture may play an active role in prison dehumanization. By drawing from focus groups from all prisons in one state, we investigate how correctional staff construct and manage their identity through “us–them” ideologies. We find that staff leverage negative attitudes toward the incarcerated, and that these attitudes were underpinned by sensational cultural stories and epithets. Moreover, we find that staff use “othering” toward the incarcerated as a means to construct a warped badge of honor, which illustrates the burdens they bear from prison work and which frames themselves as heroes, guardians, and protectors. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our findings, where we consider how dehumanization illustrates the mental coping work staff endure to carry out the symbolic violence and dehumanizing objectives of the carceral system.

Correctional officers and the use of force as an organizational behavior

“…In contrast, officers from the sentenced prisons suggested they usually had time to build relationships with incarcerated individuals, and the cultures of these centers meant that COs defaulted to discretionary peacekeeping options before using force (Ibsen, 2013; Liebling et al., 2011). The cultural differences between these spaces were notable and shaped day‐to‐day, use‐of‐force decisions (Cook & Lane, 2013; Higgins et al., 2022). Unsurprisingly, HBCC and SCC had far fewer use‐of‐force incidents overall.…”

“…More recently, Higgins et al. (2022) suggested that Kentucky COs engage in danger‐based othering to create negative portraits of incarcerated people. Their participants make threats of violence against incarcerated people using dangerousness to maintain a “warped badge of honor” (pp.…”

Work in Long-Term Restrictive Housing and Prison Personnel Perceptions of the Humanity of People Who Are Incarcerated

“…Fifth, one line of inquiry that warrants investigation is how punitive policies may engender further punitiveness through their influence on personnel. If policies remove opportunities to have meaningful interactions with people who are incarcerated, they create a setting that facilitates more of an “us” versus “them” way of seeing them (Higgins et al, 2022). This dynamic—when coupled with the potential for LTRH’s deprivatory conditions to cause individuals to act in bizarre or harmful ways (Cloud et al, 2015; Haney, 2018; Kupers, 2017)—might lead some personnel to view people in prison as somehow less.…”

“…At the same time, the fact of their incarceration may lead personnel to view them differently. Prison work creates an "us-versus-them" dynamic (Higgins et al, 2022). This may be amplified by the substantial stress, risk of suicide, adverse effects on physical and mental health, and more than corrections officers typically face (Arnold, 2016;Bottoms, 1999;Lombardo, 1989).…”

“…Put differently, these individuals are viewed as less than human (Haslam & Loughnan, 2014). Although prison work may contribute to dehumanizing views of people in prison (Higgins et al, 2022), we hypothesize that this effect may be more pronounced among those who work in LTRH. Second, we hypothesize that such an effect may arise through four theoretical mechanisms: brutalization, organizational context and culture, role conflict and distancing, and empathy fatigue.…”