Prison Society

1
Chapter 15

• Prison Society

2
Chapter Objectives

• Identify what it is like to be in prison, and
  discuss how prisoners adapt to prison life
• Identify how social relationships are different
  among female and male prisoners
• Identify the nature of prison violence.

3
Prison Life

• Living in the joint
• www.360degrees.org Learn about
• John Mills
• Habitual involvement in armed robberies
• By age of 17, involved in over 75 armed robberies
• Cristel
• She and her sister violently attacked a student
  when all were around 13 years old
• Victim needed somewhere approximately 100
  stitches, almost killing the victim
• She and her sister have been in the joint for 3
  years

4
The Convict World

• Prisoners serve their sentences in shared
  environments
• Results in shared norms, traditions, and
  leadership structure
• Prison life is characterized by independent
  characteristics that outlive individuals
• Development of inmate code

5
The Inmate Code

• The values and norms within the prison social
  system.
• Helps to define the inmates image of a model
  prisoner
• Use of Hostility and manipulation
• Solidarity of all inmates against staff
• May result in the development of gang

6
Coping with Prison Life Adaptive Roles

• Four primary ways to cope with prison life
• Doing Time view View that prison is and
  inevitable cost of doing business
• Gleaning Individual that tries to better
  themselves
• Jailing Individual that cuts themselves off
  from outside world
• Disorganized Criminal Individual unable to
  adopt previous three

7
Women in Prison

• All prisons are not the Same
• There are clear and near universal differences
  between male and female prisons
• Growth of female prisoners especially in federal
  system almost 450 in 1990s
• Primary Differences remote, fewer programs less
  violent

8
Social Relationships

• The identities assumed by female prisoners
  closely resemble those of the outside world
• Square Individual who holds conventional
  values/norms
• Cool Person who knows how to play the game to
  manipulate others
• In The Life Habitual offenders whose lifestyle
  carries over to prison

9
Male/Female Subcultures

• Nearly half of male prisoners, but only a third
  of females are serving time for violent crime
• Less violence in prison for females
• Women have greater responsiveness to prison
  programs yet there are fewer
• Mens prisons are divided by security levels
• Men tend to segregate by race
• Women tend to share their personal lives with
  officers

10
Special Issues in Female Prisons

• Medical Services
• Like men, problems associated with HIV
• Female institutions are less likely to have full
  time medical staff
• Pregnancies and abortions
• Mothers and Their Children
• 80 of female prisoners are primary care mothers

11
Violence in Prisons

• Prisons are often characterized by high levels of
  violence
• Annually 150 prisoners commit suicide, 70 are
  murdered, 400 die of unspecified causes, and
  there are nearly 25,000 assaults
• Every convict has three choices, but only three.
  He can fight (kill someone), he can hit the
  fence (escape), or he can fuck (submit) (Earley,
  1992 55).

12
Types of Violence

• Prisoner-Prisoner Violence
• Most common form of violence
• Influence of gangs
• Prisoner-Officer Violence
• Correctional Officers Do Not Carry Weapons
• Officer-Prisoner Violence
• Illegitimate force goon squads