Prison Officers: International Perspectives on Prison Work

by Helen Arnold (Editor), Matthew Maycock (Editor), Rosemary Ricciardelli (Editor)

Overview

This edited collection brings together academics, lawyers, civil servants, and researchers working in the human rights NGO sector, to explore the work and role of prison officers around the world. Each chapter offers a distinctive perspective on the work of prison officers within localised socio-economic and criminal justice contexts, to provide a unique overview and insight into the realities and complexities of the role through accessible scholarly interpretations of their work. The aim of the book is to advance knowledge and understanding of the crucial role that prison officers occupy within carceral systems. The collection has widespread applicability with relevance beyond academia into criminal justice practice and policy internationally.

Chapter 3 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031410611
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	12/12/2023
Series:	Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Helen Arnold is Associate Professor in Criminology at the University of East Anglia, UK.

Matthew Maycock is Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Monash University, Australia.

Rosemary Ricciardelli is Professor and Research Chair in Safety, Security, and Wellness at the Fisheries and Marine Institute at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. 

Table of Contents

1. Introduction.- PART I: Prison Officer Interpretations and Performances of Power and Authority.- 2. The moral value of authority: Reflections on the work of prison officers.- 3. Ukrainian prison officers and their power.- 4. French prison officers’ legal socialization: ‘The law, yes; prisoners’ rights, no’.- 5. Proxy governance in (post) colonial prisons: When prison officers delegate power to prisoners.- PART II: Prison Officer Identities and Workplace Cultures.- 6. Dirty work and beyond: Representations of Prison Officers in Prison Films.- 7. “It’s a very clannish type of job”: Entitativity and identity in prison officers’ occupational cultures and identities.- 8. ‘Friendly but not friends’ or ‘Never trust the bastards’? Staff-prisoner interaction styles in Australia and Norway. 9. “It is important to be a prison officer and have trade union back up”: Exploring trade union membership within the Scottish Prison Service.- 10. The prison officer in post-soviet Russia.- PART III: Implications of Prison Policy and Management for the Role of Prison Officers.- 11. “Prison officers should be treated fairly”: Perceptions and experiences of fairness among prison officers in Ghana.- 12. Do risk-reducing measures only reduce risk? Prison officer work with risk-reducing measures in the imprisonment of a high-risk prisoner.- 13. Farewell to exceptionalism: An analysis of Swedish prisons officers’ attitudes towards prison policy, organisation, and their occupational role in 2009 and 2019.- 14. The role of prison officers in transforming prisoners’ lives in Hong Kong.- 15. Locating Prison Officers in the prison reforms discourse: Insights from India.- PART IV: Working Conditions and Prison Officer Well-Being.- 16. The well-being of correctional officers in Canada.- 17. Fear and perceived risk among correctional officers.- 18. Prison Officers and their Work Routine in Brazilian Prisons.- 19. Conclusion: Towards a new research agenda to analyse the contemporary prison officer role.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Prison officers can be both heroes and victims of our penal systems around the world. Though typically unappreciated, misunderstood, and unfairly stereotyped, they carry the load of implementing particular penal philosophies on-the-ground and adjusting their exercise of power to do it relatively peacefully. In large measure, prison officers create prison environments. The values and personal qualities they bring to their work shapes the character of the prison experience, for both the kept and the keepers, making that experience one that is mostly ordered and safe, or chaotic and scary, constructive and hopeful, or damaging and dehumanizing. In thoughtful scholarly detail, this edited collection, with examples of some excellent ethnographic studies from around the world, helps us begin to understand how, when and why this happens, and helps us appreciate that what prison officers do onto others is often reflective of what we do (or don’t do)onto them.

To arrive at truly rehabilitative prison environments, figuring out what works best in influencing positive prison officer cultures is perhaps more important than policy, programs, professional input or even leadership. This collection is the kick start to the kind of important global discussion that is needed.” (Frank J. Porporino, Criminal Justice Consultant; ICPA Group Chair, Research and Development Network)

“The task of ‘correcting’ those in prisons and helping them turn their often fractured lives around is probably as complex and difficult as launching a rocket into space. Yet, unlike rocket science, hardly any resources are devoted to developing the social science of ‘corrections.’ This outstanding collection represents a potential turning point in this regard, shining the spotlight on the most overlooked, but surely most important professionals in the ‘correctional’ equation.” (Shadd Maruna, Professor of Criminology; author of Making Good: How Ex-Convicts Reform and Rebuild their Lives)

"Prison Officers offers a unique global perspective on a little-known and often-caricatured occupational group. It reveals the role of national moral economies and local institutional cultures with regards to punishment, fairness, law and rights in the way correctional officers act toward inmates, colleagues and management. It is a major contribution to the sociology of prison." (Didier Fassin is professor at the Collège de France and the author of Prison Worlds. An Ethnography of the Carceral Condition (Polity).