NCJ Number
211895
Date Published
2005
Length
21 pages
Annotation
Based on the author's personal observation of the socialization process experienced by jail officers inside a maximum-security county jail, this paper examines the environment of the urban county jail and its impact on the socialization and acculturation of the jail officers, as well as the social and policy polemic that jail socialization poses for urban police and community relations.
Abstract
The author spent 26 years in both the custody and patrol environments of law enforcement and has been involved in the investigation of alleged aberrant behavior of police officers. The county jail where most of the author's observations occurred due to his employment there refused his request to conduct interviews with its employees and inmates. Based on personal experiences and observation, the author reports on discordant jail conditions and the socialization process that results from these conditions. Overall, the features of the jail environment negatively impact the professional development of the jail officer and law enforcement services provided to the community. In the course of socialization within the jail environment, jail officers are conditioned to have condescending attitudes toward inmates, engage in discriminatory treatment of inmates, abuse their authority, and practice deception in reporting on inmate-staff relations. Jail officers often transition into patrol assignments in the community, where behaviors conditioned by the jail environment adversely impact interactions with people in the community, particularly minorities. Internalized perceptions of a devalued and dehumanized incarcerated population of poor urban minorities can cause the transitioning jail officer to display aberrant behavior that undermines the norms and values of professional policing promoted by a law enforcement agency. 25 references