RACE RELATIONS AND THE PRISONER SUBCULTURE (FROM CRIME AND JUSTICE - AN ANNUAL REVIEW OF RESEARCH, V 1, 1979, BY NORVAL MORRIS AND MICHAEL TONRY - SEE NCJ-63668)

• NCJ Number: 63669
• Author(s): J B JACOBS
• Date Published: 1979
• Length: 27 pages
• Corporate Author: University of Chicago Press
• Publication Format: Document
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

IN MANY CONTEMPORARY PRISONS, RACIAL POLITICS SET THE BACKGROUND AGAINST WHICH ALL PRISONER ACTIVITIES ARE PLAYED OUT.

Abstract

YET, ALTHOUGH PRISONS HAVE A LONG HISTORY OF SEGREGATION AND RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, SCHOLARLY LITERATURE ON PRISONER SUBCULTURE HAS IGNORED RACE RELATIONS UNTIL RECENTLY. DESCRIPTIONS AND THEORIES OF PRISONER SUBCULTURE WHICH DO NOT TAKE RACIAL CLEAVAGES INTO ACCOUNT ARE INCOMPLETE AND NEED TO BE RECONSIDERED. SINCE THE LATE 1950'S, RACE RELATIONS HAVE PRECIPITATED ENORMOUS CHANGES IN PRISONER SUBCULTURES AND IN PRISON ORGANIZATION. THE BLACK MUSLIM MOVEMENT CHALLENGED THE HEGEMONY OF WHITE OFFICIALS, AND PRISONERS' LEGAL ACTIVISM LED TO THE INTERVENTION OF THE FEDERAL COURTS IN PRISON ADMINISTRATION. TODAY, PRISONER SUBCULTURES ARE CHARACTERIZED BY RACIAL POLARIZATION AND CONFLICT AND BY THE DOMINANCE OF BLACKS AND OTHER MINORITIES WHO ARE NOW THE MAJORITY OF THE PRISON POPULATION. SCHOLARLY LITERATURE ON PRISONER SUBCULTURE, THEREFORE, CAN NO LONGER IGNORE RACE RELATIONS. TAKING RACIAL POLITICS INTO ACCOUNT WILL HELP CORRECT THE OVEREMPHASIS ON THE UNIQUENESS OF PRISONS AND LEAD TO A FULLER UNDERSTANDING OF THE PRISON'S ROLE AS AN INSTITUTION OF SOCIAL CONTROL. FOOTNOTES AND REFERENCES ARE GIVEN. (AUTHOR ABSTRACT MODIFIED--MJW)