NCJ Number
183240
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 17 Issue: 2 Dated: June 2000 Pages: 359-376
Date Published
June 2000
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This study examines some of the ways in which correctional officers construct, communicate, and defend a shared account of inmate identity in a maximum-security prison.
Abstract
Through sensemaking activities embodied in informal conversational routines, correctional officers produce a working understanding of the prisoner that is a central element in the reproduction of social control in the prison. Challenges to the dominant assumptions embodied in key sensemaking categories may be met by a variety of defensive strategies. These strategies are embedded in the informal conversational routines of the group. Through the selective use of official records, by reframing tolerance as a social control strategy and through participation in acts of ritual insubordination, correctional officers maintain a working understanding of the inmate that is demeaning, derogatory, and ultimately stereotypical. To better understand sensemaking processes and their role in reproducing authority relations in correctional facilities, it would be useful to explore the relationship between sensemaking practices and the behaviors they appear to prevent or promote. References