NCJ Number
207379
Date Published
2004
Length
297 pages
Annotation
This book presents a sociological analysis of the occupational and private lives of British prison officers.
Abstract
Based on interviews with prison officers and their family members as well as visits to the prisons where the officers worked, this study, which was conducted between 1997 and 2000, opens with a chapter that examines the long-standing problem of prison officer discontent and the central issues related to it in the areas of prison policy, management, and practice that have affected officers' working conditions over the last 30 years. This is followed by a chapter that summarizes the research methods used and describes the prisons in which the research was conducted. The third chapter features the experiences of new recruits as they are followed through basic training and their first days on the job. Chapter 4 explores prison officers' attitudes toward and interactions with prisoners, including officers' concepts of the ideal relationship between officers and inmates, with attention to the issue of power. The fifth chapter is a fuller exploration and analysis of the significance of officers' emotional investment in their work and performance, with a focus on how officers manage their emotions in interactions with inmates. The next chapter addresses officers' responses to prisoner suicide and to prisoner dissent, followed by a chapter that profiles prison officers as a diverse group with different visions and versions of their occupational roles and how they are expressed in different prison settings. The book then explores the impact of prison work on officer's families before synthesizing the research findings and what they offer to the sociology of the prison. 345 references, a subject index, and appended supplementary material