NCJ Number
93536
Date Published
1983
Length
7 pages
Annotation
A systematic analysis of the intrusion of the Positive Indirect Recreation Approach (PIRA) on systems change at the Sacramento County Main Jail (California) requires an examination of how PIRA affected change on two levels: inmate-officer behavior and jail power-play politics within both the jails' formal and informal systems of management and control operations.
Abstract
Within the dynamics of jail staff and inmate life, two separate management operational systems exist. The most powerful is the formal system comprised of officers, the law that governs jail policy, and the politics operating in the local government that impacts resources allocated to the jail. The informal systems structure is that derived from the inmate subculture. The informal system is used by the formal system to maintain control, enforce official policy, and maintain an order of authority for those in power in both systems. While both systems use one another, they are opposed to one another. Both maintain a structural order that all jails need, and both maintain a functional process that indoctrinates, provides social order, and fosters belongingness in an otherwise hostile environment. Any program manager introducing a new program must be aware of and deal with both power structures in implementing the program. PIRA has built into its design a mechanism to use all groups involved in the jail's systems. An optimal level of cooperation from both systems is ideal and can be achieved by incorporating each system's power elites and power brokers into the PIRA design, planning, and feedback stages. PIRA program managers should use the following six elements when dealing with persons within both systems: listen to all sides for imput, communicate with all input sources, project enthusiasm and expertise about the changes contemplated, cultivate trust, plan a strategy for gaining the support of all groups, and evaluate implementation progress. One diagram is given.