NCJ Number
173128
Journal
Alaska Justice Forum Volume: 14 Issue: 4 Dated: Winter 1998 Pages: 2-5
Date Published
1998
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article analyzes informal conversational practices of correctional officers working in a maximum-security prison to show how practices of cultural interpretation common to all work groups may pose particular public relations challenges to correctional officers and their supervisors.
Abstract
The sensemaking activity of correctional officers may inevitably be somewhat oppositional. Given their professional responsibilities, this is probably appropriate. A working understanding of inmate identity that encourages officers to view inmates with suspicion is viewed by many as a hallmark of competent correctional practice. By instructing officers in the dynamics of sensemaking, and by encouraging reflection on the informal conversational practices of the group, correctional trainers can help officers to distinguish between appropriate commitment to custody and control and the sort of punitive and authoritarian attitudes that undermine commitment to the rule of law, threaten the security of correctional institutions, and ultimately contribute to the persistence of the stereotype of the brutal guard.