Sting: Anatomy of a Set-Up

• NCJ Number: 179776
• Journal: Corrections Technology and Management Volume: 3 Issue: 5 Dated: September-October 1999 Pages: 20-26
• Author(s): James Topham
• Date Published: 1999
• Length: 7 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Technical Assistance)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Correctional personnel can become victims of inmate manipulation through what is known as the setup and therefore should become familiar with the warning signs related to each of the 14 steps of a setup.

Abstract

The setup is an intricate and sophisticated system of deception. Inmates involved in a successful setup receive rewards such as illegal contraband, whereas the involved correctional personnel can be terminated from their employment, experience criminal charges, or death. The average setup takes approximately 19 months. Setups can take place in full view of the employee's peers, supervisors, and administrators without being recognized. The three processes involved in the setup are the techniques and tools that form the net spread to catch the victim, plus the turnout, in which the inmate receives the payoff. The techniques include the observation process, the victim selection, and limit and fish testing. The eight steps in the tools component of the process include developing togetherness and understanding with the victim, empathy/sympathy, the plea for help, the we/they syndrome, the offer or protection, the allusion to sex, the touch system, and the rumor clinic. These first 11 steps involve no law violations and only minor infractions by inmates. The final three steps are the point of no return for everyone involved. These include the shopping list, a list of contraband items and possibly sexual favors; the lever that forces the victim to submit to the inmate's demands; and the sting, in which the victim must either comply with the demands or suffer the consequences. Correctional personnel can prepare themselves for an inmate setup though professionalism, recognition training, communication monitoring, information gathering, procedural knowledge, confident command, informing the chain of command, documentation, saying no, and crisis judgment. Photographs