The Inmate World: Living Behind Bars

 Chapter Objectives

1.    Explain what inmate subculture is and explain how it forms.

2.    Know what is meant by the prison code, and be able to list some elements of it.

3.    Explain what is meant by prison argot.

4.    List some common roles that male inmates assume.

5.    Describe some major differences between women’s and men’s prisons.

6.    Compare some of the characteristics of female inmates with those of male inmates.

7.    Explain how social structure in women’s prisons differs from that in men’s prisons.

Chapter Outline

I. Men in Prison

·           Prisons and other total institutions are small, self-contained societies with their own social structures, norms, and rules.

·           In his classic work Asylums, Erving Goffman used the phrase total institution to describe a place where the same people work, eat, sleep, and engage in recreation together day after day.

·           Goffman also identified a number of modes of adaptation to prison life by which inmates attempt to adjust to the conditions around them. 

A. What Is the Inmate Subculture?

·           Although any prison has its own unique way of life or culture, it is possible to describe a general inmate subculture that characterizes the lives of inmates in prison nationwide.

·           Prisonization is the process by which inmates adapt to prison society, taking on of the ways, mores, customs, and general culture of the penitentiary.

·           The inmate subculture can vary from institution to institution.

B. How Does an Inmate Subculture Form?

·           Early students of inmate subcultures, particularly Clemmer and Sykes, believed that such subcultures developed in response to the deprivations in prison life. This perspective is called deprivation theory.

·           A more recent perspective is that an inmate subculture does not develop in prison but is brought into prison from the outside world. Known as importation theory, this point of view was popularized by John Irwin and Donald R. Cressey.

·           More realistic is the integration model, which acknowledges that both theories have some validity.

C. Norms and Values of Prison Society

·           Sykes and Messinger have identified five main elements of the prison code:

o    Don’t interfere with the interests of other inmates.

o    Don’t lose your head.

o    Don’t exploit other inmates.

o    Don’t whine..

o    Don’t be a sucker.

D. Prison Argot–The Language of Confinement

·           Prison argot originated partly as a form of secret communication.

·           Sykes’s work brought prison argot to the attention of sociologists and criminologists.

E. Social Structure in Men’s Prisons

·           Inmate societies, like other societies, have a hierarchy of positions.

·           Inmates assume or are forced into specific social roles, and some inmates—by virtue of the roles they assume—have more status and power than others.

·           Other writers have identified inmate roles, defining them as are prison lifestyles or forms of ongoing social accommodation to prison life.

·           There are 13 inmate types are as follows:

The Real Man

·           Real men do their own time, do not complain, and do not cause problems for other inmates.

·           They see confinement as a natural consequence of criminal activity and view time spent in prison as an unfortunate cost of doing business.

The Mean Dude

·           Some inmates are notorious for resorting quickly to physical power. They are quick to fight and, when fighting, give no quarter.

The Bully

·           A variation of the mean dude is the bully.

·           Bullies use intimidation to get what they want. Unlike mean dudes, they are far more likely to use threats than to use actual physical force.

The Agitator

·           The agitator, sometimes called a wise guy, is constantly trying to stir things up.

·           He responds to the boredom of prison life by causing problems for others.

The Hedonist

·           The hedonist adapts to prison by exploiting the minimal pleasures it offers.

·           Hedonists always seek the easy path, and they plot to win the “cushiest” jobs.

The Opportunist

·           The opportunist sees prison as an opportunity for personal advancement.

·           He takes advantage of the formal selfimprovement opportunities of the prison, such as schooling, trade training, and counseling.

The Retreatist

·           Some inmates, unable to cope with the realities of prison life, withdraw psychologically from the world around them.

·           Depression, neurosis, and even psychosis may result.

The Legalist

·           Legalists are known as jailhouse lawyers, or simply lawyers, in prison argot.

·           They are usually among the better-educated prisoners, although some legalists have little formal education.

The Radical

·           Radicals see themselves as political prisoners of an unfair society. They believe that a discriminatory world has denied them the education and skills needed to succeed in a socially acceptable way.

The Colonist

·           Colonists, also referred to as convicts, turn prison into home.

·           Colonists know the ropes of prison, have many “friends” on the inside, and often feel more comfortable in prison than outside it.

The Religious Inmate

·           Religious inmates profess a strong religious faith and may attempt to convert both inmates and staff.

·           Religious inmates frequently form prayer groups, request special meeting facilities and special diets, and may ask for frequent visits from religious leaders.

The Punk

·           The punk is a young inmate, often small, who has been forced into a sexual relationship with an aggressive, well-respected prisoner.

·           Punks are generally “turned out” through homosexual rape.

The Gang-Banger

·           Gang-bangers, or those affiliated with prison gangs, know that there is power in numbers.

·           They depend upon the gang for defense and protection as well as for the procurement of desired goods and services.

F. Sexuality in Men’s Prisons

·           Violence and victimization occur in men’s prisons, and a good deal of prison violence has sexual overtones.

·           There are heterosexual inmates who often feel compelled to engage in homosexual behavior by the conditions of confinement.

·           Punks are “owned” by powerful inmates who provide them protection from sexual violence and from other inmates..

·           The most powerful men in prison society cell block leaders, gang leaders, and so on, will “own” the most desirable punks.

·           Targets, when compared with nontargets, were found to be physically slight, young, white, nonviolent offenders from nonurban areas, offenders from nonurban areas.

·           The typical incident of sexual aggression is carried out by a group.

II. Women in Prison

·           In America today, there are far fewer women’s prisons than men’s prisons, and men outnumber women in prison 12 to 1.

·           A state usually has one women’s prison housing a few hundred women. The size of a women’s prison generally depends on the population of the state. Some small states house women prisoners in special areas of what are otherwise institutions for men.

·           Treatment, education, recreation, and other programs in women’s prisons have often been criticized as inferior to those in men’s prisons.

A. Characteristics of Women Inmates

·           At the start of 2012, women comprised 7.0 percent of sentenced prisoners in the nation. Since 2000, the female prison population has grown 28 percent.

·           Female inmates largely resemble male prisoners in race, ethnic background, and age.

·           They are substantially more likely to be serving time for a drug offense and less likely to have been sentenced for a violent crime.

·           They usually have shorter records than male inmates. They generally have shorter maximum sentences than men.

B. Offenses of Incarcerated Women

·           Drug offenses account for the incarceration of a high percentage of the women behind bars.

·           Twenty-five percent of all women in state prisons are serving time on drug charges.

C. Social Structure in Women’s Prisons

·           As might be expected, the social structure and the subcultural norms and expectations in women’s prisons are quite different from those in men’s prisons. Unfortunately, however, relatively few studies of inmate life have been conducted in institutions for women.

·           Esther Heffernan identified three roles that women commonly adopt when adjusting to prison.

The Cool Inmate

·           Cool women usually have previous records, are in the know, are streetwise, and do not cause trouble for other inmates while in prison.

The Square Inmate

·           Square women are not familiar with criminal lifestyles and have few, if any, criminal experiences other than the one for which they were imprisoned.

The Life Inmate

·           Life inmates are habitual or career offenders and are generally well socialized into lives of crime.

·           One writer, summarizing the results of studies such as those discussed here, found that two primary features distinguish women’s prisons from men’s prisons:

o    The social roles in women’s prisons place greater emphasis on homosexual relations as a mode of adaptation to prison life.

o    The mode of adaptation a female inmate selects is best assessed by studying the inmate’s preinstitutional experiences.

D. Pseudofamilies and Sexual Liaisons

·           Pseudofamilies are family-like structures, common in women’s prisons, in which inmates assume roles similar to those of family members in free society.

·           The social and behavioral patterns of family relationships in prison mirrors their traditional counterparts in the community.

E. Special Needs of Female Inmates

·           Gender-responsiveness can be defined as “creating an environment that reflects an understanding of the realities of women’s lives and addresses the issues of the women.”

·           Gender-responsive programming might strengthen policies against staff sexual misconduct in institutions that house women; provide more “safe and nurturing” drug treatment programs; and help inmate mothers to maintain strong relationships with their children.

·           Gender specific training is vital for correctional officers who work in women’s prisons.

·           It is important to realize that a woman’s children are usually very important to her and that many imprisoned women have children on the outside.

F. Mothers in Prison

·           According to one BJS study, an estimated 6.7 percent of black women, 5.9 percent of Hispanic women, and 5.2 percent of white women are pregnant at the time of incarceration.

·           An estimated 4,000 women prisoners give birth each year, even though most women’s prisons have no special facilities for pregnant inmates.

·           BJS statistics show that more than three-quarters of all women in prison have young children.

·           Regardless of race, grandparents are the most common caregivers.

·           Many programs have been developed to help the inmate mothers maintain strong relationships with their children while incarcerated.

G. Cocorrectional Facilities 

·           Since its inception, cocorrections has been cited as a potential solution to a wide variety of correctional problems.

·           The rationales in support of cocorrection are that it:

o    Reduces the dehumanizing and destructive aspects of incarceration by permitting heterosocial relationships

o    Reduces problems of institutional control

o    Creates a more “normal” atmosphere reducing privation

o    Allows positive heterosocial skills to emerge

o    Cushions the shock of release

o    Increases the number of program offerings and improves program access for all prisoners

o    Expands career opportunities for women