1. The Prison
Experience
Chapter 7

2. Prison Society
 Norms and Values: Inmates have their own myths,
slang, customs, rewards, and sanctions
 The inmate code
 Don’t interfere with inmate interests
 Don’t quarrel with fellow inmates
 Maintain yourself
 Don’t exploit inmates
 Don’t trust the guards or the things they stand for

3. Prison Society
 Norms and Values
 Fish-learning the ropes of prison
 Prisonization—degradation process
 Contemporary inmate society
 Race
 Ethnicity
 Age

4. Prison Society
 Prison Subculture: Deprivation or
Importation?
 Pains of imprisonment
 Deprivation of liberty, autonomy, security, goods
and services, and heterosexual relationships
 Three subcultures
 Convict, thief, “straight”

5. Discussion Question
Discuss with students the main tenets of the
inmate code. Ask the students to pretend that
they are new inmates off to prison for a 10
year sentence. Have them discuss what they
believe would be the most difficult
deprivations for a new inmate. How do they
believe they would adapt to prison life?

6. Prison Society
 Adaptation
 Adaptive Roles
 Doing time-brief stay, break in criminal career
 Gleaning-take advantage of prison programs
 Jailing-cut off from outside and develop life within
the prison
 Disorganized criminal-cannot develop any of the
other three roles

7. Prison Society
 The Prison Economy
 Commissary
▪ Toiletries
▪ Tobacco
▪ Snacks
 Underground economy
▪ Food
▪ Homemade wine
▪ Drugs
▪ Sex

8. Women in Prison
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9. Males versus Females
 Offense: 36% violent offenses, 28.8% property
offenses, 26.3% drug related, 8% public order
crimes
 Sentence: shorter than male sentences
 Drug use: drug use higher in females within a
month of criminal activity
 Correctional history: 65% had prior criminal
history

10. Women in Prison
 The Subculture of Women’s Prisons
 Pseudofamilies
 Homosexual roles
 Less stable and less familial than in the past

11. Women in Prison
 Male versus Female Subcultures
 Women less violent than men
 Women’s prisons less violent than men’s
 Women more responsive to prison programs than men
 Women’s security levels mixed, men’s not
 Women less likely to segregate by race than men
 Women form intimate relationships with staff

12. Issues in the Incarceration
of Women
 Sexual misconduct by male correctional
officers is an issue
 Any behavior that is sexual in nature directed
toward an inmate by an employee, official visitor,
or agency representative
 Includes
 Touching
 Threats
 Exposure

13. Issues in the Incarceration
of Women
 Sexual Misconduct
 Jeopardizes facility security
 Creates stress and trauma for those involved
 Exposes agency and staff to potential lawsuits
 Creates a hostile work environment
 Victimizes the vulnerable

14. Discussion Question
Split the class in half. Students should debate
the pros and cons of opposite gender
supervision. More specifically, do the
students believe that male officers should be
allowed to supervise female inmates? Should
female officers be allowed to supervise male
inmates?

15. Issues in the Incarceration
of Women
 Mothers and Their Children
 Over 60 percent of female inmates in state prisons are
mothers of minor children
 Estimated 131,000 minor children of incarcerated mothers
daily
 61% Lived with children prior to incarceration
 Single parents
 Prison nursery programs
 Kids cared for by family, 10.9% by foster care programs

16. Prison Programs
 Prison programs help inmates cope with
prison life and provide opportunities to
improve their lives
 Classification of Prisoners-inmates needs
 Treatment based on assessment of needs
 Risk assessment
 Treatment assessment
 Predictive models
 Equity based models

17. Prison Programs
 Educational and Vocational Programs
 Educational programs
 Reading, English, math
 GED
 Practical problems
 Lack of basic skills
 Attitudes not conducive to learning

18. Prison Programs
 Educational and Vocational Programs
 Vocational programs
 Job skills
 Problems
 Less-desirable jobs
 Obsolete or outdated equipment
 Outdated skills
 Women’s programs “stereotypical” jobs
 Lack of attitudes and habits necessary to keep a job
 Barred by felony convictions

19. Prison Programs
 Prison Industries
 Piece price system
 Public account system
 State-use system
 Public works and ways system

20. Prison Programs
 Rehabilitative Programs- reform offenders
behavior
 Psychotherapy
 Psychotropic medications
 Reality therapy
 Confrontation therapy
 Transactional analysis
 Cognitive skill building

21. Prison Programs
 Medical Services— Estelle v. Gamble
 Inmates have right to medical
treatment while incarcerated
 Hepatitis C
 HIV
 Poverty
 Aging

22. Prison Programs
 Medical Services
 Women inmates
 More serious medical problems
 Arthritis, asthma, cancer, heart problems, liver
problems, hepatitis, and sexually transmitted disease
 Pregnancy
 High risk

23. Discussion Questions
Discuss with students the idea of medical
treatment for prisoners. Should prisoners
receive free medical treatment for diseases
such as HIV and Aids while non-criminal
citizens cannot afford the same drugs? What
unforeseen circumstances could arise from
such policies?