life in prision Essays - Penology, Prison, Forensic Psychology

Life in Prison Before I began my career in corrections as a Deputy I had no idea what went on in jails and prisons. The only exposure I had to the world of incarceration was what I had seen on television. Television depicts jails and prisons as extremely violent places where murders and rapes are common place. I was greatly relieved to find out when I started my career that although violence does occur daily it is usually nothing more than a fistfight between two inmates. What television and movies did not warn me about is all the politics that goes on behind bars. To start of there is the issue of race. The text first covers the issue of race in chapter 3: Prison Proper (Carceral, 2004). In the text the authors describe the tension that existed between the white and black inmates (Carceral, 2004). Well the same issues exist today in the San Diego County jail system. When I first began to work in the jail I was shocked at the amount of racism that went on behind bars amongst the inmates. The inmates separated themselves into five groups: southsiders, whites, blacks, pisas, and others. Mexican inmates that were born here in southern California call themselves southsiders and they separate themselves from Mexican inmates who were born in Mexico. The Mexican born inmates call themselves pisas and I found it completely absurd that they separated themselves considering the two groups shared such similar backgrounds. The others are any race other than the four previously listed such as Asians and Pacific Islanders. The others are allowed to interact with black inmates. While southsiders, whites and pisas interact freely with each other but not with the blacks and others. It amazed me how inmates who were not racist before coming to jail are forced to follow these rules or become a victim of an assault. The politics also exists within the races. Amongst the races there is constant bickering over who is in charge. The inmate with the toughest reputation usually is assigned the leadership position. The text describes how inmates earn their reputations and how many different types there can be such as: gang leader, fighter, manipulator, or snake (Carceral, 2004). Although just like in the outside world there is always somebody else who feels they should be in charge and this often leads to conflict. The text also made me aware of certain aspects of my job that I was not aware of. For instance when an inmate first arrives to the facility they are strip-searched. I was always under the belief that this practice was for safety purposes only. What the text pointed out was the psychological effect this practice had on the inmates. Forcing the inmates to get naked and perform a strip search is a way of breaking them down mentally and demonstrating to them that we are in charge now (Carceral, 2004). Some of the techniques that the character in the text used to adapt to prison life included interacting and absorbing as much information he could from other inmates about proper jail etiquette (Carceral, 2004). This technique is also covered in the text voices from the field: Prison adaptation strategies for first-time short-term inmates by Carl Pope. As cultural outsiders new inmates recognize their need for information about the prison world and virtually all of their early survival tactics revolve around information seeking (Pope, 2001). Prison is a totally separate sub culture and new inmates must quickly learn to adapt to their new surroundings in order to survive. An inmate?s needs while in custody help to structure the correctional policy. While in custody an inmate will need some type of hope to survive and the correctional policy provides this by trying to rehabilitate the inmate. The rehabilitation process is mainly accomplished with education. An inmate also wants to feel respected and the correctional policy shows the inmate respect by giving him a set of rules and regulations to follow. Inmates receive a certain amount of responsibility by holding them accountable for their actions. Inmates also want to feel safe and the correctional policy provides safety by having qualified staff supervise the facility. From reading Carceral?s text and the description