INTRODUCTION TO CORRECTIONS (Essay Sample)

Question Three: Prisonization Name of Student Affiliate Institution Question Three: Prisonization Definition Human beings have the tendency to emulate the behaviors and norms of the environment in which they find themselves. Just as acculturation entails the process of accepting and embracing the new ways of a life based on a new society one moves to, prisonization involves one accepting the social and cultural life characteristic of the prisons (Paterline & Orr, 2016). According to Naderi (2014), the terminology is best described as the process through which the offenders that are newly institutionized into the prisons get to accept the criminal values and prison lifestyles. While most inmates get into the prison with minimal values supporting the criminal behaviors, they later get to accept the values in the course of their incarceration due to the socialization experiences. Prison Subculture Prison subculture is the special culture characteristic of the prison society, and this is found to have some uniformity across certain areas, for instance, the US prisons. Also widely known as the ‘convict code’, the prison culture is widely believed to develop based on the imprisonment pains, majorly deprivation (Sirisutthidacha & Tititampruk, 2014). However, it is important to note that there is a category of people who hold the belief that this subculture is imported into the respective prisons by the inmates. However, the argument for importation does not hold water since new inmates are brought in day-in, day-out, which would mean constant change in the cultures. As well, this argument would imply a wide variation in the cultures exhibited in the respective prisons, with one having wide variations other than the other. From the prizonization model, the argument is that the inmates adapt or react to the treatments they are subjected to through the formation of the inmate subculture, and remaining true to it. Reflection of the Inmate Subculture Just as the culture of a people has certain unique elements that differentiate it from the other, the inmate culture has its characteristics. The very first feature of the inmate subculture is the prison code, which mainly entails the norms and values that all the new inmates must learn to fully be incorporated. It is better thought of as a form of official rulebook that all the inmates must adhere to. According to the study by Crewe and Laws (2018), the inmate rules are similar in all the prisons throughout the US. Basically, the code is based on loyalty to all the other inmates and complete distrust of the prison staff (Cihan, Davidson & Sorensen, 2017). Five key elements of the prison code include: not interfering with or telling on other inmates, not trusting any prison staff or guard, not exploiting other inmates, minding one’s own business, and not complaining or whining. The other feature unique to the inmate subculture is known as the prison argot. To most of the inmates, prisonization implies even the process of learning and mastering new languages (Sirisutthidacha & Tititampruk, 2014). In most cases, it comes in the form of argot, which entails a series of slangs, terminologies, or jargons that only the members of the c...