Drill, discipline and decency? Exploring the significance of prior military experience for prison staff culture
| Author | Dominique Moran,Jennifer Turner |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/13624806211031248 |
| Published date | 01 August 2022 |
| Date | 01 August 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/13624806211031248
Theoretical Criminology
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/13624806211031248
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Drill, discipline and decency?
Exploring the significance of
prior military experience
for prison staff culture
Dominique Moran
University of Birmingham, UK
Jennifer Turner
Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Germany
Abstract
Building on prior theorization of the prison–military complex and critiques of Foucault’s
claim of similarities between the prison and the military, this article uses the example
of ex-military personnel as prison staff to consider the nature of this relationship. In a
UK context in which policy discourse speaks of ‘military’ methods as an aspiration for
the Prison Service but where critical prison scholars use this term more pejoratively, it
draws on a unique survey of current and former prison staff to explore the perceived
characteristics of ex-military personnel, and the relationship between military service
and prison staff culture. The article finds that although some ‘military’ characteristics
recall more negative ‘traditional’ cultures, others point towards more professional and
compassionate attitudes, challenging the notion that ‘militarism’ necessarily engenders
authoritarian and punitive prison regimes.
Keywords
military, prison officers, prisons, United Kingdom, veterans
Introduction
Foucault’s (1991: 228) often-cited observation that ‘prisons resemble factories, schools,
barracks, hospitals, which all resemble prisons’ draws attention to perceived similarities
Corresponding author:
Dominique Moran, GEES, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.
Email: d.moran@bham.ac.uk
1031248TCR0010.1177/13624806211031248Theoretical CriminologyMoran and Turner
research-article2021
Article
2022, Vol. 26(3) 396–415
between these kinds of institutions. Indeed, ‘military’ discipline is promoted in contem-
porary public and policy discourse as a solution to the ‘ills’ of the prison system.
However, ‘military’ is an extremely difficult term to define and although there is some
consensus about what it means in relation to the prison (Kennan et al., 1994), there has
been little critical analysis of this discourse. When used by criminologists this term often
conveys a troubling propensity for rigidity, harshness, authoritarianism and punitivity
(e.g. Jewkes and Johnston, 2007), with ‘less-militaristic’ prisons perceived to be friend-
lier and more relaxed (e.g. Young, 1987: 32). By contrast, some policymakers see mili-
tary methods as a means to gain control of ‘unruly’ establishments and enforce
much-needed ‘discipline’. In this article, we unpack these interpretations of the military
and consider the ways in which prior military experience on the part of prison staff might
influence prison staff culture.
The employment of ex-military personnel is likely to be widespread in prison systems
in the Global North (Moran et al., 2019), and it is likely that the UK-based research pre-
sented here has some wider resonance in this region. Further afield, and beyond the
immediate scope of this article, there is also post-conflict prison employment in the
Global South where, for example, ex-combatants were employed in the Prison Services
of Namibia (Metsola, 2006) and Zimbabwe (Musemwa, 1994). More broadly still, there
are contexts of more explicit prison–military convergence, such as dark sites and rendi-
tion prisons (Brown, 2005) in which prison–military connections may also involve
movements of staff. While these contexts all offer potential avenues for exploration, this
article primarily addresses the UK Prison Service and its staff cultures in relation to
political and policy changes in this jurisdiction over time. We hope that in initiating
exploration of the relationship between military service and prison staff culture, we go
some way towards opening up a fruitful and productive avenue of exploration for future
research into the ‘prison–military complex’ (Moran et al., 2019).
Building on theorization of the ‘prison–military complex’, this article explores the
experiences and opinions of prison officers about previous military service. Drawing on
a unique survey dataset, we consider how military experience is perceived, and the char-
acteristics that ex-military personnel are considered to exhibit. We first explore the rela-
tionship between prison and the military as one facet of the ‘prison–military complex’,
and consider the ways in which criminological literatures have tended to deploy the term
‘military’ in relation to the operation of prisons. Next, we focus on the employment of
ex-military personnel as prison officers as one specific interface between prisons and the
military, summarizing the scarce prior scholarship on this topic, and drawing it together
with recent theorization of prison staff cultures. We then move to discuss the surveys
whose data provide the empirical basis for the remainder of the article, critiquing the
notion that military service necessarily predisposes prison personnel to punitive attitudes
and negative forms of prison staff culture, before concluding with reflections and sug-
gestions for future research.
Foucault and the prison–military complex
Foucault’s famous observation about prisons and barracks is partially based on his view
of the military as the foundational laboratory of disciplinary power (McSorley, 2014) and
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Moran and Turner
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