Factors shaping inmate trust in correctional officers in Taiwan: Do procedural justice and distributive justice really matter?
| Published date | 01 June 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/26338076231183978 |
| Author | Montelle Marius Maradona Felix,Yung-Lien Lai,Yalin Yang,Hui-Ching Wu,Tzu-Ying Lo |
| Date | 01 June 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Factors shaping inmate trust in
correctional officers in Taiwan:
Do procedural justice and
distributive justice really
matter?
Montelle Marius Maradona Felix
and Yung-Lien Lai
Department of Crime Prevention and Corrections, Central Police
University, Taoyuan City, Taiwan
Yalin Yang
Department of Business Management, National Central University,
Taoyuan City, Taiwan
Hui-Ching Wu
Department of Social Work, National Taiwan University, Taiwan Social
Resilience Research Center, Taipei City, Taiwan
Tzu-Ying Lo
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York,
New York, NY, USA
Abstract
While humane care, fair treatment, and respect for the rights and interests of prisoners have
been found to reduce the levels of prisoners’psychological distress and maladaptation (includ-
ing mistrust in correctional officers) in the West, there is a lack of empirical research exam-
ining the relationship between inmates and correctional officers in a non-West society.
Drawing on well-established theoretical models (importation, deprivation, and normative
models) developed in the West, this article aims to address the core process of inmate atti-
tude formation towards correctional officers. Using data collected from 1,025 adult inmates
Corresponding author:
Yung-Lien Lai, Department of Crime Prevention and Corrections, Central Police University, Taoyuan City 33304,
Taiwan.
Email: yxl005@mail.cpu.edu.tw
Article
Journal of Criminology
2023, Vol. 56(2-3) 313–334
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
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DOI: 10.1177/26338076231183978
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incarcerated in 10 Taiwanese prisons in 2020, a series of binary logistic regressions (BLR) was
used to examine these survey data in considerable depth. Results showed that more than 60%
of the respondents report having trust in the correctional officers in the facilities where they
were incarcerated. Multivariate analyses showed that social support from staff, procedural
justice, distributive justice, age, and gender (male) all produced significant and positive asso-
ciations with inmate trust in correctional officers. Discussion of the results observed and pol-
icy implications for institutional corrections practice are presented in closing remarks and
observations.
Keywords
Distributive justice, procedural justice, inmate trust in correctional officers, importation
model, deprivation model, normative model, social support
Date received: 7 October 2022; accepted: 7 June 2023
Introduction
Historically, the research literature on the relationship between correctional officers and
inmates highlights the potential for conflict, mutual opposition, and distrust (Crouch &
Marquart, 1989; Ryan & Bergin, 2022). For example, Sykes and Messinger (1960) argued
that primary norms within these inmate codes are the elements of mistrust of correctional offi-
cers and disparagement of the things for which they stand. Given these major challenges, in
recent decades a considerable amount of research has found that in many types of correctional
settings, a key factor facilitating the successful easing of the staff-inmate conflict, hostility, and
resentment situation is the development of a trusting relationship with one or more correctional
officers (Dirkzwager & Kruttschnitt, 2012; Hemmens & Marquart, 2000; Kubiak, 2009; Logan
et al., 2022; Vieraitis et al., 2018).
Overall, three benefits have been highlighted in the extant literature from inmates holding a
positive attitude towards correctional officers in correctional settings. First, correctional officers
gain greater cooperation and rule compliance from inmates (Campbell et al., 2020; Franke
et al., 2010; Reisig & Meško, 2009). Likewise, order maintenance and safety for inmates
are maximised where trust in correctional staff is high (Dirkzwager & Kruttschnitt, 2012;
Jackson et al., 2010; Maguire et al., 2021). Second, a fair amount of prior research suggests
that positive inmate-correctional officer relationships beneficially affect the quality of treatment
programmes offered, the favourability of rehabilitative programme outcomes, and the inci-
dence of recidivism (Franke et al., 2010; Kubiak, 2009). Third, and perhaps most importantly,
timely research on this issue can produce insight into how trust in correctional staff can be built
among different types of inmates. For example, if findings indicate that some types of inmates
(e.g. drug abusers) have lower trust in correctional officers than other inmates, then prison
authorities can explore measures to improve their prison life experience and alert correctional
staff to those potentially beneficial measures (Logan et al., 2022).
While existing research highlights the beneficial aspects of inmate trust in correctional offi-
cers is for facility operations and rehabilitative outcomes, three limitations of this body of
research work have been largely overlooked. First, compared to the considerable amount of
research conducted in this area in the West, this issue has very rarely been addressed in
non-Western societies, including Asian societies. Second, two competing theories (deprivation
314 Journal of Criminology 56(2-3)
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