Good neighbors or good prisoners? Non-uniformed staff beliefs about incarcerated people influence prison social climate
| Author | Carlos M Gonzales,Susan Dewey,Theresa Anasti,Susan Lockwood-Roberts,Kym Codallos,Brittany Gilmer,Matthew Dolliver |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/17488958211043686 |
| Published date | 01 April 2023 |
| Date | 01 April 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/17488958211043686
Criminology & Criminal Justice
2023, Vol. 23(2) 200 –217
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/17488958211043686
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Good neighbors or good
prisoners? Non-uniformed
staff beliefs about incarcerated
people influence prison social
climate
Carlos M Gonzales
The Pennsylvania State University, USA
Susan Dewey
The University of Alabama, USA
Theresa Anasti
Oakland University, USA
Susan Lockwood-Roberts
Indiana University Bloomington, USA
Kym Codallos
University of Wyoming, USA
Brittany Gilmer
The University of Alabama, USA
Matthew Dolliver
The University of Alabama, USA
Corresponding author:
Susan Dewey, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, The University of Alabama, 428 Farrah Hall,
513 University Blvd., Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0322, USA.
Email: scdewey@ua.edu
1043686CRJ0010.1177/17488958211043686Criminology & Criminal JusticeGonzales et al.
research-article2021
Article
Gonzales et al. 201
Abstract
We analyzed results from semi-structured interviews and participant observation with educators,
clinical staff, and administrators who worked at nearly 100 different correctional facilities centrally
managed by eight separate state prison systems to understand how the beliefs they hold about
the life experiences and future trajectories of incarcerated people influence prison social climate.
We found that staff who regard incarcerated people as past and/or future neighbors are more
likely to foster a safe, mutually respectful prison social climate conducive to positive personal
transformation. Envisioning prison social climate as a product of the relationship between staff
and incarcerated people demonstrates how prisons and communities interact with each other to
shape the past and future possibilities for people who are incarcerated. Our results offer six policy
implications, to (1) mandate administrative-institutional commitment to creating a positive prison
social climate in which correctional staff and incarcerated people are partners in rehabilitation; (2)
expand existing program opportunities in prison to ensure widespread availability of educational,
vocational, and therapeutic treatment programs; (3) increase representation of staff who share
experiential and demographic characteristics with incarcerated people to reduce or eliminate
unconscious bias; (4) generate public awareness of, and support for, rehabilitative measures
proven to better prepare incarcerated people for release from prison; (5) increase community
engagement by publicizing graduation and other positive events; and (6) foster a mutually
supportive work environment among educational, clinical, and administrative staff.
Keywords
Correctional education, corrections, prison, public perceptions of crime
Introduction
[We] want to create good neighbors, not good prisoners.
- Senior correctional administrator
This can be the Department of Corrections or the Department of Revenge . . . [preparing people
for release from prison as either] a service to the community or as more angry and worse
criminals.
- Correctional educator
I know my neighbors and these inmates are not my neighbors . . . [because] they will go back
to [urban areas], not to [the rural area where I live].
- Correctional educator
These insights, taken from our research team’s semi-structured interviews and partici-
pant observation with educators, clinical, and administrative staff who worked at nearly
100 different correctional facilities centrally managed by 8 separate state prison systems,
raise profound questions about connections between prison social climate and non-uni-
formed correctional professionals’ beliefs about the nature of their relationships to incar-
cerated people. What are the ways that these professionals, and the institutions that
employ them, attempt to prepare incarcerated persons to reenter society as “good neigh-
bors” able to desist from law-breaking and find work that pays a living wage? How do
the beliefs held by these professionals about the life experiences and future trajectories
of incarcerated people influence wellbeing, perceptions of legitimacy, and other indices
of prison social climate? And, perhaps most importantly, how might non-uniformed
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