Self-legitimacy of prison workers: A comparative study in Slovenian prisons
| Published date | 01 January 2025 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14773708241255843 |
| Author | Rok Hacin,Gorazd Meško |
| Date | 01 January 2025 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Self-legitimacy of prison
workers: A comparative study
in Slovenian prisons
Rok Hacin
University of Maribor, Slovenia
Gorazd Meško
University of Maribor, Slovenia
Abstract
Building legitimacy in a coercive prison environment presents a significant challenge for prison
workers. Drawing on data from a survey of 465 Slovenian prison workers collected in 2016
and 2022, this study aims to test the stability of prison workers’sense of self-legitimacy, as
prior research strongly suggests that the nature of such legitimacy is fundamentally unstable.
Multivariate analyses showed that relationships with prisoners and the internalisation of subcul-
tural norms influenced the self-legitimacy of prison workers in both periods studied.
Relationships with colleagues, satisfaction with pay, and with workplace conditions also influenced
prison workers’self-legitimacy in 2016, and education and years of service proved salient in 2022.
Results indicate that traditional ‘core variables’(relationships with colleagues, supervisors’proced-
ural justice, and audience legitimacy) used to explore legitimacy in criminal justice have limited
influence on prison workers’self-legitimacy. Significant differences were also found in prison
workers’perceptions of self-legitimacy, audience legitimacy, and prison staff subculture in different
time periods. Overall, the findings reported here suggest that the self-legitimacy of prison workers
is relatively unstable over time. The implications of these findings for both theory and practice are
explored.
Keywords
Comparative study, prison workers, relationships, self-legitimacy, Slovenia
Corresponding author:
Rok Hacin, Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security, University of Maribor, Kotnikova 8, 1000 Ljubljana,
Slovenia.
Email: rok.hacin@um.si
Article
European Journal of Criminology
2025, Vol. 22(1) 51–75
© The Author(s) 2024
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/14773708241255843
journals.sagepub.com/home/euc
Introduction
Trinkner and Reisig (2022) have argued that sustaining a stable system of rules and social
order in a society with minimum use of coercion is challenging in any setting. Such a task
is certainly even more difficult in the prison context wherein those with power/authority
are often faced with a hostile population; order maintenance under such conditions calls
for the use of appropriate professional skills (Sparks and Bottoms, 1995). Jackson et al.
(2010) have argued in this regard that the proper functioning of a prison facility is based
on the sustained maintenance of a stable environment found acceptable to prisoners and
the prison staff alike. Maintaining order is essential in every prison, but if a major goal of
imprisonment is not solely the incapacitation of offenders but also their re-socialisation,
the traditional strict coercive control practices of prisons of the past are inadequate for the
task. Prison conditions under which the prisoners are subordinated to a great many estab-
lished rules and are ever-fearful of sanctions and ubiquitous oversight should (and
perhaps must) be replaced with alternative strategies where authority derives from the
legitimacy of prison power holders’position. The ability of legitimacy (i.e. legitimate
authority) to promote compliant behaviour can be seen as the principal cornerstone of
any regulatory organisation, including prisons (Tyler and Trinkner, 2018).
The work of the prison workforce in ‘modern’prison systems which have taken on a
rehabilitative role can be described as a form of ongoing peacekeeping, based quite
heavily on institutional legitimacy, effective communication, and the building of trusting
relationships (Liebling, 2011; Schultz, 2023). From this perspective, it is indeed essential
how prison workers decide to exert their authority over prisoners. It is well established in
the research literature that actions based on consent reproduce and reinforce the legitim-
acy of the established ‘social arrangement’(Bottoms and Tankebe, 2012; Wooldredge
and Steiner, 2016). Lukes (2005) perceptively highlighted the dual tracks available to
those in authority seeking to inculcate legitimacy. The bearers of power who hold author-
ity can produce legitimacy through the perceived fairness of the decisions they make
about how their power is being used, or they can alternatively generate animus and dis-
affection through an overemphasis upon a need to observe compliance with their dictates.
Ultimately, legitimacy is gained through the recognition of authority by the governed,
and it is more likely to be sustained when the fairness track is taken.
Bottoms and Tankebe (2012) have argued that legitimacy should be understood as
being fundamentally dialogical and relational in character. Building a prison staff’s legit-
imacy in relation to prisoners is possible when prison workers come to believe in the
legitimacy of their own power. This sense of self-legitimacy reflects the confidence of
powerholders in the prison setting of the rightfulness of their own authority and position
in a system reflecting basic fairness (Bottoms and Tankebe, 2013; Tankebe, 2019). Hacin
and Meško (2024) have argued that the self-legitimacy of prison workers in modern cor-
rectional facilities is based on confidence in their ability to use the powers entrusted to
them legally and with consistency in service to the humanistic values of their society.
Tankebe (2014) has argued that an individual’s perception of his or her own legitimacy
consists of an ongoing process of construction, validation, and resistance to a myopic
image of power-holding. In other words, powerholders seek confirmation through a
process of reflection (‘internal conversation’) on the question of whether the authority
52 European Journal of Criminology 22(1)
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