The security mindset: Corrections officer workplace culture in late mass incarceration
| Author | Heather Schoenfeld,Grant Everly |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/13624806221095617 |
| Published date | 01 May 2023 |
| Date | 01 May 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
The security mindset:
Corrections officer workplace
culture in late mass
incarceration
Heather Schoenfeld
Boston University, USA
Grant Everly
Loyola University Chicago School of Law, USA
Abstract
Prison officers’behavior is one of the most consequential features of the modern prison.
In this article, we introduce an organizational culture conceptual framework and build
on previous prison scholarship to develop a model of prison officer workplace culture.
We then apply the proposed model to original research in a US prison to investigate the
relational aspects of prison officer culture during early 21st-century pe nal reforms. We
find a set of collective norms and beliefs among officers consistent with the “traditional”
prison officer culture historically documented by penologists, including high levels of dis-
trust of prisoners, avoidance of relationships, and distancing from rehabilitation goals.
We name this culture the “security mindset”because officers use multiple conceptions
of “security”to rationalize their behavior. Our findings suggest that prison officer cul-
ture in late mass incarceration may work against the positive and supportive relation-
ships necessary for rehabilitation.
Keywords
Corrections, culture, organizational theory, prison, prison officers
Corresponding author:
Heather Schoenfeld, Department of Sociology, Boston University, 100 Cummington Mall, Boston,
Massachusetts, MA 02215, USA.
Email: hschoenf@bu.edu
Article
Theoretical Criminology
2023, Vol. 27(2) 224–244
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/13624806221095617
journals.sagepub.com/home/tcr
The control problem—of how to maintain “good order and discipline”—is inherent and
endemic. For as long as we have prisons …then we will continue to hold prisoners against
their will. At bottom that is what it is about.
(King, 1985: 187)
Introduction
Prison officers are responsible for implementing penal ideologies—from normalization to
retribution to incapacitation (Garland, 1990). In what Seeds (2017) terms “late mass
incarceration”, in the early 21st century penal ideologies are shifting once again.
Recognizing the “pathologies of mass incarceration”, people are rethinking who
should go to prison and what they should do while incarcerated. As part of the response
to problems such as cost, overcrowding, and drug addiction, many policymakers, advo-
cates, and academics are optimistic about the appropriateness and efficacy of prison
rehabilitation programming for some offenders (Cullen, 2013; Thielo et al., 2016). For
many, “penal optimism”(Green, 2013) is grounded in a desire to contain rising correc-
tions costs (Aviram, 2015; see also Liebling and Crewe, 2013 on England and Wales).
At the same time, prison conditions have deteriorated. Years of fiscal austerity in western
countries have led to crumbling prison facilities, high staff turnover, and an increase in vio-
lence (Cate, 2021; Ricciardelli et al., 2018; United Kingdom Ministry of Justice, 2017).
These conditions have added difficultytoprisonofficers’already stressful jobs. While
studies investigate the correlates of officer stress, very few studies examine “aggregate or
prison level characteristics”that influence officers’behaviors and attitudes (Butler et al.,
2019: 90). Yet prison officer behavior is one of the most significant factors in imprisoned
people’s well-being (Kruttschnitt et al., 2013; Liebling, 2008; Sykes, 2007 [1958]).
Liebling and Kant (2018: 225) have called for theories that “establish the links
between staff attitudes, values, and behavior and the treatment of prisoners”. In this
article, we begin that task by specifying how prison mission, structure, and resources
influence officer behavior, beliefs, and values. To do this we draw on previous research
on prison officer culture and original research in a US prison oriented toward “rehabili-
tation”in the 2010s. Our findings begin to answer how the re-introduction of rehabilita-
tion programming in the United States combined with fiscal austerity has impacted prison
officers’behavior (see Neubacher et al., 2021 on Germany; Ricciardelli, 2019 on Canada;
and Ugelvik, 2022 on Norway).
In what follows, we briefly review prior research on prison officer culture and intro-
duce an organizational culture framework. We then propose a model of prison officer
workplace culture as the behavioral norms, beliefs, and values embedded in officers’
responses to organizational problems. We next present findings from observations and
interviews with officers, rehabilitation program staff, and people incarcerated in a US
medium security prison. We focus on the relational aspects of officer culture because
staff–prisoner relationships are the “heart of prison work”(Liebling et al., 2010: 83).
Our findings are consistent with past research documenting “traditional”prison officer
culture, including distrust of prisoners, avoiding relationships, and distancing from
rehabilitation goals. We name this culture the “security mindset”because officers use
Schoenfeld and Everly 225
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