UNIT C: Blog 17

BLOG 17:

In the video Locked up: these women are living life sentences, pairing off, and have committed federal crimes and are serving in a maximum security prison. The prison hold 1,100 prisoners. The warden states that their main goal is to make sure the women maintain their dignity, but they need to understand that they are in prison and are their to serve time for a crime that they have committed. This prison is for women only. One part of the prison is for solitary confinement. For correctional officers this area of the prison can be very dangerous (Locked up video).

One aspect that the video touches on is the lives of the inmates. One story was about a women locked up in single cell confinement and lost her child while serving and could not get out to go see her. The prison guards them selves tried to do everything they could to let her go, but it was stopped by officials from the top. Another story was about two inmates that would hustle and were actually are together intimately and are a couple (Locked up video).

One way in which correctional officers can cause problems in prisons is when they have relationships with the inmates. When the prison guards have relationships with the inmates the can cause security issues and just cross the line. If they have a relationship then they could be security issues with letting them smuggle things in (Locked up video). The book states this as a reason why relationships are a huge problem as well. The book states that officers that have "gone too far" and have sexually relationship with the inmates are at risk or will cause problems because they can supply them with "contraband." (Ch.5)


The view that prison guards have of the prisoners are they even though they have made mistakes they are still human. Another perception that officers have of the inmates is that they are too privileged ( Ch.5) This can be seen in the video as well. The Warden states the same exact quote about inmates. She states that these people are human and we need to give them the respect they need, but they still need to follow the rules and that they need to realize they are in here because the committed a crime and they are doing time for it. even though that the officers humanize these inmates at a certain level they are treating them as infants. At some level they have to limit them because when they committed their crime and were put into prison they knew they would give up some privileges. The guards have to watch over them, limit their activity, take their things away and some on ( Video Locked up). The book described their infantilizing in the same way. The book states that this job is such like when a day care. That these women have to take career of them and watch them (Ch. 5).

The race of an officer although as be in some arguments as trying to figure out if it plays a role in how they treat the inmates, they have made no conclusions are facts for this. The book states that some African American and officers of different races face different issues. It states that these officers still have to do the "dirty work." There has been no link for this data, but these correctional Officers some times have to face other issues such as relating to the prisoners. Some times they could feel as though they are "caught in the middle: and might feel sympathetic toward the inmates because they share a bond of ethnicity and race (ch, 5).

The process of disidentification learning to act and speak in a way as to show loyalty and obedience to the job of a correctional officers and not showing sympathy or relating to the inmates. This process is of the officers of different races and backgrounds that reinforce negative stereotypes to show occupational subculture as the "Language of the Overseers." In order for a correctional officer to do this, who are of the same race or ethnicity of the inmates, they are denying their own background and identity(Ch. 5).

The process of individuals finding and ending up in a career as a correctional officer does not start off with the dreams of becoming one, but when they do it can become a great opportunity.