Jail and Prison Subculture

Jail and prisons all have a certain subculture that they abide by, more so than the law at times. There are a lot of different roles an inmate can play while incarcerated. It is so interesting to me that things that would be considered horrible outside of jail and prisons, are considered admirable inside them. For example, if an inmate kill an officer, they immediately are one of the cooler of the inmates. The worse the crime the more admirable the criminal is. However, this does have exceptions, like child molesters and rapists are not considered admirable. There are so many things that inmates need to make sure to keep up with as far as the subculture go.

               Just like the child rapists and molesters, the “snitches” and “rats” get treated terribly. There have been accounts of them getting severely tortured or even murdered for their actions. The rapists and molesters sometimes get raped by several men. A lot of the inmates consider themselves situational homosexuals because outside of prison they are heterosexual. This is really interesting to me because they all have different nick names. The aggressive more masculine is considered one of the “wolves” or “pitchers”, “punks” are the usually younger and weaker ones, “fags” are the ones who have been homosexual since before jail or prison. There are many kinds of roles inmates play while in jail or prison.

               “Swag men” are another group of people inmates. These men are the ones who will steal things like sandwiches from the cafeteria, smuggle drugs, and toiletries to sell to the other inmates. There are a lot more roles and for the inmates it is very important for everyone to play their parts. Inmates feel the need to form these subcultures in order to adjust to the prison life better. It helps them adjust to the loss of liberty, sexual relationships, material items, and so forth. Some believe that this behavior is due to their criminal past and how that has shaped how they behave. In other words, if a group of people who had not committed any crime went into the same type of confinement, they would create a different type of subculture.

               The subculture that is created in these types of environment is strictly based on the inmates criminal behavior and  how that has influenced there characteristics. I definitely believe that the incarceration plays a role because these people all of the sudden lose a lot of their rights, but I do not think it plays as big of a role as people think it does. Donald R. and Irwin Cressey both came up with the importation theory which validated this idea (Prisons: Prisoners - Inmate Subcultures And Informal Organizations). The gang influence and division is very apparent in jails and prisons, and often times the cause for these subcultures.

               The vast majority of Latino and African American individual causes separation itself, but the relation to gangs make it much more divided. Most gangs are divided by race and even though there are less Caucasian inmates they still separate themselves from the other gangs to prove loyalty to their gang/race. This is not say that none of them can get a long, but they definitely side with one group more than the other. Most other races are such a small minority that they usually keep to themselves or pick one of the gangs to get involved with. Other gangs and ethnicities are getting bigger in jails and prisons.

               Take the Asians, there has been an increase in their incarceration in recent years. This is because there has been more criminal activity and more Asians migrating to the United States. They are having issues adjusting to the subculture of jails and prisons because they are trying to create their own (The curious eclipse of prison ethnography, 375). This has caused an even bigger divide among all the gangs versus the Asians, so much so that the Asians are in their own tier in the Los Angeles County Jail. It is crazy to see how when you get a large number of people, the less they get along. This is in part because they have criminal and violent history.

               Learning about the subculture and culture of jails is crucial to being able to have any kind of job in this field. It is important to know their behavior and why they act the way they do. I went on a jail tour once and the officer who directed explained how at first it was hard for him to adjust to the different personalities and how the more he understood it the smoother things ran.

sources:

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1466138102003004012

http://law.jrank.org/pages/1796/Prisons-Prisoners-Inmate-subcultures-informal-organizations.html

Intro

The topic I am considering writing about is about jail and prisons. The topic is related the fact jails and prisons have very few rehabilitation programs available for inmates. The reason being that tax payers do not want to use that money for people who are incarcerated. Honestly, I do understand why people feel that way. I am sure that they think "why waste money on noncontributing members of society?" People do not feel as though tax payers money should be "wasted" on "bad people." Which I can sympathize with in the sense that there are some people who are not looking to better themselves, and do not feel as though the things they have done are bad.

For example there are serial killer and murders in prison right now who feel absolutely no remorse for their actions. These people fall under a the psychopathic inmates, and quite possibly are a lost cause. However, there are people who are willing to make themselves better. People who are in jail are usually the ones who want to improves their life style, but usually have no resources in order to do so. A lot of the people who spend time in jail are in there for less serious crimes. For instance, many of them are in there on drug charges. Obviously, people who continue to go to jail because of drugs need help, and many times they want it but cannot afford it.

A lot of them need counseling but have little access to it in jail. Most jails and prisons have programs available for the inmates. There are not a lot of programs and the people who get to be a part of them are usually just a select group of the ones who are behaving well. I feel that the ones who truly need these programs are both groups, the ones who are behaving well, and the ones who continue to misbehave. If the ones who are misbehaving start the programs then it may change their outlook on life and their situation all together. Jails and prisons were once focused more on rehabilitation but now it feel as if they are more concerned with retribution. I completely believe in punishment and I understand that it is necessary, but why are we giving up on people who continue to make poor decisions.

I think people need to realize that everyone is different and have different mind sets. I grew up in a small town and was never subjected to crime that people who grow up in more urban areas, therefore I never felt compelled to do some of the things that the people in urban areas do. I know people are going to argue, and say that morally they should know the difference between right and wrong but again, we are all different. Some of us fall under temptation easier or feel the need to follow the in crowd and the rest is history. People deserve second chance and half of these inmates are getting chances at all.

About Me

 My name is Melissa Melendez, I am currently working towards becoming a jail social worker. I eventually want to be a forensic psychologist, but for the time being jail social work sounds like fun. I work full time and do school part time. I am the youngest of 5, I am half Dominican and half Honduran.