DOING PRISON WORK:
THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LIVES OF PRISON OFFICERS

by Elaine Crawley
Portland, Oregon: Willan Publishing, 2004

Despite continued academic interest in the effect of prisons on incarcerated youth and adults, there is very little research that speaks to the experiences of the occupational group who work in prison environments. Crawley (2004) analyses participant observation and interview data collected in 1997 to 2002 from six public sector male prisons (four adult and two young offender institutions) in the United Kingdom. This ethnography presents an analysis that is relevant not only to those who study the correctional system but also to those who research other occupational groups in the criminal justice system. In particular, this book could be very useful for police research in much the same way that Goffman’s (1968) Asylum and his term “total institution” has been applied to the prisoner’s experience during incarceration.

What is immediately apparent in this scholarly work is the degree of analytical sophistication that is coupled with an extremely thorough interdisciplinary review of the literature. Further, Crawley (2004) employs Sykes (1958) “myth of total power”, Hochschild’s (1983) concept of “emotional labour”, and Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgical analysis as the theoretical framework for the analysis. Consequently, the scope and breadth of this investigation takes into account the many facets of the role of prison officer as well as the effect the prison and the prisoners have on life within and beyond the prison walls.

The advantage of ethnographic work within an organizational context is the “ability to contrast the formal organisation with its informal counterpart” (57). Crawley has certainly succeeded in this regard. The process of becoming a prison officer is in many ways an occupational journey that involves “a significant degree of culture shock and a complex process of acculturation” (xv). Throughout the monograph, Crawley draws parallels to the role of a police officer in bringing her observations and her interviewees’ words to life within a scholarly context. For example, there are many separate discussions of prison officer culture and its impact on daily work and decision-making. I agree with the author’s statement that “the culture of an organisation has the capacity to be both a force for stability and an impediment to change” (8). Consequently, prison officers that work in the young offender institutions or are involved in the Sex Offender Treatment Program (SOTP) tend to be in conflict with the traditional prison occupational culture. This is in parallel to what police researchers have also found. For instance, these positions have “begun to fragment the ‘old guard’ or ‘dinosaur’ culture which associated competence with masculinity, physical strength, and emotional toughness” (10) in the same way that youth squad officers and School Liaison Officers “stretch the boundaries of what the prison [police] officer role can be” (168). In essence, prison officers, much like their police counterparts, are being required more frequently to incorporate a social worker mentality into the cultural role definition. However, what I found to be one of the most startling of Crawley’s (2004) findings was that prison officers “tend not to feel that their job is closer to policing than to other occupations. On the contrary, numerous officers said that they felt their job was closer to nursing and psychiatric work” (177). Officers’ impressions of their work role were, in some ways, in contrast with the empirical analysis conducted by Crawley which borrows and extends the work on the police by Sykes (1958), Skolnick (1975), Bittner (1970), and Van Maanen (1975) to name just a few. The parallels between these two occupational groups are astounding.

Before reading this ethnography, the finding that prison officers do not identify their work roles with that of a police officer would have seemed quite nonsensical to me. However, Crawley’s main rationale for this scholarly monograph was to explore the impact of prison work on uniformed staff in terms of how they think about their jobs as well as what they are thinking and feeling while working and, ultimately, at home. Two themes become apparent throughout the book. First, a considerable portion of a prison officer’s daily work is related to control, in many ways symbolic, through the imposition of routine actions (i.e., a time to eat, shower, exercise, do laundry). Police officers, on the other hand, do not maintain control through routinisation, but employ informal and formal social control as agents of law enforcement. Second, much of a prison officer’s work revolves around a ‘domestic sphere’. That is, they are required to encourage the maintenance of a home while also being prepared to use physical force to control violent or emotional outbursts. In many ways, these features differentiate prison officers from many of the other occupational groups in the criminal justice system. This distinction is made very clear by Crawley and consequently, in this reviewer’s opinion, makes this a book that will be read and cited for many years to come.

Crawley quotes Bittner (1970): “loyalty to one’s colleagues is the defining feature of police culture” (32). Crawley’s (2004) monograph Doing Prison Work is just as much of an exemplar for understanding the prison culture as that of some of the well known ethnographic work conducted on other occupational groups. Crawley successfully provides the reader with an understanding of the diversity and distinct characteristics of the prison culture including the role that loyalty plays in the definition and evolution of the prison culture across different institutions. Thus, she explores not only how officers see their work role, their thoughts and views on prisoners and their actions, but also, most importantly, how they view each other. This scholarly monograph would not only be an excellent addition to an academic’s personal library but also an excellent choice as a supplemental reading for an advanced undergraduate course in corrections and an important required reading in related graduate courses.

Sources:

Bittner, E. (1970). The Functions of the Police in Modern Society. Rockville, MD: National Institute of Mental Health, Center for Studies of Crime and Delinquency.

Goffman, E. (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York, NY: Doubleday.

Goffman, E. (1968). Asylums. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.

Hochschild, A. (1983). The Managed Heart. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Skolnick, J. (1975). Justice without Trial. New York, NY: Wiley.

Sykes, G. (1958). The Society of Captives. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Van Maanen, J. (1975). Police socialization. Administrative Science Quarterly 32: 207-228.