Prison Subculture In Prison

For new inmate, the bus ride to prison, the processing at the prison reception center, and the belittling shouts from the inmates are all part of the early stage of what is known as prisonization (Clear, Cole, Petrosino, Reisig, 2015). It is the process whereby newly institutionalized individual are introduced to and come to accept prison lifestyles and criminal values; the learning of convict values, attitudes, roles, and even language (prison argot) (Schamelleger, 2001). The new inmates gradually learn the set of rules of conduct that reflect the

Before getting into studying the field of criminal justice I learned that my previous knowledge about prisons and prisoners was either completely wrong or very incomplete. My first original belief was that the worst kind of people were in jail. That if you walked into a jail every person that you would see there are the worst of the worst. Another original belief was that if someone was in prison then they did something that put them there. These original beliefs came from the typical sources you get growing up, your parents, school teachers, and peers. Growing up I was taught that prison was where the terrible people went and it’s a scary place that you don’t want to be. But the moment that impacted me the most about prisoners was my senior

For over centuries, the only form of punishment and discouragement for humans is through the prison system. Because of this, these humans or inmates, are sentenced to spend a significant part of their life in a confined, small room. With that being said, the prison life can leave a remarkable toll on the inmates life in many different categories. The first and arguably most important comes in the form of mental health. Living in prison with have a great impact on the psychological part of your life. For example, The prison life is a very much different way of life than what us “normal” humans are accustomed to living in our society. Once that inmate takes their first step inside their new society, their whole mindset on how to live and communicate changes. The inmate’s psychological beliefs about what is right and wrong are in questioned as well as everything else they learned in the outside world. In a way, prison is a never ending mind game you are playing against yourself with no chance of wining. Other than the mental aspect of prison, family plays a very important role in an inmate’s sentence. Family can be the “make it or break it” deal for a lot of inmates. It is often said that “when a person gets sentenced to prison, the whole family serves the sentence.” Well, for many inmates that is the exact case. While that prisoner serves their time behind bars, their family is on the outside waiting in anticipation for their loved ones to be released. In a way, the families

Just as there is culture existing in the free world, there is also a different culture existing within the world of prisons. This culture is known as inmate subculture, and comprises of its own distinct set of informal norms, values, beliefs, attitudes, and its own language. Prison lingo is primarily a spoken language; it can be written down, but it is not intended to be used for writing and so it has its own special features and its own problems for students. Prison lingo overlaps with street talk, teen talk, rhyming slang, and the home dialects of prisoners so it is sometimes difficult to say whether this word or that phrase should be included, but there is a host of words that are clearly part of prison lingo.1 The prison lingo is known as “Prison argot.” The word “argot” originated in mid-19th century (denoting the jargon or slang of criminals): from French. Argot is mainly a secret language used by groups to prevent other groups from being able to fathom their conversations. This paper will analyze and explore some of the popular prison argots.

Prison culture or the “values, norms and attitudes that inmates form in terms of institutional survival” (Bartollas, 2013), can be described in one of three models. The Deprivation Model describes the inmate’s behavior as the product of the environment, more specifically the attempt to adapt to that which he is deprived of as a result of incarceration (Bartollas, 2013). An example of such would be the pseudo family unit or physical relationships that inmates form as a result of the absence of such relationships while incarcerated.

The United States is the world’s leader in incarceration with 2.2 million people currently in the nation’s prisons or jails. Incarceration is a widely argued topic with many understood viewpoints, and it directly deals with three main important correctional topics which are deterrence, rehabilitation, and recidivism. The definition of incarceration is the state of being confined in prison. Not only does incarceration affect people directly by taking away their freedom, but it also affects their lives once their incarceration is served. There is not a whole lot to do about people being incarcerated, however, there may be ways to help the incarcerated once their freedom is restored.

Inmate culture is a concern to prison facility because of the impact it can burden upon the prison. The prison code, norm, values, and prison argot are part of their cultures. When an inmate enters into the correctional facility they will adopt a prison lifestyle. Therefore, when they are release many will do the" U-shape curve effective" according to Staton Wheeler. For instance, some inmates, that live a violent lifestyle will congregate with others with the same characteristics (Schmalleger & Smykia, 2016). In my opinion, a drug dealer or gang member will gain a position of importance in the prison setting it gives them a sense of power from other inmates. Donald Clemmer believes that inmates belief, value, and behaviors grow antisocial

Confinement and the loss of an inmate’s freedom are also among the leading causes for subcultures to develop in a prison setting.

According to the prisons inspectorate, the ‘health’ of a prison should be measured according to safety, respect, purposeful activity and resettlement (HMCIP, 2013). Choose one of these factors, and using academic research to support your argument, discuss to what extent this represents a critical element of imprisonment in contemporary society.

What is incarceration? Incarceration is the act of placing someone in prison. Incarceration serves as a punishment for criminals due to their actions against the law. It is a solution for keeping the public safe. Prisoners follow a strict rules and schedules while following the culture within the walls among other prisoners. As a result of their crimes, convicts lose their freedom and are place among others who suffer the same fate. Crime is the cause of this establishment, but what are the effects of incarceration on convicts, their relations, and society? As the United States incarceration rate continues to increase, more people are imprisoned behind prison walls. While serving as a punishment to criminals, incarceration can create

(Prison Overcrowding is a growing concern in the U.S.). Proponents of prison reform believe that it would be better to demolish every prison in the country and replace them with locked, safe and secure home-like residential communities; within these communities residents could be provided treatments needed for substance abuse, medical interventions and necessary psychotherapy. (Prison Overcrowding is a growing concern in the U.S.). Another much needed component for rehabilitation is education. In addition, it has been proven that obtaining a college degree while in prison is 100 percent effective in preventing recidivism. If as a society, everybody can begin treating prisoners with the same degree of respect and kindness that they should get upon release, then guards need to change how they treat them during incarceration. (Prison Overcrowding is a growing concern in the

As compelling as all the three theories involved in the incarceration of criminals are, some hold more merit than others due to the persuasive strategies and points they put across. In this respect, I feel that prison as a school of crime deserves the most merit of the three observed. Low-risk inmates who were not career criminals upon conviction seem to be the most vulnerable candidates to the negative effects of incarceration and recidivism. The prison culture found within every prison results in prisonization affecting every inmate. Misconduct in the sense of definition per institution is nearly unavoidable in some cases. It becomes a matter of not getting caught as opposed to zero engagement. Every person in prison is exposed to enhanced

     The idea of sentencing a criminal for a period of time in a prison isn't working, so prisons should focus more on changing their rehabilitation programs. Life in prison should be like the outside world as much as possible, given the fact of imprisonment. Prisoners would be less prepared if the prison environment is artificial and abnormal compared to the outside world they will have to encounter later on. A prisoner also needs to keep family ties. Research in

Once an inmate is released from prison and given parole or probation it is difficult for them to live a normal life like any other ordinary person would integrate day to day in our society. The offenders will have many obstacles due to their criminal background in finding a job or even taken serious by others in general. In a way, the parolee or probationer are fearful to how society might approach them once let out of prison and even more frighten if the parolee or probationer served an indeterminate sentence (10-20 years) in prison and not know how to become a part of society becomes their worst nightmare due to the past thoughts of old habits that got them (parolee or probationer) in trouble with the system. Now put in mind

It is common knowledge that the American prison system has grown exponentially in the last few decades. The prison population within the last forty years has risen by two million inmates. Multiple factors such as overcrowding and cost cutting have also decreased the quality of life within prisons by an order of magnitude. With this rising statistic, it becomes increasingly urgent to understand the effect of incarceration on our prisoners and whether the reformation process is actually doing more harm than good.