Chapter 12:
Prison Life and
Life After
Prison

American Society of Criminology (ASC) 2022

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Announcements

• Remember to watch the lecture videos and review the slides!!
• Material will be on Exam 3
• Readings too!

• Next week: Exam 3
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Darla, a white-collar offender

You know, you definitely feel sorry for yourself because you’re in there
and, you know what I mean?

Life is going on without you out there so it’s… it’s real easy to feel sorry
for yourself…

“

…There’s a lot of things you have to go through and accept it as best as you can.

Darla, a white-collar offender

“
But it’s not always that easy.

Context
In 2018, 1 in 40 adults under some
type of correctional supervision in
the U.S.

In 2020, 1.2 million in prison

Mass incarceration à more
offenders in prison

Introduction: Living in Prison

• State responsible for safety
and well-being of those it
incarcerates and the public

Common missions of many
correctional institutions
• Protecting the public
• Ensuring safety of

personnel
• Care and supervision of

inmates
• Reentry

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Challenges of prison
environment

• Violence
• Inappropriate sexual

behavior
• Gang
• Overcrowding
• Understaffing
• Limited rehabilitation

resources
• “Prison culture”

High Cost $$$$$

High costs of incarceration even excluding treatment and education
• Housing one inmate costs average of $35,000 annually in federal

facility

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13https://www.vera.org/publications/price-of-prisons-2015-state-spending-trends/price-of-prisons-2015-state-spending-trends/price-of-
prisons-2015-state-spending-trends-prison-spending

Living in Prison: People and Their Lives

Correctional officers
• Roles and responsibilities

Inmates
• Adjustments
• Goodbye to former life
• Rules and regulations
• Food
• People

• Women vs. men
• Race differences
• Class differences

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Living in Prison: Correctional Officers

Correctional officers and administrators face behavior and ethical issues
• Correctional officers take oath to protect and serve
• Officers may be tempted to introduce contraband

• Farkas’ (2000) Typologies – READ THIS. BE FAMILIAR WITH THE
DIFFERENT TYPES.
• https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X00444003

üRule Enforcers
üHard Liners
üPeople Workers
üLoners
üSynthetic Officer
üResidual Type

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Living in
Prison:
Offender’s
Life

Life in Prison: Offenders entering prison must
change their behaviors
• Offenders entering prison must change their

behaviors, attitudes, and language in order
to conform to prison and unofficial convict
rules and regulations.
• Prison argot: Slang used in prison.
• Prisonization: The socialization process in

prison that requires accepting different
values and customs.
• Degree of adherence to prison culture may

vary during incarceration, but tends to be
lowest in the first 6 months and the last 6
months of incarceration.

• Total institution: isolated, closed social system
designed to control people

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https://www.npr.org/transcripts/593446805

Living in Prison: Prison Slang

Prison Argot

Term Definition

Bone A shank (knife-like weapon)

Brake fluid Psychiatric medications

Cakero A convict who rapes weaker inmates

Car Prison gang

Catch my fade Fight

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Living in Prison: Prison Slang

Prison Argot

Term Definition

Catching the square Challenge to fight by one prisoner to another

Convict A prisoner who is experienced in crime and prison life; used as a term of
respect

Mud Coffee

Punk Gay/lesbian or weak inmate

Soda Cocaine

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Living in Prison: Subcultures, Deprivation
model

Subcultures of Prison
• Three models used to explain inmate subculture
1. Deprivation model: where prisons require inmates to adapt to

being deprived of basic rights and needs
• Pains of imprisonment: The five primary pains that come

from being incarcerated: 1) deprivation of liberty, 2) goods
and services, 3) intimate sexual relationships, 4) autonomy,
and 5) security.
• Inmates may often feel like helpless outcasts, which leads to

negativity, aggression, and resentment.

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Living in Prison: Subcultures, Importation
model

Subcultures of Prison
2. Importation model: experiences and socialization from outside

world brought contribute to behavior
• Convict criminology: The study of crime and correctional systems that

challenges traditional viewpoints.
• Identified the prison subcultures of thief, convict, and legitimate.
• Thief subculture: Prison subculture that includes professional thieves and

values in-group loyalty, trust, and reliability. This subculture includes “right
guys.”
• Convict subculture: Imports values from the outside and follows the inmate

code.
• Legitimate: A prison subculture wherein one-time offenders identify with

correctional staff and take advantage of educational and rehabilitation
opportunities.

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Living in Prison: Subcultures, Importation
model – continued

Subcultures of Prison
2. Importation model: experiences and socialization from outside

world brought contribute to behavior
• Four methods of adapting to being in prison: doing time, jailing, gleaning, and

disorganized.
• Doing time: Inmates who accept and follow the rules
• Jailing: Inmates who have spent a substantial amount of time behind bars and

tend to be comfortable in prison.
• Gleaning: Inmates who take advantage of rehabilitation, educational, and

vocational opportunities while serving time.
• Disorganized: Inmates with mental illness and/or low IQs.

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Living in Prison: Subcultures, Situational
model

Subcultures of Prison
3. Situational model: emphasizes place, time, and person to

understand behavior
• Depends on type of facility, time of year, time of day, staffing, and

involvement of other inmates.

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Living in Prison:
Female Subcultures

Female Subcultures

• Demographics

• Far less research on
women’s subcultures

• 1960s research: women
cope differently than men

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Sentencing Data: Female Inmates Over Time

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Sentencing Data: Female Inmates Over
Time

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Living in
Prison: Female
Subcultures

Female Subcultures
• 1980s research: pseudofamily

and homosexual relationships
• Pseudofamily: Relationship

structures built in female
prisons to replicate family
relationships left behind
when incarcerated.

• Examples include having
a “mom” “dad” “sister”
etc.

• So-called natural tendencies
or stereotypes such as
neediness, passiveness, and
domestication persisted into
the prison setting.

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Living in Prison:
Female
Subcultures

Female Subcultures

Women may experience
pains in harsher way

• Existence of fewer
women’s prisons makes
visitation harder

• Women may enter prison
pregnant

• Women suffer from
higher levels of distress

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Living in Prison: White-Collar Offenders

White-Collar Criminals in Prison
• White-collar criminals incarcerated with other types of criminals
• White collar criminals may cope better in the transition to prison

• 2 theories to explain how white-collar offenders handle prison:
1. Special Sensitivity Hypothesis: white-collar offenders cope poorly to prison

environments because of their middle-class backgrounds

2. Special Resiliency Hypothesis: white-collar offenders adapt well to prison
environments because of their middle-class backgrounds

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White-collar offenders have a difficult time in
prison

• More psychological problems

• Difficult time adjusting

• They don’t understand “prison culture”

Different social strata, middle-class people

• Weisburd et al., 1991; Benson and Kerley, 2001

The Special Sensitivity Hypothesis

The Special Resiliency Hypothesis

White-collar offenders fare well in prison

• Social capital and personal support

• “Those criminals” vs. “people like me”

• They understand bureaucracies and
rules

Traditional middle-class values = buffer

• Benson and Cullen, 1988

Adjustment Issues – Most Difficult

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1 1 1

5

1

0

2

4

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Other inmates Correctional
officers

Absence of
home and

family

Medical care Lack of
programs

Overcrowding Other

C
ou

nt

9. Overall, which one of these was the most difficult for you to adjust to? (Check only one.)

Adjustment – Most Difficult to Adjust To

wcc
control

—Mark (Black, M, WCC)

“I talked to my family in length, but I kept it (conviction) away from my
kids. I didn’t want my kids to know what was going on so. My wife
and my sisters (knew). I didn’t tell my mom also because you know,
she is elderly now…I’m basically her favorite son and if she heard
that I was going to prison…so we kept that away from her.

“
And you know, I had to be a little bit creative…”

My Qualitative Interviews with White-Collar Offenders

“
“My husband came every other weekend, even though
it was an 8-hour drive…I always had visitors. I was very
fortunate. I always had that to look forward to…Myself
and one other girl, we were like clockwork.”

“That’s why for me, I didn’t have my family visit a
lot…Where for me, I couldn’t do this—the
visitations. Because I couldn’t get up and have to
know that my family is in a hotel and know that they
gotta do it again tomorrow.”

—Kathy (White, F, WCC)

—Darla (White, F, WCC)

—Theodore (White, M, WCC)
“[It] was my mistake. I have to deal with it.”

My Qualitative Interviews with White-Collar Offenders

Prison Violence

Prison Gangs
• Originated in 1950s
• Gang members present security risk
• Gang affiliations often drawn along racial or ethnic lines

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Prison Violence

Violence
• Violence takes many forms
• Violence can occur for number of reasons
• Rioting: violence among inmates beyond control of prison staff

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Prison Violence

Sexual Violence
• Exact amount of sexual violence that occurs difficult to determine
• 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) of 2003: try to address issue of

sexual violence
• Many rapes go unreported

• Farmer v. Brennan (1994): SCOTUS ruled that the prison’s failure to protect
inmates from sexual assault is an Eighth Amendment violation.

• Methods of combating sexual violence in prison include using better classification
to identify vulnerable inmates and controlling and restricting all relationships, even
consensual.

• Screening for high-risk factors may also help lower the number of incidents:
ü Physical size.
ü Age.
üOffense history.
üDisability.
ü Sexual orientation.
ü Prior sexual abuse.

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Prison Challenges

Medical Care and Death
• Prisons need to care for a range of mental and physical health issues and deal

with number of older inmates
• Prisoners over 55 represent the fastest-growing segment of the prison

population, exacerbated by mandatory minimum sentencing and recidivism.
• Costs increase significantly for elderly, ill inmates.

• Lawsuits have been filed for substandard medical treatment.
• HIV/AIDS deaths have dropped because of advances in medical treatment.

• HIV infection rates are five times higher than in the general population, and
privacy rights prohibit public identification of infected inmates.

• An estimated 3% to 11% of the prison and jail population experiences co-
occurring substance use disorders and mental health issues, with high rates of
depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.

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Prison Challenges

Prisoner Rights
• Until the 1960s, court intervention in prison cases rare
• Wolf v. McDonnell (1974): prisoners not entitled to full due process

protections but they must be given written notice of the
charges, be provided a written statement of evidence, and
be able to call witnesses and present evidence.

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Life After Prison: Parole and Reentry

Criminal record may cause number of problems, including obtaining a
job, housing, or education or vocational training

Access to employment may vary depending on the person
• For example, consider a white-collar offender vs. an average offender
• The white-collar offender may have greater social ties that will help them

obtain employment than someone who may not be as fortunate with similar
ties.

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—Arthur (White, M, WCC)

“I had a job. I had a job waiting for me. I didn’t have to go
through the whole process of you know, trying to get my license
and trying to get my social security card, and trying to find a job,
and trying to find insurance. I mean, I had all that stuff…

“

I knew some of the guys that lost everything.”

My Qualitative Interviews with White-Collar Offenders

Life After Prison: Parole and Reentry

National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL)
recommendations:
• End second-class status of those who served sentence

• Mandatory collateral consequences should be disfavored

• Full restoration of rights and status available on release

• Individuals should have opportunities to restore rights/status
• Individuals charged should have opportunity to avoid conviction

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Life After Prison: Parole and Reentry

Parole
• Parole is conditional release from prison
• Inmates must meet conditions established by parole board
• Parole board determines if an inmate will be released.
• Victims and families are permitted to attend parole hearings and allowed to

make statements; they are also notified of the parole board’s decision.
• Violations of the conditions set by the parole board may result in the parolee

being sent back to prison, a warning, or some other sanction.
• Conditions vary, but generally include: gaining/maintaining employment,

obeying the law, not leaving the state, and paying any required restitution.

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Life After
Prison: Parole
and Reentry

Community Reentry

• Many prisons offer reentry programming

• Prisonization may hinder reentry

• Bureau of Justice Statistics: 596,389 inmate released annually

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Life After Prison: Parole and Reentry

Community Reentry
• COVID-19 pandemic: some states began to grant early release
• Funding for reentry programming available from Second Chance Act of

2007
• Intensive case management: evidence-based practice that includes

low staff-to-client ratios, 24-hour coverage, and services

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Life After Prison:
Parole and Reentry

Employment

• Inmates often have problems finding work due to their
criminal history:
• “Ban-the-box” campaign seeks to remove the

criminal history question from employment forms.
• This criminal history box places offenders at a

distinct disadvantage, which leads to under- or
non-employment and therefore recidivism.

• 24 states and over 100 cities have adopted fair-
chance policies and have abandoned the criminal
history question.

• Successful reentry requires job training, employment
counseling, and placement programs.

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Life After Prison: Parole and Reentry

Marriage and Relationships
• Many ex-convicts have few friends or family members to rely on upon release
• Maintaining family ties can help

• The majority of former prisoners depend on family for housing after release.
• Spouses and/or children are more likely to recognize deviant behavior.
• Fear of risking familial connections may result in “desistance by default.”

• Factors crucial to successful reentry:
• Housing
• Emotional support
• Financial support
• Acceptance
• Encouragement

•GOAL: Lower recidivism rates
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