Importation

What is Imported?

In its simplest form, people who prey on others on the streets also prey on others in the prison. Prison culture reflects an off-balance dance between prey and predators and between predators and the staff who would control them. Inmates use a number of survival mechanisms, such as alliances between predators, and accommodations made between staff, prey, and other predators to establish a workable, if not harmonious, existence. These strategies result from several broad factors beyond the walls that shape prisoner culture. First, prisoners, by definition, have failed to comply with the rules of civil society. Therefore, they continue their resistance to rules and authority in prison. Second, prisoners are seen as possessing an excess of socially undesired characteristics, such as manipulation, willingness to use force to attain goals, low commitment to honesty or truth, and little respect for the well-being of others. Third, prisoners reflect the structure of the streets from which they come. The increase in street gang activity since the 1960s thus becomes the structure for much of prisoners’ social organization, and the gangs compete for power and other resources inside the walls. Finally, prisoners also [Page 460]attempt to continue their street lifestyle in prisons. This results in an underground economy in which contraband such as drugs and alcohol are valued commodities, homemade weapons (shanks) become routine weapons for protection or assault, and inmate groups compete for control of resources.

The ultimate consequence of all these factors is a culture that facilitates the continued social values inside the walls for which the prisoners were originally incarcerated. Conning is valued, violence is condoned or even necessary, success in rule violations is valued, and disciplinary problems are high. Prisoners not only are not rehabilitated, but their original behaviors and values are enforced in the culture.

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