Prison Culture

Prisonization

The concept of prisonization was first introduced in 1940 by Clemmer in his book The Prison Community. Clemmer defined prisonization as the assimilation process in prison where inmates take on “in greater or less degree … the folkways, mores, customs, and general culture of the penitentiary” (Clemmer, 1940, p. 299). Clemmer characterized the process of prisonization in terms similar to those used by early sociologists to capture processes of socialization and assimilation in communities at large. Just as we all assimilate to the norms, customs, and laws of our society, inmates must assimilate to the self-contained community of a prison. However, since the values of the prison are discordant with societal values, prisoners must readjust and learn new norms, rules, and expected patterns of behavior. Known as the “inmate code,” what is considered unacceptable in the free world may be encouraged and rewarded inside the walls of the institution.

It has been argued that the prisonization process, to an extent, affects every inmate; however, several variables influence to what degree prisonization shapes a person's tenure in the institution. Not all inmates, that is, become prisonized to the same degree. The variables contributing to prisonization lie both within the offender as well as within the institution. The form and orientation of the institution can impact its effect on a person. Prisoners in treatment-oriented facilities tend to exhibit lower degrees of prisonization than do those in custody or discipline-oriented institutions. Further determinants of prisonization include intrapersonal experiences, such as the extent of social relationships; work involvement; and the acceptance of roles bestowed on the inmate by other social actors in the institution. Generally, prisoners with shorter sentences, stable personalities, and healthy relationships with members of the outside community as well as with fellow inmates who refrain from excess abnormal conduct within the walls are the least prisonized. On the other hand, people with long terms of incarceration, unstable personalities, and relationships unconducive to proper adjustment will tend to [Page 720]be most prisonized. Because these characteristics and experiences are differentiated between and within inmates throughout their term of imprisonment, the degree of prisonization will occur at different rates for different inmates. The process may even occur in a cyclical fashion.

While Clemmer's analysis of prisonization is not without merit, it has been criticized for not delineating and explaining the origins of the prison culture upon which prisonization is based. This criticism gave rise to two of the most influential theories in modern penology: the deprivation model and the importation thesis. While each theory seeks to explain the origins of the prison culture, they do so by pointing to two different locales. The deprivation model locates the origins of the prison culture within the institution itself and the experiences of inmates therein. The importation thesis, on the other hand, describes the inmate culture as a conglomeration of characteristics prisoners bring into their institution at intake.

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