Doing Prison Work: the Public and Private Lives of Prison Officers

298 Pages·2006·6.011 MB·English

by  Crawley, Elaine

Doing Prison W ork

Doing Prison Work
The public and private lives of prison officers
Elaine Crawley
WILLAN
PUBLISHING
Published by
Willan Publishing
Culmcott House
Mill Street, Uffculme
Cullompton, Devon
EX15 3AT, UK
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
e-mail: [email protected]
website: www.willanpublishing.co.uk
Published simultaneously in the USA and Canada by
Willan Publishing
c/o ISBS, 920 NE 58th Ave, Suite 300,
Portland, Oregon 97213-3786, USA
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
e-mail: [email protected]
website: www.isbs.com
© Elaine Crawley 2004
The rights of Elaine M. Crawley to be identified as the author of this book have been
asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the Publishers or a licence
permitting copying in the UK issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, 90
Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE.
First published 2004
ISBN 1-84392-035-2 Hardback
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Typeset by GCS, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire
Project managed by Deer Park Productions, Tavistock, Devon
Printed and bound by T.J. International Ltd, Trecerus Industrial Estate, Padstow, Cornwall
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction xi
1 Setting the scene: the research in context 1
A century of staff discontent 2
Continuity and change 4
Power in prisons 19
Cultures at work 29
Emotion and performance 44
2 Research methods 57
The prisons 58
The fieldwork 61
3 Learning the rules, managing feelings: becoming a
prison officer 65
Joining the prison service 65
Ten weeks at college: officers' experiences of basic training 68
Culture shock 75
Concluding comments: becoming and being 92
4 Them and us? How officers see prisoners 94
What do prison officers do? 95
How do prison officers perceive prisoners? 96
Getting the staff-prisoner relationship 'right' 105
Power in prisons: negotiation and coercion 109
Doing Prison Work
5 Emotion and performance: the presentation of self
in prisons 128
The domestic character of prisons 128
The prison as an emotional arena 130
Managing emotion: anxiety, sympathy and fear 138
Emotion mis-management: the intrusive script 150
6 When things go wrong: suicide and conflict 155
Suicides in prison 155
Prisoner dissent 158
Riots as repair work 164
Concluding comments 166
7 How prison officers see their work, themselves
and each other 168
How prison officers see their work 169
Neglected, unvalued, desensitised: how officers see
themselves 180
How prison officers see each other 185
Speaking metaphorically: how officers see the prison 198
Negotiation and conflict: three specialist regimes 200
Discussion 221
8 Bringing it all back home? Stories of husbands and wives 226
Prison 'spill-over' 227
Concluding comments: moving between two worlds 249
9 Conclusions: doing prison work 250
Appendix 254
References 257
Index 273
vi
In memory of my father, Captain Sidney Leonard 1919-2000

Acknowledgements
This book is based upon PhD research I carried out between 1997 and
2000. A large number of people helped me to produce my PhD thesis,
and there is insufficient space here to name everyone who gave me their
support as I tried to turn my tentative ideas about prison work into a
thesis and now into this book. 1 hope that the people I do not specifically
mention will take it as read that their kind assistance is very gratefully
acknowledged.
I would like, first of all, to thank Richard Sparks for recognising the
value of the project from the outset, and for supervising my PhD thesis
with discernment and good humour. Thanks are also due to Alison
Liebling and to Evi Girling who examined the thesis and provided me
with invaluable comments and advice.
I also wish to express my deep gratitude to the prison governors who
allowed me into their prisons. Without their kind co-operation and
assistance the fieldwork on which this book is based (and hence this
book) would not have been possible. Special thanks are, of course, due to
all the prison officers who took the time to talk to me, put up with me
hanging around their workplaces for almost two years, made me endless
cups of coffee and trusted me with their stories. 1 am also very grateful to
each of the kind and hospitable women who invited me into their homes
to share with me some of the ups and downs of being a prison officer's
wife, and who were generous enough to provide me with food, drink
and, on occasion, a bed for the night.
My thanks are also due to the Economic and Social Research Council
for their financial support for the project, and to Brian Willan for
showing faith in the book and for his kind support and patience during