Canadian prisoners’ perceptions of correctional officer orientations to their occupational responsibilities

Abstract

Correctional officers (COs) play a fundamental role in shaping prisoners’ experiences of incarceration. Yet, little is known about how prisoners perceive the orientations of COs (e.g. punitive vs. rehabilitation; liberal –humanitarian vs. neo-liberal) in light of their lived experiences, and how such orientations affect their well-being. Semi- structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with 56 Canadian former federal prisoners to lend insight into how prisoners’ experience, discern and interpret officers. Shaped by the work of Crewe and Liebling [Crewe, Ben, and Alison Liebling. 2012. “Are Liberal Humanitarian Penal Values and Practices Exceptional.” In Penal Exceptionalism? Nordic Prison Policy and Practice, edited by T. Ugelvik and J. Dullum, 175 –198. Abingdon: Routledge], the data reveal that prisoners viewed officer orientations as either dualists (e.g. taking both a security and a harmony- oriented approach in their occupational role), moral relativists (e.g. ambivalent in their position), or punishers (e.g. holding some distain towards prisoners). Liberal humanitarian approaches were more common among dualists while neo-liberal values were thought to underlie the behaviours of punitively oriented officers.