Canadian Provincial Correctional Officers

Abstract

Prison environments are structured by hierarchical relations of power and real, or perceived, risk. I use data derived from in-depth semi-structured interviews with 44 male correctional officers (COs) employed or previously employed in Canadian provincial prisons to reveal how their work environment shapes their masculinities and understandings of vulnerabilities—risk perceptions, insecurities, and uncertainties. I argue that the processes of self-regulation used by COs to construct strategies of risk avoidance also achieve and affirm masculinities. As such, I explore COs’ understandings of masculinities in light of culturally, politically, or societally induced vulnerabilities and how they reestablish their masculinities as they engage in processes of risk avoidance. Findings are discussed in relation to how constructions of masculinities and the mitigation of vulnerability and risk are symbiotic processes, where COs appropriate strategies of risk negation.