Deepening the Guard-Inmate Divide: An Exploratory Analysis of the Relationship between Staff-Inmate Boundary Violations and Officer Attitudes regarding the Mistreatment of Prisoners

Abstract

ABSTRACT Some correctional officers end their careers in disgrace when they engage in acts of cruelty against the very inmates they are paid to protect. In the present study, we administered 501 questionnaires to prison guards within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in order to identify characteristics of officers who may possess attitudes favorable to the mistreatment of inmates. We found that younger, male officers, who reported being dissatisfied with their jobs, were at a higher risk of ignoring wrongful acts against prisoners. Officers who lacked family support at home, as well as those who lacked supervisory support at work, were also more likely to tolerate acts of abuse or incivility toward offenders. Finally, officers who perceived their coworkers were engaging in staff-inmate boundary violations were more likely to accept the maltreatment of inmates than their peers. We posit these prison guards, who sensed their coworkers were crossing over to the offenders’ side, may have turned a blind eye toward acts of officer-on-inmate maltreatment in an attempt to demarcate a line between the keeper and the kept.