The professional identity of juridical–educational professionals in prison

Abstract

The organizational changes that occurred within the Italian prison system led to profound modifications in the way juridical–educational professionals (JEPs) working in prison perceive themselves and their role. The present study aims at exploring the representations of their professional identity in two groups of JEPs working in as many correctional facilities in Italy. To reach this goal, the JEPs taking part to the research were administered the Symbolic Drawing of the Organizational Life Space, a graphic symbolic tool useful to understand the main features, values, and culture of an organization. The analysis was performed on the drawings made by the JEPs along with the transcriptions of their discourses while performing the task. The outcomes, presented in a previous study published in Narrare I Gruppi call for a further, in depth, analysis of the JEPs discourses, therefore the present study focuses on such transcripts. This article aims at investigating the specific values connected to the JEPs' professional role while examining the differences in the representations and perceptions of the professionals working in the two facilities. Results show that professional identities are structured around organizational values, stemming from local cultures, while more global values, shared among members of a professional category, seem to have lost their cohesive power.