Prison Work Research Articles

Socio-legal conditionality for introduction of the institute of probation supervision over convicts on parole into the legislation of Ukraine

The article substantiates a socio-legal conditionality for introduction of the institute of probation supervision over convicts on parole into the legislation of Ukraine. It was found that the need to exert a certain influence (supervisory, educational, etc.) over convicts on parole is not new and is evidenced not only by foreign but also domestic history of criminal and executive law. The analysis of modern foreign approaches has shown that the procedure of parole provides for two interrelated stages: 1) release of a person from a penitentiary institution; 2) establishing supervision over him/her after release. It is noted that the assignment of the function of exercising control over convicts on parole to probation authorities will ensure the implementation of this post-penitentiary area on a professional basis. The substantiation of probation authorities as subjects of supervision over convicts on parole is based on the following provisions of international and Ukrainian legislation: 1) The Law of Ukraine «On Probation» provides for penitentiary probation, which, according to Part 1 of Article 11, means the preparation of persons serving a punishment of restraint of liberty or im-prisonment for a fixed term, to release for employment and accommodation of such persons after release at their chosen place of residence. In view of this, probation authorities work with the persons in respect of whom measures for preparation for parole are carried out; and it will be logical if after the release, in order to consolidate the results of correction and re-socialization, the mentioned authorities will continue to work with the released persons; 2) Paragraph 12 of Recommendation Rec(2003)22 of the Committee of Ministers to member states on conditional release (parole) provides that the preparation for conditional release should be organized in close collaboration with all relevant personnel working in prison and those involved in post-release supervision, and be concluded before the end of the minimum or fixed period. Thus, international legal acts adhere to the position on the unity of the subject involved in the process of preparation of parole and su-pervision over convicts on parole.

Meeting the Physical and Mental Health Needs of Older Offenders: Does Aging in Place Work in Prison?

In many countries, the proportion of older people in prison is growing due to longer sentences, increases in convictions for historical offences, and longevity. Moreover, harsh conditions of confinement coupled with the negative effects of a criminal lifestyle may contribute to 'accelerated aging' in this population. Indeed, many prisoners develop health problems that are more commonly seen among people who are up to ten years older. Correctional institutions are increasingly struggling to meet the complex and expensive healthcare needs of these offenders, especially at end-of-life. Some institutions have taken the position that prisons were never intended to be nursing homes, nor can they be adequately adapted to fulfill this role. As a result, these institutions attempt to place some aging offenders in healthcare institutions within the community, provided that their risk to the public can be adequately managed. Other institutions have argued that the needs of aging offenders can be successfully met behind prison walls and have taken steps to allow prisoners to 'age in place.' After summarizing the research on the physical and mental health needs of aging offenders, this presentation considers the advantages and disadvantages of meeting older offenders' healthcare needs both within and outside the prison setting and provides relevant examples of both. Special attention is paid to the issues of social isolation and loneliness: both may contribute to accelerated aging, and perhaps even the risk for re-offending, raising questions about which correctional settings are most beneficial for minimizing these problems.

Maternal Mediation in the Context of Fathers' Incarceration and Reentry

ObjectiveWe sought to develop grounded theory regarding how mothers who share children with an incarcerated father mediate between men and their offspring.BackgroundMothers' mediation can be situated at the intersection of their motherwork and their prison work. Motherwork (Collins, 1994) refers to the paid and unpaid labor that mothers on the margins do to support their families and foster their children's survival. Prison work (Codd, 2007) involves the invisible labor of supporting persons during their incarceration and reentry. A focus on maternal mediation as a proximal process that bears on justice‐involved families acknowledges the inherent tension between these domains.MethodWe conducted a secondary analysis of interview data from 16 Australian mothers who had at least one child whose father had a history of incarceration.ResultsWe identified four patterns of maternal mediation: facilitation, monitoring, constraint, and disengagement. These types connected to aspects of women's motherwork, as well as the intensity of their efforts to support children's fathers.ConclusionMediation is a form of women's prison‐motherwork, which reflects complex and shifting strategies that are influenced by children's developmental needs and preferences, mothers' feelings about children's fathers and their importance in children's lives, and time.ImplicationsWomen would benefit from having specialized support and counseling throughout their partner's (or former partner's) carceral confinement and reentry.

Los costos de la cárcel

El contexto carcelario se debe concebir como un orden social desde el cual se ejerce control poblacional, a través de diversos mecanismos, estos implican una maximización de estrategias de vigilancia, donde las diferentes formas de control convergen en el disciplinamiento constante de las subjetividades. Estos mecanismos hacen que la cárcel funcione como una maquina sustentada por quienes la habitan. Memorias de las cárceles argentinas, colombianas y de estadounidenses son ejemplos de esta modalidad de control, sin embargo, pese a que sus dinámicas de funcionamiento interno son diferentes, no escapan a una dimensión económica del control poblacional, donde las personas privadas de su libertad son el insumo básico para el funcionamiento de la máquina, y las destinatarias de las consecuencias subjetivas de la misma. Este ensayo se basa en memorias que dan cuenta de la vivencia de quienes fueron parte e insumo de dicha maquinaria, quienes desde sus recuerdos muestran un retrato del significado y costos del encierro más allá de las fronteras.

The prisoners work in the prisons on the Belarusian lands at the end of the 19th – early 20th centuries

The history of the development of the prisoners work on the Belarusian lands after the prison reform of 1879 is the object of examination. In the historiography of pre-revolutionary, Soviet and modern periods this problem has never been studied by neither Russian nor Belarusian scientists. The examination of the prisoners work development in the local prisons as well as the determination of its common patterns for the Belarusian lands and the Russian Empire in general, and of the regional characteristics of this process are the purpose of the research. The main ways of action of the General Directorate of the Corps of Prison on the labour productivity of the prisoners on Belarusian lands (organisation of its local structural subdivision (province prison inspections) which managed the prisoners work, the organisation of the melioration and logging, the development of work in the prisons workshops) are being examined by the author on the base of the study of the archive data. The core activity of the fulfilment in the local prisons at the end of the 19th – early 20th centuries and the negative phenomena which interrupt it (in general the overcrowding of the places of determination that influenced the closure of the workshops) are being determined. The results of the prisoners work development by the turn of the second decade of the 20th century which are the growing numbers of the working prisoners and the increase of their salary activity from the beginning of the 20th century are being appreciated. The undertaken research will make it possible to determine the historical continuity of the series of measures to develop the prisoners work in the places of detention at the end of the 19th – early 20th centuries with the activity of the manufacturing establishments of the penitentiary system of the Republic of Belarus at the present time.

The history of the Andijan and Bekabad prisoners’ camps established after World War II

The article contains analytical data obtained as a result of field research, scientific literature and analytical work carried out in the Andijan provincial prisoner-of-war camps in Uzbekistan and near the town of Bekabad, archival documents on conditions and internal regulations, sanitary and hygienic environment, types of economic activities in the camps, the work of prisoners of war, their memories and the kindness of the Uzbek people to them are studied and discussed.

Structural Injustice and the Human Rights of Workers

Abstract An increasing number of jobs are precarious, making workers vulnerable to various forms of ill-treatment and exploitation. The UK Government’s main approach has been to criminalise the actions of unscrupulous employers who seek to exploit these. This approach, however, has been ineffective, partly because it ignores the broader socio-economic structures that place workers in conditions of vulnerability. This article develops an alternative solution, seeking to identify structures that force and trap workers in conditions of exploitation. It focuses specifically on what I call ‘state-mediated structural injustice', where legislative schemes that promote otherwise legitimate aims create vulnerabilities that force and trap workers in conditions of exploitation. I use examples such as restrictive visa regimes, prison work and work in immigration detention, welfare conditionality programmes, and zero-hour contracts to illustrate the unjust structures. I finally assess whether these legal structures are compatible with human rights, such as the right to private life, the prohibition of slavery, servitude, forced and compulsory labour, and the right to fair and just working conditions.

IN THE SHADOWS OF THE DIGITAL ECONOMY: THE GHOST WORK OF INFRASTRUCTURAL LABOR

What does digital piecework have in common with laboring in the warehouse of a large online shopping platform? How is data cleaning related to digitization work and AI training in prisons? This panel suggests bringing these diverse ways of laboring in the digital economies together by considering these practices as infrastructural labor that takes the shape of shadow work (Illich, 1981) and ghost labor (Gray & Suri, 2019). Work and labor in modern, capitalist society imply power, authority and possibility for resistance, and these dimensions are crucial for understanding why and how infrastructures are realized and how they work. Infrastructure labor is ambiguous. It is both visible and invisible depending on the specific tasks and their inherent power relations (Leigh Star & Strauss, 1999). It includes both manual and cognitive labor. It is geared towards innovation as well as repair, maintenance and servitude. The panel aims to paint the contours of infrastructural labor at the margins of digital economies pointing towards forms of alienation and resistance that have for long been part of labor relations, but that are renegotiated in the context of emerging technologies within digital economies that need human labor to be sustained and further innovated.

Women Providing and Men Free Riding: Work, Visits and Gender Roles in Mexican Prisons

ABSTRACT Facing the Covid-19 pandemic, prisons in Mexico City prohibited visits. This sparked clearly gendered protests: male prison inmates complained that the restrictions left them without resources to deal with prison shortages, while women complained that it prevented them from sending resources to their families. Based on data from life story interviews conducted before the pandemic, we explore visits, prison work, and gendered child-rearing practices in Mexican prisons. We argue that incarcerated mothers adopt a provider role in prison, in contrast to incarcerated fathers, who abandon this traditionally masculine fatherhood role. Suspension of visits thus have distinctly gendered consequences.

Gender and Prison Work: The Experience of Female Provincial Correctional Officers in Canada

Drawing on the accounts of female correctional officers working in Canadian prisons, we explore how gender identity influences the work orientations and social relationships of female officers and their interpretations of working with male and female prisoners. We suggest that female officers tend to pursue correctional work in a way that incorporates traits culturally associated with femininity and that relies on gendered understandings of prisoners’ dispositions and needs. In general, female officers’ accounts suggest that feminine identity operates as both a liability and currency in the context of prison work, albeit for reasons that vary across women and men’s prison.

Conjuring Abolition Phonography in A Record Album Interpretation

The Wooster Group’s 2017 The B-Side: “Negro Folklore from Texas State Prisons,” A Record Album Interpretation has three actors reanimate a 1965 vinyl LP of prison work songs. This formally simple production embeds a series of almost imperceptible shifts between past and present, thus “interinanimating” the men on the record and the men onstage, conjuring an “abolition phonography”: a mode of sensory (dis)formation that short-circuits the racial ideologies of the senses and points towards a collective future.

Addressing the needs of people in prison: the case of prison work

ABSTRACT The research literature exploring prison work includes few studies that address the perspective of a prisoner’s needs. In this paper, we argue that adopting the lens of a thin and thick understanding of human needs (Dean, H. [2010]. Understanding Human Need. Policy Press) in the analysis of prison work could allow the development of a more critically nuanced perspective on prison work. The article is based on interviews with 14 prisoners in Belgium. The analysis indicates that, while prison work focuses primarily on addressing thin needs of people in prison, a thicker understanding of human needs is needed. Social work can play a critical role in supporting the identification and claiming of both thick and thin needs of people in detention. These processes could yield a more balanced understanding of how needs can ultimately be translated into rights.

Citizen‐agency versus state‐agency at the frontline in prisons and probation services: A systematic literature review

AbstractStreet‐level bureaucrats play a key role in the delivery of public services to the citizens with whom they interact. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta‐Analyses approach, we rely on a street‐level perspective to report a systematic review of 46 studies about officer–offender interactions in prisons and probation services. In doing so, we examine how correctional officers articulate state‐agency – whereby they focus on the implementation of rules and policies – and citizen‐agency – whereby their decisions regarding offenders are based on judgements of offenders' worth. Our results provide evidence that frontline work in prisons and probation services stems from a mix of citizen‐ and state‐agencies in which the former is prioritized over the latter: when rule enforcement allows it, correctional officers often make discretionary decisions based on professional judgements rooted in professional norms. In this respect, the managerial and actuarial approach to risk management and public protection involved by contemporary correctional reforms comes with new role expectations that conflict with correctional officers' rehabilitative ideals. At the same time, the literature provides many instances of officers coping with workload in order to meet policy objectives and organizational demands while maintaining satisfactory working conditions. In other words, there is an increasingly elaborate and fragile articulation of state‐ and citizen‐agencies at the frontline, in prisons and probations services. We conclude with some implications and an agenda for future research.

Becoming industrious female citizens: Work, discipline, and negotiation in Chinese female prison

Recent studies of incarcerated women have shifted from the “coping and adapting model” to the one that emphasizes the social analysis of penality, a punitive process that is recognized to be deeply intertwined with the outside society. This study adopted semi-structured interviews with 52 female prisoners and 13 female correctional officers in one Chinese prison. By conceptualizing prison work as a flexible institution, this study revealed that multiple meanings were given to prison work through various interactions between prisoners, between prisoners and correctional officers, and between prisoners and their family members. In addition, this study further highlighted that the disciplinary process of prison work was structured by both the prison environment and outside society. Based on the findings, a prisoner-oriented program is suggested as it could help Chinese female prisoners better reform and, most importantly, gain a sense of independence, respect, and dignity in their prison lives.

The Impact of Occupational Characteristics and Victimization on Job Burnout Among South Korean Correctional Officers

Prior research on correctional officer burnout has focused almost exclusively on the effects of job characteristics. To date, this line of inquiry has largely failed to consider one important factor associated with the unique nature of prison work—direct exposure to interpersonal victimization (e.g., individuals in custody-on-officers). This article uses data from 269 correctional officers working in four South Korean facilities to examine the differential impact of experienced individuals in custody-on-officers aggression (i.e., verbal violence, minor and serious physical violence) and job characteristics (e.g., role clarity) on three dimensions of job burnout (i.e., emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a sense of a lack of personal accomplishment). Results show that verbal victimization is more impactful on correctional officer burnout than physical victimization. However, the results also suggest that job characteristics may be more impactful on predicting certain dimensions of correctional officer burnout than experienced victimization. Potential policy implications are discussed.

Care, custody, control, and the preservation of life: the complexity of correctional officer work

ABSTRACT Correctional officers are tasked with and committed to preserving life, yet deaths do occur in custody. Moreover, it is said deaths that receive public attention and media coverage. In the current article, we examine the complexities around the preservation of life as experienced during correctional work. We focus on the discrepancies between public and media interpretations of correctional work and the occupational experiences of correctional officers, including the relationships that develop between staff and prisoners. Drawing from semi-structured interviews with 43 Canadian correctional officers with experience working in provincial or territorial prisons, we thematically analyze their narratives of responding to prisoner death by suicide, either attempted, completed, or both, as well as self-harming behaviours. Results highlight the discrepancies between the role and responsibilities of correctional officers versus how the public perceives their occupational work. We evidence that most staff do care about those in custody, thus balancing preservation of life, care, custody, and control, while keeping themselves, their colleagues, and the public safe creates a complex space for officers.

A ILEGALIDADE DO TRABALHO PRISIONAL: ANÁLISE DA LEGALIDADE DA MERCANTILIZAÇÃO DA POBREZA E A CRÍTICA À FORMA JURÍDICA

Almeja-se abordar a contradição presente na legalidade e ilegalidade do trabalho prisional, tendo em vista que nos parâmetros constitucionais brasileiros tal exploração é inconstitucional. Além disso, demonstra-se que o não reconhecimento legal da relação de emprego nos moldes celetistas constitui, também, afronta direta ao princípio da igualdade jurídica. Ademais, evidencia-se que o crescente processo de mercantilização do labor prisional contribui em absoluto para a transformação de sujeitos de delito no Brasil, assim como em todos os países da periferia do capital. Ainda, critica-se a crescente cultura punitivista visando a criminalização racial e à disciplina ao trabalho forçado de presas e presos. Espera-se, desse modo, sinalizar os impactos de tais mudanças na vida da classe trabalhadora e fomentar aprofundamento do estudo sobre o papel do direito no processo de obste à mercantilização e do labor humano.

‘It's Complicated’: Canadian Correctional Officer Recruits’ Interpretations of Issues Relating to the Presence of Transgender Prisoners

AbstractDrawing upon semi‐structured interviews with correctional officer recruits in training (n = 55), we reflect on recruit interpretations of transgender (trans) prisoner placement within federal prisons in light of recent changes instigated by Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau. Recognising that prison is a carceral and gender binary space, we assert that trans prisoner lives and experiences cannot easily be appropriately recognised or included in prison policy and prisoner management procedures. Our findings reveal that most recruits are supportive and appreciative of the complexities of trans experiences, yet some, especially those with prior experience working in prisons, describe occupational strains tied to accommodating trans prisoners.

How "Conditions of Confinement" Impact "Conditions of Employment": The Work-Related Well-Being of Provincial Correctional Officers in Atlantic Canada.

Internationally, researchers studying correctional officer (CO) work have examined CO self-presentation, staff-prisoner relationships, and emotional labor. We build on this research by drawing on occupational literature to examine officer mental health outcomes that result from correctional work. We examine the impact of working in prison on COs' well-being, paying particular attention to aspects of the work content (operational stressors) and context (organizational stressors). In conducting semi-structured interviews with COs in Atlantic Canada, we found that COs identified a number of operational stressors as impacting their mental health, specifically generalized violence among prisoners, direct and vicarious violence, and ongoing harassment. COs identified organizational stressors, including a work culture that discourages visible emotional responses to operational stressors, a lack of support from management, and inadequate procedures for dealing with workplace violence and harassment, as factors that exacerbate and contribute to negative mental health outcomes.

Prison Work and Convict Rehabilitation

I study the causal pathways that link prison work programs to convict rehabilitation, leveraging administrative data from Italy and combining quasi-experimental and structural econometric methods to achieve both a credible identification and the isolation of mechanisms. Due to competing channels, I find that work in unskilled prison jobs impacts convicts on longer or shorter terms differently. Increasing work time by 16 hours per month reduces by between 3 and 10 percentage points the reincarceration rate, within three years of release, of convicts on terms longer than six months – because prison work counteracts the rapid depreciation of earning ability experienced by these convicts. For those on shorter terms, the analogous increase leads instead to a re-incarceration rate that is up to 9 percentage points higher, because of a liquidity effect that weakens deterrence.