Blog #17

The documentary did not really discuss how the correctional officers found themselves employed at the prisons, if it was a career choice or the only job available to them. However, the male officer did describe what he needs to do to protect himself from allegations and accusations of misconduct. He explains that as a man, he is there to oversee them but not to befriend them as that could ultimately cost him his job. Female prison guards are under the same restrictions because forming bonds with prisoners could pose a security threat as explained by the directors as it could lead to the smuggling of contraband into the prison from the outside. I thought it was very interesting that all the officers assumed that the prisoners were violent and or acting up so that they could be taken to see a mental health professional. I honestly agree with the prisoner who said that she was in a cage for dogs, not merely acceptable to hold human beings.
Personally, I believe that if prisoners were treated more humanly and further permitted to interact and offered more than 45 minutes outside, they would not be perceived as hostile or as violent because being locked up for 23 hours is bound to make anyone, man or woman appear to be mentally unstable. The prison guards and the directors alike believe that the prisoners deserve “to do the time for doing the crime” which is quite laughable if you ask me. I am not alleging that the prison guards are uneducated but if some of them did possess higher education than what they require the inmates to complete during their time there (GED-high school equivalent) then I am confident that their perception of the prisoners would change. If I applied for a prison guard position tomorrow I would go in there with a different mentality not assuming that they have lost their rights to be treated like humans because if we look at the history of prisons and how laws have changed, the majority are in there for substance (ab)use. And for the prison population majority to be composed of the U.S. population minority is indicative of the reasons why laws changed-to keep certain groups of people controlled and as a form of guaranteed cheap labor. Because most guards are institutionally trained to be controlling, interpret authority and the like, they often forget that the prisoners are somebody’s mother or father, son or daughter. Instead the officers view the inmates as savages and therefore they treat them worse than they would treat their own pets! Again, this is not true of all prison guards but if we look at the African American guard that was scolding a prisoner for “contraband” when she simply had a packet of ketchup with her meatloaf, to me, it was ludicrous. Furthermore, the guard said that she could “lock her up” if she needed to- are you kidding me?
Such attitude from a correctional officer of color floored me because it is her people that are in higher numbers in there. I understand that it is necessary to authoritative but you can do it just as well without having to humiliate or anyone or reminding them that they are not equal to you because in prison, the prisoner is perceived to be below the guard and never equally human. Furthermore, according to Britton’s study, the attitude towards inmates did not differ between minority prison guards when compared to their white counterparts. Ironically, Britton finds that minority officers “wear the uniform of the system that imprisons them” and as a result they can find it difficult to partake in oppressing their own people as some can relate it to their own personal accounts of racism. Fortunately, some minority officers do have double consciousness and while the prison may perceive and refer to the inmate as violent and aggressive, for those officers that still consider them human beings (thankfully), they choose to take on a more maternal or paternal role towards the inmates. Specifically, in Britton’s study both male and female officers agreed that a female officer’s mothering and nurturing effects work well when they need to diffuse potentially volatile situations.
In order to keep inmates on their best behaviors, officers often took “privileges” away if an inmate exhibited unacceptable behavior and this is another form of social control within an already controlled institution. This type of control in addition to the distance maintained in the prisoner and prison guard relationship and the talking down to the prisoners are what I would blame for any hostile behavior in the prison. If prisoners were treated differently, if they were ALL given the opportunity to learn a career that they could transition into (with the help of the prison) upon their release, not only would the prisoner population decrease but we could very well find a lesser need or dependency of these institutions.