1. Chapter 10
The Inmate World:
Living Behind Bars
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2013 McGraw-Hill Companies. All Rights Reserved.

2. Total Institution
 A place where the same people work, play,
eat, sleep, and recreate together on a
continuous basis
 The term was developed by the sociologist
Erving Goffman to describe prisons and
other similar facilities
 Life within total institutions is closely
planned by those in control, and activities
are strictly scheduled
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3. Modes Of Adaptation
 Some inmates convert to life within the
institutions, taking on the staff’s view of
themselves and of institutional society.
 Some inmates withdraw.
 Some inmates make attempts at
colonization – they strike a balance between
values and habits brought from home and
those dictated by the social environment of
the prison.
 Some inmates rebel, rejecting the demands
of their surroundings and often ending up in
trouble with authorities.
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4. The Inmate Subculture
 The habits, customs, mores, values, beliefs, or
superstitions of the body of inmates incarcerated
in correctional institutions; also, the inmate
social world.
 Prisonization - The process by which inmates
adapt to prison society; the taking on of the
ways, mores, customs, and general culture of
the penitentiary.
 Donald Clemmer – “The Prison Community”
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5. In Addition
 Pains of Imprisonment - Major problems
that inmates face, such as loss of liberty
and personal autonomy, lack of material
possessions, loss of heterosexual
relationships, and reduced personal
security.
 Gresham Sykes – “The Society of
Captives”
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6. The Forming Of
The Inmate Subculture
 Deprivation Theory - The belief that inmate
subcultures develop in response to the
deprivations in prison life
 Importation Theory - The belief that inmate
subcultures are brought into prisons from the
outside world
 Integration Model - combination of the
importation and deprivation theories; the belief
that, in childhood, some inmates acquired,
usually from peers, values that support law-
violating behavior but that the norms and
standards in prison also affect inmates
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7. Prison Code
 A set of norms and values among prison
inmates. It is generally antagonistic to the official
administration and rehabilitation programs of the
prison.
 Don’t interfere with the interests of other inmates.
Never rat on a con. Don’t have loose lips.
 Don’t lose your head. Don’t quarrel with other
inmates. Play it cool. Do your own time.
 Don’t exploit other inmates. Don’t steal. Don’t break
your word. Pay your debts.
 Don’t whine. Be tough. Be a man.
 Don’t be a sucker. Don’t trust the guards or staff.
Remember that prison officials are wrong and inmates
are right. 10-7

8. Prison Argot
 The special language of the inmate subculture.
 Some examples:
 Peckerwood – a white prisoner
 Ball busters – violent inmates
 Croaker – physician or doctor
 Wolf – a male inmate who assumes an aggressive
role during homosexual relations
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9. Inmate Roles
 The Real Man  The Retreatist
 The Mean Dude  The Legalist
 The Bully  The Radical
 The Agitator  The Colonist
 The Hedonist  The Religious Inmate
 The Opportunist  The Punk
 The Gang-banger
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10. Sexuality in Men’s Prisons
 Violence and victimization occur in men’s prisons
 A good deal of prison violence has sexual overtones.
 Punks are “owned” by powerful inmates, who protect
them from sexual violence.
 Many punks fill the role of a wife and can often be found
doing their Man’s laundry, ironing, and housekeeping.
 Affectionate relationships often develop between Men
and their punks.
 Some even “marry” in imitation ceremonies.
 Highest rate of alleged incidents was close to 4 per
1,000 prisoners.
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11. Women in Prison
 In the U.S., there are far fewer women’s prisons
than men’s prisons.
 Incarcerated males outnumber incarcerated females
12 to 1.
 Prisoner programs in women’s prisons are often
criticized as being inferior to the same types of
programs in men’s prisons.
 Security in women’s prisons is generally more
relaxed than in men’s prisons.
 Many women’s prisons consist of cottages
arranged in groupings called pods.
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12. Women Inmates
 Female prisoners largely resemble male
prisoners in race, ethnic background, and age
 Have shorter criminal records than males
 2/3 of all women in federal prisons are serving
time on drug charges
 Usually have shorter maximum sentences than
men.
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13. Women Inmates
 At the start of 2011, women comprised 7.0
percent of sentenced prisoners in the nation.
Since 2000, the female prison population has
grown 28 percent.
 More likely to be serving time for a drug offense
 About 54 percent of imprisoned women have
used drugs in the month before the offense for
which they were arrested, compared with 50
percent of the men.
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14. Female Inmate Roles
 The Cool Inmate: Cools usually have previous
criminal records; are in the know; and do not
cause trouble for other inmates while in prison.
 The Square Inmate: Squares are not familiar
with criminal lifestyles; have few, if any, criminal
experiences other than the one for which they
were imprisoned; and tend to hold the values
and roles of conventional society.
 The Life Inmate: Lifers are habitual or career
offenders generally well socialized into lives of
crime; they support inmate values and
subculture.
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15. Male Inmates vs. Female Inmates
 The social roles in women’s prisons place
greater emphasis on homosexual relations
as a mode of adaptation to prison life.
 The mode of adaptation a female inmate
selects is best assessed by studying the
inmate’s pre-institutional experience.
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16. Pseudofamilies
 Unique family-like structures, common in
women’s prisons, in which inmates assume
roles similar to those of family members in
free society.
 Inmates derive emotional and social support
from their membership in a pseudofamily.
 Pseudofamilies are to women’s prisons what
gangs are to men’s.
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17. Mothers In Prison
 According to one BJS study, 57 an estimated 6.7
percent of black women, 5.9 percent of Hispanic
women, and 5.2 percent of white women are
pregnant at the time of incarceration.
 An estimated 4,000 women prisoners give birth each
year, even though most women’s prisons have no
special facilities for pregnant inmates.
 Some experts recommend that women’s prisons
should routinely make counseling available to
pregnant inmates, and that they should fully inform
these women of the options available to them,
including abortion and adoption.
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18. Cocorrectional Facilities
 Cocorrections – the incarceration and
interaction of female and male offenders
under a single institutional administration
 Coed Prison – a prison housing both male
and female offenders
 They have been touted as potential solutions to a
wide variety of corrections problems
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