2. TOTAL INSTITUTIONS - GOFFMAN
• Place of residence and work, where a large
number of like-situated people live cut off from
the wider society for an appreciable period of
time.
• Characterized by walls around it, barriers.
Leading to an enclosed formally administered
round of life.
• Erving Goffman (1961)
3. DIFFERENT KINDS…TYPES OF TIS
1. for the incapable & harmless
2. those incapable of looking after themselves
& seen as an (unintended) threat to the
community
3. those who might pose a danger to the
community
4. those institutions which pursued some work
like task
5. retreats from the world
4. THE “SELF”
• Goffman not concerned with what the participant
is expected to do alone but what he actually does
in relation to what he is expected to do
5. SELF-CONCEPT
• Our self concept sustained by
family, friends, workmates, parents, friends, siste
rs, workers etc
• Also in name, clothes , possessions
• In TI‟s these forms of reflections of self are
largely absent
6. In a TI, the inmate is:
‘Stripped of self…and then
reconstituted in the image of
insanity’
(Goffman 1961)
6
7. THE STRIPPING OF THE SELF
NATIVE AMERICAN INDIANS CARLISLE
INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOL 1880-1900
7
9. CHARACTERISTICS OF A TI
• all aspects of life conducted in the same place &
under the same single authority
• daily activities carried out by a large batch of
inmates who are treated alike
9
11. There are four stages: admission;
mortification; adaptation; release
Inmates arrive at the total institution
with a „presenting culture‟ – a way of
life based on their home world, and an
associated sense of self
The regime of the total institution works
to break the link between the individual
and all aspects of his/her pre-admission
life
This process is known as „disculturation‟
12. MORTIFICATION OF THE SELF
• Mortification of the „self‟.
• patients might be forced to eat all food with a spoon
• pointing out negative attributes; talking about the
person as if they weren‟t there, etc.
13. ARIZONA‟S TENT CITY
I N M AT E S AT T H E M A R I C O P A C O U N T Y T E N T C I T Y J A I L
14. The inmate learns to conform to the new
regime (or suffer the consequences)
The privilege system (rewards for obedience)
‘provides a framework for personal
reorganization’
15. Upon release the inmate may not be able to
readjust after extensive ‘disculturation’
(leading to recidivism)
The inmate may be ‘stigmatized’ by
association with the total institution
16. IMPORTATION THEORY
• Inmate subcultures are brought into prisons from
the outside world
• Pre-prison life experiences
• Socialization patterns
17. DEPRIVATION THEORY
• Inmate subculture develops in response to the
deprivations in prison life
• “In prison, those things withheld from and denied
to the prisoner become precisely what he wants
most of all.”
Eldridge Cleaver, African American author, activist, and
former prisoner
19. INMATE SOCIETY
Principles of the convict code
include:
• Inmates should mind their own affairs.
• Inmates should not inform the staff about the
illicit activities of other prisoners.
• Inmates should be indifferent to staff.
• Conning and manipulation skills are valued.
20. • Five elements of the prison code:
• don‟t interfere with interests of other inmates
– don‟t rat on others
• play it cool and do your own time
• don‟t whine – be a man
• don‟t exploit inmates – don‟t break your word
• don‟t be a sucker – don‟t trust guards or staff
21. values
inmate
roles “subculture” customs
language
22. PRISON SUBCULTURES
Argots
ace duce - best friend
banger - a knife
billy - white man
boneyard - conjugal visit
chester - child molester
dog - homeboy or friend
ink - tattoos
man walking - signal guard coming
tree jumper - rapist
23. PRISONIZATION
• The process by which an inmate becomes
socialized into the customs and principles
of the inmate society.
• Clemmer
24. Donald Clemmer, The Prison Community, 1940
Menard Penitentiary (Illinois)
Assimilation of norms
Prison as a functional whole
Affects all prisoners (to varying degrees)
Prisoners take on ‘the folkways, mores, customs, and
general culture of the penitentiary’ (Clemmer, 1940, p.
299)
25. DEGRADATION CEREMONY
• A conspicuous ritual that is played out in various
stages of the criminal justice process that is
designed to degrade, dehumanize, & humiliate an
individual.
• By design or effect, it informs an inmate/criminal
that s/he is “outside” of & beneath society, that
s/he is no longer regarded as honest, honorable,
trustworthy, upright, & good.
26. VIOLENCE AND VICTIMIZATION
• It is generally agreed that there is more physical
violence by inmates in today‟s men‟s prisons than
there was in earlier periods.
27. VIOLENCE AND VICTIMIZATION
• Common motives for physical violence in prison
are:
• To demonstrate power and dominance over others
• To retaliate against a perceived wrong, such as the
failure of another inmate to pay a gambling debt
• To prevent the perpetrator from being victimized
(for example, raped) in the future
28. SYKES‟ DEPRIVATIONS
• the loss or deprivation of liberty
• the loss or deprivation of autonomy
• the loss or deprivation of goods and services
• the loss or deprivation of heterosexual
relationships
• the loss or deprivation of security
30. Homosexuality in Prison
• wolf - aggressive men who assume
the masculine role in homosexual
relations
• punks - forced into submitting to
the female role, often by wolves
• fags - natural proclivity toward
homosexual activity and
effeminate mannerism
31. COPING AND ADJUSTING
• Life in prison is different from living in the free
community. Prison life includes:
• Pronounced deprivation of personal freedom and
material goods
• Loss of privacy
• Competition for scarce resources
• Greater insecurity, stress, unpredictability
32. COPING AND ADJUSTMENT
Prison life also encourages qualities counter to
those required for functioning effectively in
the free community, by:
• Discouraging personal responsibility and
independence
• Creating excessive dependency on authority
• Diminishing personal control over life
events
