Blog 17

Building relationships with the inmates is detrimental to the correctional officers because it undermines their authority which is something they need in order to effective keep order. It is especially important to the officers in the North Carolina Women’s prison due to the more lax organization of the prison which also makes it harder for the officers to keep their authority over the prisoners. The officers realize that they cannot build relationships with the inmates because that is not part of their job; their job is to keep order and protect the inmates from each other. In regards to the other officers, building relationships with inmates compromises the security of the rest of their fellow officers as the relationship may lead to the bringing in of contraband into the prison which could then be a breach in security. In regards to the inmates, the officers cannot build relationships with the inmates because then the inmates learn to take advantage of the officers and thus lose their respect for their authority. The officers also do not encourage relationships between the inmates because of the intense feelings that it can bring about which causes the inmates to shift focus from bettering themselves to the well-being of someone else. This shift in focus can cause the inmates to act in ways that are violent and against the rules as they try to protect their girlfriend and their relationship. It also causes the inmates to essentially have an escape from the prison life since they can go about having all of the feelings and thoughts that go along with a relationship on the outside which is something the officers do not want since it is an important aspect of prison to be reminded on a daily basis that the inmates are in prison to be punished for crimes.

Compared to the prison environment that Britton describes in the beginning of her book, which is the stereotyped view of prisons, it is very different from the prison environment that is presented in the documentary. First of all the prison is filled completely with seemingly calm women inmates instead of the stereotypical violent male inmates. The women wear skirts and dresses in pale colors instead of the stereotypical orange jumpsuits that are so popular in media portrayals. The next difference is that there is a majority of female correctional officers working all areas of the prison instead of the stereotypical male officers with a few female officers doing less dangerous work such as clerical. It seems that in the North Carolina Women’s Prison it is the opposite of the stereotype where women officers are the majority and male officers are in the minority. I think it is also very appropriate that the documentary did show some of the added hardships that are on the male officers to conduct themselves in such a manner to avoid a loss of authority with the women inmates and officers by being very careful of the way they handle themselves. The male officers realize that they are in the minority and that they can easily be taken advantage of or accused of different violations by the inmates due to their opposite gender so they make sure to keep their conduct very professional and masculine. While many of the women correctional officers felt that it was important for them to keep a professional and strict guard over the inmates, there were also women officers who were more friendly and relaxed around the inmates which I think is a luxury that the male officers do not have. It was also interesting to see that the women had many different training programs offered to them in order for them to learn a trade that could be useful to them upon their release in order to help them better their life once out of prison. In the stereotype of prisons, one does not think of helping the prisoners but rather of punishing prisoners through the stripping of all things enjoyable. In Britton’s book this also follows in line with the long standing thought that women in prison should be rehabilitated through such means as job training and education while male prisoners are less often afforded such programs and instead have their incarceration focus around punishment and control with no thought of how they will survive a crime free life once released.