Blog 20

The first striking feature of the news coverage of the hostage situation is the fact that they make a huge deal out of Schriro’s position as prison chief. Both articles make it a point to elaborate on Schriro’s credentials that qualify her for the job despite her gender which further goes to show how male-dominated the prison system is. Also I think it is important to note how the articles emphasized the fact that Schriro really did turn the prisons into more productive and rehabilitative institutions in order to reduce the recidivism rate which was a struggle for her to accomplish since she already had the bias of gender against her and her authority. I also think that the news coverage of the hostage situation shows how praised Schriro’s “female” traits of patience and effective planning are in regards to her ability to overcome the hostage situation in a successful manner. I think it is implied in the way that the news covers the story that if a man had been handling the situation then they would have been more prone to resort to violence and just storm the tower which could have lead to the killing of the hostages and possibly others. Schriro does not storm the tower but instead she uses time, negotiations, and other alternative options presented to her in order to overcome the situation in the best possible way that it could be overcome. While prisons are very male dominated I think that it is important to note how quickly the news praises Schriro for her female traits and how positively they have impacted the prison system. The positive news coverage of the way that Schriro handled the hostage situation is a step towards the realization that having prisons be so gendered and male dominated is not what is best for that system or the outside communities.

I think that the hostage situation goes to show the poor training that correctional officers receive, especially on the state level, which focuses more on being fearful and aware of possible violence in prisons yet not how to handle these situations. In Britton’s interviews it becomes quite evident that the trainings do not focus on how the officers are supposed to cope with the situations that they come across whether it be hostage situations, interactions with the opposite sex or the metal games that inmates may try to play. Many of the interviewees comment on how they felt under prepared when they finally entered the prisons and had to learn the necessary aspects of their job along the way since the trainings did not cover the real issues they come across. The training should focus more on how to handle the real situations that the offices come in contact with so that they can transition from being just “keepers” of the inmates into real correctional officers who help to “correct” the inmates in order to better them for release. It seems to me that the trainings main focus is just to instill fear into the officers in the hopes that they will effectively handle any violent situations that may arise instead of actually training the officers in a uniform way to handle different violent situations.

I do also think that despite all of the positive coverage that came out of the hostage situation like praise of the female prison chief it also lends fuel to the argument that women should not be allowed to guard male inmates due to their inability to combat them and the increased danger that they face in regards to sexual assault. While it is true that women do have an increased chance of being sexually assault by the inmates rather than their male counter parts, I think that this once again goes to the lack of training in this area due to how male dominated the training is. Issues of sexual assault or any issues relating to gender obstacles are not addressed in the trainings due to the fear of what would happen if gender was explicitly talked about rather than the way it is implicitly implied.