Custody Functions
To Protect the Public
Vocabulary
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Bureaucratic Control
Custody
General Population
Graduated Release
Correctional Officers
“Screws”
Unionization
“Blue Flu”
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Total Institution
Prisonization
Lockdowns
Count
Sally Port
Prison Rules
Contraband
Frisk Search
Vocabulary
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Strip Search
“keester”
Shakedown
Escape
Electrified Fence
Paramilitary model
Unit team
Management
Bureaucratic Control
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Prevailing management climate for
correctional institutions
Inmates controlled by:
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Coercive rules that prohibit certain behavior
Punishment when rules are broken
Punishment is swift and equal.
Documented rules, regulations and
procedures protects bureaucratic
organizations
Bureaucratic Control
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Inmates are faceless commodities that are
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Housed
Moved
Worked
What is a problem with this type
of organization model?
Custody
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The level of immediate control exercised
over offenders within correctional
institutions
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Levels:
Supermax
 Maximum or Close
 Medium
 Minimum
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Supermax
http://www.cbsnews.com/
Supermax
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"Supermax" is short for "super-maximum
security.“
It is a place designed to house violent
prisoners or prisoners who might threaten
the security of the guards or other
prisoners. "the worst of the worst"
solitary confinement and sensory
deprivation will bring about "behavior
modification."
Supermax
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Prisoners are locked into small cells for
approximately 23 hours a day.
They have almost no contact with other human
beings.
No contact visits: prisoners sit behind a Plexiglas
window.
no group activities: no work, no educational
opportunities, no eating together, no sports, no
getting together with other people for religious
services, and no attempts at rehabilitation.
Supermax
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Phone calls and visitation privileges are
strictly limited.
Books and magazines may be denied and
pens restricted.
TV and radios may be prohibited or, if
allowed, are controlled by guards.
Prisoners have little or no personal privacy.
Supermax
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What could be wrong with Supermax
prisons?
Maximum or Close Security
Prisons
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Very close to Supermax in management
styles
Very little contact with other inmates, but
more than Supermax
Still high risk prisoners
Guard to inmate ratio quite high
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1 guard to 3 to 4 inmates
Medium and Minimum Security
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Less Risky prisoners
Difference between medium and minimum
security custody is the presence of a high
wall or fence and armed guard towers
surrounding medium.
Decrease ratio of guard to inmate
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1 guard to 8 to 12 inmates
General population
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All prisoners not under special custody
control
Graduated Release
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The process of moving an inmate to less
secured jobs in the prison prior to release.
Three to six months before release
Grounds keeping, sweeping, clean up,
driving from location to location
AKA “trustee”
Correctional Officers
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Better trained and better educated than
“prison guards” of old
Division who performs advanced work
involving the direct supervision of offender
in their daily assigned duties including the
responsibility of preventing escapes and
maintaining discipline in conformance with
strict rules, regulations, and standard
operating procedures
Correctional Officers
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Also known as
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Screws
Guards
Jailers
Prison Guards
BOSS
Hacks
Line Staff
Correctional Officers
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By the numbers
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381,000 correctional officers in 2005 worked
at federal, state, and local adult facilities
Female officers – 23 % Male officers – 77%
Over 30 % were non-white
Unionization
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Unions have made their way into Prisons
Guards join unions to protect themselves
from litigation, improve working
conditions, and better pay
Blue Flu
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The practice by uniformed officers of
taking sick leave en masse to back up
their demands of improved working
conditions, salary increments, and other
items on the unions agenda, since most
jurisdictions will not allow government
employees to strike.
Total Institutions
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Prisons
The residents every movement, activity,
moment, and option are carefully
regulated by the correctional
administrators.
Prisonization
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The process of learning how to exist in
prison
The appropriate attitudes and behaviors
Norms of prison life
Process leads to adoption of the folkways,
mores, customs, and general culture of
the prison
Prisonization
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Handed down from prisoner to prisoner
Learn codes and roles
Loyalty to other inmates
Maintenance of calm ( keep cool)
Avoidance of trickery or fraud
Manliness (don’t complain)
Quick wittedness in prison dealing (don’t
trust the guards)
Prisonization
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Inmates who conform to those
expectation are accepted into the prison
system
Inmates who do not conform to those
expectations become outcasts and are
referred to by various negative words such
as rat, snitch, merchant, fink, and punk.
Prisonization - Gangs
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Seven Major Gangs
Texas Syndicate
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Began Mid 1970’s in California
Mostly Hispanic inmates
Strict rules
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Violation of rules may result in death
California, New Mexico, Arizona, Florida,
Illinois, and The Federal Bureau of Prisons
http://davadnai.users.omniglobal.net/ts.html
Prisonization – Gangs
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Mexikanemi
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MM – one of the fastest growing gangs in
Texas prisons
Aztec for “free or liberated Mexican”
Originated in 1980’s
Hierarchical in nature
http://davadnai.users.omniglobal.net/eme.ht
ml
Prisonization – Gangs
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Aryan Brotherhood of Texas
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Started 1980’s
A council, or steering committee, provides
leadership. This committee approves
prospective members, makes decisions on
gang rules, and is responsible for resolving
problems between members. The committee
is also the authority, which issues orders
for "hits" or "contracts.“
http://davadnai.users.omniglobal.net/abt.html
Prisonization – Gangs
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Texas Mafia
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White Inmates
Motorcycle gangs
Narcotics
The Texas Mafia and the Texas Syndicate
have very close ties and they refer to each
others as cousins.
Prisonization – Gangs
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Nuestro Camales
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Small but violent
Ties to Texas Syndicate
Hermanos de Pistoleros Latinos
Small but Violent
 Ties to Texas Syndicate
http://davadnai.users.omniglobal.net/hpl.html
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Raza Unida
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Small but Violent
Ties to Texas Syndicate
http://davadnai.users.omniglobal.net/ru.html
Prisonization – Gangs
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MS-13
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Mara Salvatrucha
Formed 1980’s
From El Salvador
In 33 states
Nearly 10,000
members in USA
700,000 overall
Not much known
about them
Very dangerous
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/12/01/60minutes/main1090941_page2.shtml
Gang signs
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http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~haralds/htm
lfiles/gang-signs.html
http://www.knowgangs.com/gang_resourc
es/handsigns/menu_002.htm
Lockdown
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A temporary suspension of ordinary and
routine activities. As a general rule,
offenders are confined to their cell or
dormitory.
Count
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Principle method of determining the
prisoner’s whereabouts.
Can be done as often as every two hours
Sally Port
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An area enclosed by a double gate
One door opens
Someone enters
The first door closes
A search can occur
The second door opens
The person leaves
Prison Rules
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Behavior guidelines set up by correctional
administrator for the inmates to follow.
Violations of prison rules are more likely in
larger prisons
Race makes no difference in rates of rule
violations
Women have a higher level of rule
violations then men
Contraband
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Any item that could be used to break an
institution’s rule or to assist in escape
Frisk Search
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A search used when
prisoners enter or
leave the institution
and when institutional
personnel suspect a
prisoner may be
hiding contraband on
their person.
Strip Search
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Search conducted when a
prisoner is suspected of having
access to contraband hat can be
secreted on the body or in a
body cavity, and a frisk reveals
nothing
Conducted in an area where the
inmate will not be ridiculed
Keester
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Internal transportation of contraband
Shakedown
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Searching a whole cell
or cell block for
contraband
Escape
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Flight of a confined person from an
institution
2003 – 3300 escapes in USA
Most returned quickly
Electrified Fence
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A metal fence that
electrical current
flows through it in
order to prevent
escape.
Paramilitary Model
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Adoption of militaristic
organizational
structures and
procedures in
corrections
Uniforms, titles, and
procedures of custody
personnel
Unit Team Management
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The management idea that all custodial
employees from cell block, tank, pod, or
wing work as a team to provide custody,
support, and rehabilitative services in a
single coordinated package.