Prison Observation
Sociology 481
Winter 2009
We will leave the BYU Motor Pool at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 and drive to the
prison. You may drive your personal vehicle if that is more convenient but everyone needs to
arrive at the prison by 5:30 p.m. After being checked through prison clearance, we will have a
panel of inmates talk to us. They will tell their stories and allow us to ask them questions. Then
a prison employee will answer questions. Then we will go to Wasatch, a section of the prison
where men are housed for a tour of the facility. They have scheduled the panel to last from 67:30 p.m. and the tour will last from 8:00 to about 9:00 p.m. We should be back at BYU by about
10:00 p.m.
The following are some questions to think about as you observe the prison inmates and staff:
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How did the guards and other prison personnel treat you?
How did the guards and other prison personnel treat the inmates?
How did you feel going into the prison?
What impressions did you have while you listened to the inmates?
Were you surprised by what you saw or what the inmates said?
What are some strengths of the prison system you observed?
What are some weaknesses of the prison system you observed?
Each team is to write a 2-4 page paper in which you do the following:
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Summarize your key observations while in the prison.
Briefly discuss the philosophy or theory that is used to operate the prison.
Evaluate the prison system from the perspective of a sociologist. That is, given the
sociological theories that explain the organization of the prison system and the behavior
of the inmates and guards, how effective is the prison?
Based on your observations and the theories you have learned about, identify three
concrete policy recommendations for improving the prison system.