A Model of Corrections Officer Workplace Culture: Continuity and Variation

Dr Heather Schoenfeld, Boston University

Abstract:

Recently I published an article in Theoretical Criminology (with Grant Everly) on corrections officer workplace culture (online May 2022). In the paper we introduce an organizational culture conceptual framework and build on previous prison scholarship to develop a model of prison officer workplace culture.

We then apply the proposed model to original research in a US prison to investigate the relational aspects of prison officer culture during early 21st-century penal reforms. In writing the paper, two tensions emerged that are central to the project of comparing penality across contexts.

In this talk, Dr. Schoenfeld addresses first, how to determine the appropriate comparison. And second, the normative implications of the decisions to focus on similarities or variation in carceral spaces.

Biography:

Dr. Heather Schoenfeld is a sociologist whose work lies at the intersection of politics, policy, race and the law. Her research on the origins and development of mass incarceration in the United States has been widely published and recognized with awards from the American Sociological Association and the Law and Society Association.

Dr. Schoenfeld is an associate professor of sociology at Boston University and (by courtesy) Boston University School of Law.

This event will take place via Zoom and a link will be sent to you via Eventbrite so please check your inbox and junk folders.

The Social Analysis of Penality across Boundaries as a joint initiative of the Scottish Centre of Crime and Justice Research (Scotland) and the Crime and Society Programs of the National University of Litoral (Argentina).