Correctional officers and the use of force as an organizational behavior

Abstract

During the past 30 years, bureaucratic managerialism has reshaped how prison staff maintain order. Policies and graduated disciplinary models have replaced coercive methods, reducing disciplinary use of force by prison staff against incarcerated people. Managerialism, however, disguises deep problems in the interpretation and enforcement of use‐of‐force policies. Drawing on 131 semistructured interviews with Canadian correctional officers (COs), I show how managers and prison staff interpret and negotiate policies to justify using force to maintain order. Although COs frame policies and management supervision as significant checks on their actions, they also suggest that inconsistencies in policy interpretation and implementation facilitate certain kinds of use‐of‐force decisions, which I define as “construction” and “outsourcing.” I conclude by discussing the broader organizational implications of these findings.

A Good Place to Do Time? Detailing the Construction of Symbolic Social Boundaries in Correctional Boot Camps

“…[the boot camp officer] is building people to be more responsible, to be more self-disciplined, to have more thought of themselves, to give them more confidence.” Jaroslav echoed most participants in seeing such punishments as central to the program’s ethos. They framed the disciplinary expectations of boot camp as a component of a larger project of self-improvement rather than a form of blunt order maintenance or capricious mistreatment ( Crewe, 2009 ; Schultz, 2023 ). In their estimation, it helped them to transform into a “new person,” learning new skills they did not possess.…”