Clemmer postulated that the variables affecting degree of prisonization are: socialization during pre-penal life, continuation of positive relationships outside of the penitentiary, affiliation with inmate groups with inmate groups, placement into small groups that are separate from the general population, and the duration of the sentence. Donald Clemmer Biography; Prisonization Prison Experience; Prisonization as the inculcation of a convict culture was defined by identification with primary groups in prison, the use of prison slang and argot, the adoption of specified rituals and a hostility to prison authority in contrast to inmate solidarity and was asserted by Clemmer to. GRUNINGER, PRISONIZATION IN FIVE COUN-TRIES: TYPE OF PRISON AND INMATE CHARACTER-ISTICS (1975) (unpublished manuscript at University of Iowa); C. Schrag, Social Types in a Prison Community 1944) (unpublished M.A. Thesis at University of Washington). CLEMMER (1940), supra note 2; R.
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Twenty years ago the sociologist Donald Clemmer introduced the concept of prisonization to account for the changes inmates undergo during periods of confinement. This paper reexamines the concept of prisonization and provides an empirical test of the process Clemmer described. Because of Clemmer's concern with the process of induction, little attention has been paid to changes inmates may exhibit as they approach the time of release. Evidence from a western state reformatory is consistent with Clemmer's analysis when length of time served in prison is taken as the relevant time variable. When inmates are classified into phases of their institutional career, however, there is evidence of a recovery process and a shedding of the prison culture that operates prior to parole. The evidence suggests a reformulation of the effects of imprisonment on inmates and poses further problems relevant to other total institutions.
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Shanequa Ricketts
John Jay College
CRJ 425
Prof. Cheloukhine
Summer 2015
Abstract
Prisonization is a concept first introduced in 1940 by Clemmer. He defined it as the process of assimilation in prisons, where new inmates take on a less or greater degree of the customs, folkways, and the general culture in a penitentiary. Prisonization can be described in similar terms to those used by sociologists in capturing the processes of assimilation and socialization of communities at large. In the same manner people are assimilated to the customs and norms of a society, inmates must also assimilate themselves into the self-contained community they find in prison. They need to re-adjust from their normal lives and learn the new norms and rules, as well as the implied expected patterns of behavior since they are discordant from the societal values of a free world. Also referred to as the “inmate code”, this is the kind of behavior that is considered to be unacceptable in the free world but is encouraged, and rewarded within the prison walls.
In the United States of America, the jail culture has been referred to as out of control and unruly in most cases. There have been instances of gang control of prison activities through member inmates. There are also patterns of assimilation in the jails, especially bearing in mind that most of the people incarcerated are from different cultures most and countries. In essence, the