Surviving Incarceration
Inside Canadian Prisons
Rose Ricciardelli (Author)
9781771120531
Paperback / softback, published 30 May 2014
258 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 0.9 cm, 0.41 kg
Is prison a humane form of punishment and an effective means of rehabilitation? Are current prison policies, such as shifting resources away from rehabilitation toward housing more offenders, improving the safety and lives of incarcerated populations?
Considering that many Canadians have served time, are currently incarcerated, or may one day be incarcerated-and will be released back into society-it is essential for the functioning and betterment of communities that we understand the realities that shape the prison experience for adult male offenders. Surviving Incarceration reveals the unnecessary and omnipresent violence in prisons, the heterogeneity of the prisoner population, and the realities that different prisoners navigate in order to survive.
Ricciardelli draws on interviews with almost sixty former federal prisoners to show how their criminal convictions, masculinity, and sexuality determined their social status in prison and, in consequence, their potential for victimization. The book outlines the modern ""inmate code"" that governs prisoner behaviours, the formal controls put forth by the administration, the dynamics that shape sex-offender experiences of incarceration, and the personal growth experiences of many prisoners as they cope with incarceration.
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Surviving Incarceration: Inside Canadian Prisons by Rose Ricciardelli
- Introduction
- Narrative: Just a Kid: Forever Hurting
- Introduction to Federal Corrections in Canada
- The Focus: Setting the Stage
- Changing Legislation in Corrections
- What about Safety?
- Chapter One
- Narrative: A Life Without Freedom: The Multi-Prison, Multi-Sentence Experience
- Correctional Services of Canada
- Provincial versus Federal Corrections
- Methods: The Men
- Understanding the Classification System: Prisoner Classification
- Does Prisoner Classification Work?
- Understanding the Classification System: Institutional Classification
- How I Found the Guys?
- The Details
- Chapter Two
- Narrative: Addiction, Incest: Thirty-Two Years in Prison, Thirty-Six Years of Addiction
- Hierarchy: Crime, Sexuality, Masculinity, and Safety
- Factor 1. Being Solid: Criminal Convictions
- Factor 2. Being Solid: Masculinities
- The Oppressor
- Presenting Tough
- Acting Aggressive
- Breadwinning
- Factor 3. Being Solid: Prison Sex or Sexuality
- The Largely Homophobic Environment
- Consistently Subordinated Homosexuality?
- Being Solid: Heterosexuality
- Why Does the Hierarchy Exist?
- Chapter Three
- Narrative: A Violent Place Where Everybody Has a Story
- Violence and Theory: The Prison Atmosphere
- Theoretical Understandings
- The Current Canada Prison Experience: Understanding and Acknowledging the Violence
- The Atmosphere
- Maximum-Security Prisons: Controls Within the Institution
- High-Medium-Security Prison: Controls Within the Institution
- Low-Medium- and Minimum-Security Prisons: Controls Within the Institution
- Coercive Controls: Impacting Penal Violence
- Remunerative Controls: Impacting Penal Violence
- The Need: Balance
- Chapter Four
- Narrative: A Brother, a Son, a Lover, a Dad, a Man, a Prisoner with Heart
- Hard Memories
- Nowadays
- The Inmate Code
- The History of the Code
- Why a Code?
- What Is the Code?
- Never Rat on a Con and Don't Get Friendly with the Staff
- Be Dependable (Not Loyal)
- Follow Daily Behaviour Rules or Else!
- I Won't See You, Don't See Me, and Shut-up Already!
- Be Fearless or at Least Act Tough
- In the End
- Chapter Five
- Narrative: A Sex Offender's Story
- The Other Crimes
- Public Perceptions
- Stigma Theory and Framing
- The Sex Offender Stigma
- Stigma in Prison: Stigmatized by Other Prisoners
- The Stigma of Protective Custody
- Painful Consequences: Stigmatized by Other Prisoners
- Revelations, Intolerance, and Passing: The Quest to be Solid
- Distancing Sex Offenders
- Prisoners Exposing Prisoners
- Professionals and Paraprofessionals in Corrections
- The Role of the Media
- Resources: Lacking Supports
- The Systemic Sex Offender Stigma
- Final Thoughts
- Chapter Six
- Narrative: Change from Within (It Changed Me)
- The Personal Side: Coping, Changing, For Better or Worse
- Coping with Incarceration: Trust in Self
- Coping with Incarceration: When More is Needed
- Change
- Prison: Fostering Negativity
- Change from Within and Holding on to Yourself
- Resources and Programming
- Chapter Seven
- Narrative: Gang Affiliation, Clearly Not the Way of the Future
- Final Words
- What Can This Study Not Speak To?
- What We Do Know?
- Safe Streets and Prisons: Corrections at Work
- Industry Growth: For Better or Worse
- Notes
- References
- Index
