Correctional officers and the use of force as an organizational behavior
Author
Faculty Advisor
Date
2023
Keywords
correctional officers, policy, prison management, use of force
Abstract (summary)
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.
Publication Information
Schultz, W. J. (2023). Correctional officers and the use of force as an organizational behavior. Criminology, 61(3), 654-675. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12346
Notes
Item Type
Article
Language
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)
