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"Sensemaking
in Prison: Inmate Identity as a Working Understanding"
by John P. Riley
Justice Quarterly 17(2): 359-376 (June 2000).
Not
available online
Order through publisher: Justice Quarterly
Abstract: This study examines some of the ways
in which correctional officers construct, communicate, and defend
a shared account of inmate identity in a maximum-security prison.
Through sensemaking activities embodied in informal conversational
routines, correctional officers produce a working understanding
of the prisoner that is a central element in the reproduction
of social control in the prison. The data suggest that challenges
to the dominant assumptions embodied in key sensemaking categories
may be met by a variety of defensive stragegies. These strategies
are embedded in the informal conversational routines of the group.
Through the selective use of official records, by reframing tolerance
as a social control strategy, and through participation in acts
of ritual insubordination, correctional officers maintain a working
understanding of the inmate that is demeaning, derogatory, and
ultimately stereotypical. This research contributes to our understanding
of occupational culture in the justice system, and to a fuller
appreciation of sensemaking process in formal organizations.
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