The nine prison officer norms lead to the formation o f a symbolic boundary around the correctional officers that result in an insider/outsider divide. For the purpose o f this section, I will focus on one o f Kauffman’s norms, to maintain officer solidarity versus all
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outside groups, and relate this norm to the issue o f mistrust, I aim to build on this particular theme by focusing in particular on Roy Lewicki et al.’s (1998) work, to consider the relationship between employees’ perceptions o f the treatment of new staff and racial difference in the organisation, and their self-categorised feelings of mistrust and isolation within the prison context.
Lewicki et al. (1998) claim that organisational relationships are based on both trust and mistrust. Scholars such as Phillip Shaver and Csindy Hazan (1994) have argued that trust is an essential ingredient for a healthy organisation, and the basis for stability in social institutions (Zucker, 1986). In addition, John Rempel et al. (1985) assert that trust is necessary for the foundation of interpersonal relationships. Within the prison context, trust among prison officers is very important (Kauffman, 1988) and is necessary for a bond to develop between individuals, as prison officers are outnumbered by prisoners. It is therefore essential for prison officers to know that instant help is available from colleagues when required (Liebling and Price, 2001). Roderick Kramer and Roy
Lewicki’s (2010) definition of trust can be used to explain the importance o f trust among prison officers. They apply the term ‘presumptive trust’, referred to as positive social expectations that increase an individual’s willingness to trust members of an organisation. Trust can be defined as one party’s optimistic expectation of the behaviour o f another, when the former has to make a decision about how to act under conditions of
vulnerability and dependence (Hosmer, 1995). In reciprocal terms, mistrust refers to the expectation that others will not act in one.’s best interest, even engaging in potentially
injurious behaviour (Govier, 1994) and the expectation that capable and responsible behaviour from specific individuals will not be forthcoming (Barber, 1983).
Presumptive trust, according to Kramer and Lewicki (2010), may be based on identity, roles, rules or leadership actions. It is their contention that identification plays a significant role in the formation o f trust amongst individuals, by claiming that
identification with others who share a common category membership* that is, homophily, increases the positive social expectations that underpin trust. In the context o f British prisons, I am using the term homophily to refer to an observable tendency and
opportunity to form an immediate bond within a specific group. From a racial perspective I put forward the idea that the majority o f prison officers are white, and that white prison officers will identify and bond with other white prison officers. Likewise, from a gender angle, the majority o f prison officers are men and therefore male prison officers will identify and bond with other male prison officers. These definitions imply that trust is established when people perceive a shared background or identity and interact well with each other. Therefore, once trust is established, people are willing to assume assistance and group support, and cohesion is formed.
I will expand the idea o f trust in organisations to explore the deeper meaning and behavioural dynamics o f organisational trust by applying an organisational
psychodynamic paradigm and the above trust concepts to explore the interpersonal relationships within prisons. Focusing specifically on boundaries, roles and role
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configurations, structure, work culture and group processes, I will examine how they can become deeply meaningful and emotionally charged. In terms of trust, I will look at how mistrust may increase, which may indicate the prevalence o f phantasised fear of
annihilation. Specifically, it is my intention to take the idea o f trust/mistrust and link it to the effects of socially inscribed difference around race and gender to show how a culture of mistrust and suspicion is traceable in prisons.
Alongside trust/mistrust I will be looking at suspicion to emphasise prison officer culture. Here I am using the term ‘suspicion’ in a very specific manner. The term is taken from the notion of ‘suspect community’, initially developed by Paddy Hillyard (1993) and expanded by Mary Hickman et al., (2011) to investigate Muslim and Irish people being treated as ‘suspect’ and the impact this has on their everyday lives. I relate this
phenomenon to the way individuals within the prison context may assume a person may do something wrong, based on little evidence or without proof. This may lead to
individuals who lack trust viewing their environment through a hypervigilant lens that may evolve into paranoia.
I also link the idea of mistrust and suspicion to racialised and gendered difference within prisons. I suggest that identification along racial lines establishes boundaries and bonding between groups o f staff. For example, prison staff groups are dominated by white male staff. Black female employees may therefore be viewed with suspicion, which may lead to a lack o f trust by their white male/female colleagues as a result o f racial prejudice.
This may occur in response to white staffs lack o f interaction with black people as colleagues. For example, they may never have been in a situation in which they have had the same occupational status. Therefore, when black women take on the role as prison employees they also take on a role that is perceived by their colleagues as incongruent for someone o f their race and gender. This creates a ‘them/us’ scenario, in which white male/female prison officers as a racial group form an allegiance with each other based on race that overshadows their group identity as prison officers. This sets the foundation for suspicion, with the resulting negative and/or uncomfortable intergroup encounters among individuals o f diverse racial and gender backgrounds that may produce anxiety for the individual and the organisation as a whole. This provides an illustration of
psychodynamic ideas about responding to difference.
Examining the concept o f trust within prisons is an interesting angle to use to understand psychosocial experiences within this environment. In the following sections I will discuss what Sandra Robinson et al. (2004) refer .to as ‘cycles of trust’. I use this term to show how new prison officers are presented with conditions o f low trust and are initially perceived as outsiders; this may then create an expectation that they will be treated as outsiders and not automatically accepted into the group. The concept is also applied to show how suspicion can lead to presumptive mistrust, which in turn damages
relationships in ways that are resistant to repair. Finally I endeavour to show how mistrust can exacerbate the risk and threat o f violence within prisons. Prisons may be deemed as hostile environments and therefore the organisational culture may be laced with mistrust, suspicion and violence. This creates a ‘them and us’ attitude that is
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developed between staff and prisoners as well as existing staff and new recruits, or staff who do not fit the axiomatic prison officer image o f ‘white male’. This may lead to staff becoming suspicious o f the intention and behaviour o f colleagues as well as prisoners.
I also apply the idea of suspicion and mistrust to the prison context by suggesting that the multiple aims o f the prison derived from the Prison Service Mission Statement may inadvertently create and perpetuate a culture o f suspicion, mistrust and violence. I am referring here to the multiple tasks o f prison which is to punish offenders through incapacitation; protect by providing a place for secure confinement o f offenders; and - rehabilitate offenders. It is generally quite impossible to ascertain whether prisons carry out all three avowed objectives consistently and the impact this may have on the people who work there.
The complexity o f the multiple aims of the Prison Service and the impact this has on the organisation’s culture needs to be seen as a dynamic organisational phenomenon, manifesting in unique ways according to racial and gender difference. It can be further implied that the organisational culture may in fact both unwittingly and wittingly foster the creation o f social defenses to avoid anxiety. This defense may manifest in subtle forms such as suspicion, mistrust and also through incidents o f unlawful and sanctioned forms o f violence to protect prison staff from the anxiety produced.
6.4 Suspicion and relational dynamics
I will refer to the data to show how Trina, a 40-year-old mixed-race prison officer working at HMP Mali, describes her experience when she first started working at the prison. Trina has spent her whole prison career at HMP Mali. A brief overview o f new prison officers will be useful at this point to set the scene o f Trina’s entry into, and career in, the service. During the first 12 months, prison officers are referred to as POELTs, and during this period they undertake on-the-job training in a prison. They.are at the same grade as existing prison officers, and their equal position may cause tension between existing prison officers and new recruits because experienced prison officers have no authority to instruct new recruits to do specific tasks, yet as part o f their ‘informal induction’ there is an expectation that POELTs will follow the actions o f existing prison' officers without question. Therefore, if a new recruit attempts to do a task in a different way to the norm, this may lead to conflict. Apprehension is created because there is uncertainty as to whether new recruits can be relied upon, or can be trusted to follow the behaviour o f existing prison officers. This leads to anxiety because prison officers as a group rely on each other to maintain control and security.
The extract below provides an example o f how suspicion may lead to new recruits feeling isolated and vulnerable.
urm, well when I first started, that weren’t very nice because people don’t really talk to me [Trina giggles] so don’t really have many people to talk to. Urm you
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have a lot of stab backing, [Trina tuts] stab back, people stabbing you in the back, urm but I think that’s just a general really, I don’t think that’s because I’m female, I’m black, I think that’s just, I didn’t feel it was that way anyway. I do feel that sometimes it takes that little bit; bit longer to settle in somewhere and a prison is one o f them places where that takes a lot more to settle in. Urm, (1)1 don’t think anything of it really (1) no more than any other job. Urm, (1) but now I mean I’m very settled in urm (1) get on with most people, I’d say anyway in general. (3) Now that I’ve stuck it out. [We both laugh] Urm I enjoy the job.
Trina’s extract is very complicated and is worth dissecting to get a sense of how the organisational culture o f mistrust and suspicion permeates the inter-relationship amongst staff. At the start o f her extract, Trina describes an imposed isolation from the moment she started working at HMP Mali and relates this to her colleagues not talking to her. She then proceeds to give a picture of the organisational culture depicted by the statement:
‘Urm you have a lot of stab backing, [Trina tuts] stab back, people stabbing you in the back.’ This statement might suggest that not only are ‘you’ being stabbed in the back, but also ‘I’ stab back in the sense of retaliating. There is an element of ambiguity o f who is actually doing the stabbing in the sense of trust and mutual support, thereby suggesting that a culture o f mistrust and suspicion abounds. This highlights the harshness of the organisation. In addition, the statement metaphorically implies that ‘you’ give and give back, or ‘you’ get and ‘you’ get back. In this context, suspicion and mistrust might act as a social defense in the sense o f being forearmed and ‘ready’ for any attack. It is a way of defending against the anxiety produced by the fear of violence. However, it is ineffective
in containing the anxiety and thus is a clear indication o f how mistrust may negatively affect the relationship between colleagues.
I draw on Freud’s theory o f slips o f the tongue, which may tell us something about Trina’s unconscious processing. Freud deemed slips o f the tongue as revealing an unconscious thought, belief, wish or motive occurring in everyday life (Freud, 1901). According to Freud, when a slip of the tongue occurs it is an indication that the individual unconsciously does not want to put into words a disturbing thought. However, once the slip o f the tongue has happened, this forces the thought back into words, which is probably against the person’s will. This in turn alters the expression o f the intention, which is what Freud refers to as the mechanism o f a slip o f the tongue (Freud, 1901). Here I apply the concept to examine Trina’s emphasis on ‘stabbing’. Having already described the culture o f prisons as being permeated with suspicion and mistrust, I
examine this phrase within the conditions o f this incident. The phrase ‘stabbing’ gives us a hint o f Trina’ s suspicion directed towards her colleagues, which provides an indication of the inner tension in relation to the way in which individuals form allegiances or exclude others within the prison context.
Trina’s frequent pauses after her slip o f the tongue and the tone o f her voice denotes a sense o f uncertainty; perhaps with regard to whether she should disclose this information. Furthermore, her recollection may have generated negative feelings that were too painful to verbalise, or were perhaps an indication o f her struggling to convey what she wanted to
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say. An explanation for this may be related to subtle forms o f racial inequalities in prisons (Edgar and Martin, 2004). Subtle forms o f racial inequalities may prompt black women to think about, and often guess, whether or not their white male/female
colleagues are secretly prejudiced. This may lead to black women prison employees wondering whether their white co-workers secretly hold them in contempt because of their gendered racialisation. Likewise, white prison employees may have similar unspoken thoughts about their black female counterparts. An insidious incident may trigger suspicion and set off a dismal spiral of mistrust, reaction and irreparable relationships.
The tangling o f words might also signify Trina attempting to make sense of her experience at HMP Mali. This can be seen in her evaluation o f her initial enforced isolation. Trina states that the rejection of new recruits may not necessarily be about gender or race, but may occur in any workplace. This is shown by this comment: ‘urm but I think that’s just a general really, I don’t think that’s because I’m female, I’m black, I think that’s just, I didn’t feel it was that way anyway.’ Trina goes on to state that prisons are places where it takes a long period o f time for new staff to settle in. What is
particularly interesting is the way in which she uses violence as a metaphor, ‘stabbing’ to illustrate this point. This provides an insight into the culture o f prisons, which is formed around acts o f violence. The actuality or possibility o f being physically harmed at any time during a prison officer’s shift is a reality because of violent and non-violent prisoners who inhabit this space. Trina gives an example of how dangerous prisons can be in her comment below:
I’ve not, I’ve not really had much problems with prisoners really. I’ve had occasional, couple o f them spat in my face, but [Trina smirks]
I remark:
That’s part o f being an officer really.
Talking about violence during this interview aroused anxiety and feelings o f helplessness in me that resulted in my comment above. Listening to Trina describe being spat at on two occasions resonated with, and mirrored situations from, my own work experience. The feelings re-experienced were intense, possibly overwhelming, and difficult to contain, which explains why I made the above remark. This is an illustration o f the way my feelings were imported into the interview through a process o f identification.
My comment reaffirms the realisation that prison staff may encounter unwanted
behaviour from prisoners. It also highlights my understanding o f Trina’s experience from her point o f view. Here I refer to the acknowledgement o f violence in prisons and the difficulty o f speaking about the violent aspect o f prison life. This is emphasised by our reaction to my remark and Trina’s next comment.
[we both laugh] and that’s about it (1). I’ve not had any assaults at all, you know [M T ‘Yeah’] I’ve been spat at [Trina laughs] yeah.
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There is a moment o f quiet, maybe a realisation o f the broken silence, compounded by the organisational culture, that it is better not to discuss violence against staff in prisons, and also that violence in this environment is tolerated. Little is known about the impact of the threat of,.or actual, violence on prison staff, but the above encounter shows how it forms part o f the organisational structure. Trina’s last comment is segmented: she refers to spitting as though it is less significant than physical assaults. This is a social defense, the splitting o f a violent act, when in fact spitting and physical assault are both violent acts.
Numerous authors have pointed out that prisons are threatening and dangerous places (for instance, Fleisher 1989; Jacobs, 1977; Toch, 1977) as a result of the type of people who are incarcerated, and the reality that prisoners and staff may be attacked without warning. Indeed, Gresham Sykes (1958) originally identified fear as one of the ‘pains of
imprisonment’. This point indicates that violence is a structured part o f the organisational culture of prisons and impacts on all those within them, albeit in different ways.
To develop the discussion point about suspicion and violence further, I relate these ideas to the make-up o f prisons being white and masculine spaces. Prisons in the UK may be seen as organisations in which white masculine culture dominates the social structure and functions as a system o f control and privilege. I further assert that white masculinity leads to a position of privilege within prisons. In this context, white masculinity refers to the
dominance o f white men as prison employees, and they are the main focus in prison occupation literature. It might be further argued that black women who work in white male-dominated organisations have to observe the norms o f the organisation and work to ‘fit in’ to succeed in the process o f conforming. They not only have to negotiate working in masculine organisations, but also have to adapt to white superiority. Therefore, it is important to understand what it means for black women to work in organisations that are constituted by white male domination.
Nirmal Puwar (2004) has shown what can happen when women and/or racialised minorities take up privileged positions in organisations. Their presence disturbs and disrupts the status quo as they enter spaces that historically have been reserved for white men. This may explain the tension produced by black women and the relational dynamics occurring as a result o f their professional presence that disrupts the spatial order o f white masculine superiority.
There is a misconception that prisons are race-neutral spaces on account o f the attempts made by the Prison Service to implement positive race relations and increase the number o f black staff. However, I put forward the view that prisons are racialised spaces because race mediates the relational dynamics between staff and staff, and staff and prisoner. The particular case I use to show how prisons are racialised, and also how this space o f white masculineculture is disrupted by black women’s presence as professionals, is taken from
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a scenario involving Raisa, a British Asian female teacher who worked at HMP Sahelian. Here Raisa describes the quality and skills she brought to her establishment.