Discussion Response to students 150 words each

Do not grade or critique work, add to the conversation as a student.

First Response Taylor

How did the prison subculture come to be? The book states that the biggest reason that the prison subculture has emerged within prisons is it helps prisoners adapt to their new life within prison because they have lost their freedom, rights, and more at which the subculture is supposed to help them adapt (Clear, Cole, & Reisig, P. 282-284). The norms and values came to be, because of the lose of rights, freedom, and other things at which leads to the creation of new norms and values that the prisoners become used to. These are created to help them adapt to prison life and not all will adapt but most will to fit in, and cope with the new changes at which they must make.

To compare the imported and deprivation models, first let’s contrast the two. Imported is the belief that the prison norms and values are straight meaning that the values are already there and that it is what is expected. The example that best comes to mind is the example the book gives about those who as teens are in and out of foster homes and spend most their lives in prison (Clear, Cole, & Reisig, P. 283). Deprivation is the belief that the subculture is created because of the lose of rights and other changes that impact the prisoner’s life that leads them to find ways to cope with the changes. The one thing that does link these two models is that each have their own view of how the prison subculture is created. I personally believe that the deprivation model would best describe how subcultures are created within prisons. As stated earlier, prisoners must find ways to adapt to the loss of rights, security, and more that the subculture is created to help the prisoners adapt to the new life within the prison which is what I believe to be the most correct as well based off the reading this week.

References

Clear, T., Cole, G., & Reisig, M. American Corrections (Cengage, 12th Edition)

Second Response to Wayne

From my personal experiences working in several different institutions from minimum security to maximum security, the subculture is almost exactly the same. Although the subculture was created by inmates to live by a certain code, the security staff dictate how the subculture is defined. Inmates go from being free to living with other men that they don't know that come from all different walks of life and have committed a different range of crimes. This subculture was created so that everyone knows what is expected of them and how to act. Prisons are a society just like on the streets but is confined inside of a fence and have to live by different rules. This subculture is known as an unofficial rule book that was written by the offenders. The norms and values of this subculture came about through how inmates categorize themselves. They came up with this to show a brotherhood kind of as a unity against staff and rules they are supposed to follow.

          The difference between the deprivation and importation model is that the importation model is the beliefs of what prison is supposed to be like is brought from outside the walls. Some offenders believe that inside prison is supposed to be a certain way from what they have heard on the streets or from movies and they bring this behavior to prison with them. Deprivation model is the norms and values that offenders learn in prison to cope with being incarcerated. I believe that most people act from learned behavior and from what I have personally seen, when someone goes to prison, they are usually quiet and observe how things operate. Then the new offenders act accordingly to how they see other people act. So I personally think the deprivation model is more of the subculture that is followed.