Routine and ritual behavior: A means for adapting?

• In Event: Prison Adjustment and Social Order

Abstract

Ritual literature highlights how ‘patterned’ behavior is constructed to cope with particularly stressful situations or significant life changes. Simultaneously, these behaviours can create solidarity among groups and/or positive emotional responses from individuals. Theorists have identified rituals as an essential component for social life and human interaction. Few researchers, however, have examined ritual and routine practices within a federal carceral system, which is structured around the idea that prisoners should not only pay retribution for their crimes, but be detained for the safety of the public. Within this too often hostile environment - designed around the control and management of prisoners (especially for those in maximum) - we explore how routine and ritual practices are employed by prisoners. In analyzing transcripts from 56 semi-structured interviews with former-federal prisoners in Ontario, we identify what purpose routine served for prisoners, and whether prisoners’ routine and ritual behaviours vary across institutions of diverse security classifications (i.e., maximum, medium, and minimum). This work is framed by theories of routine and ritual, and seeks to demonstrate how prisoners’ routine behaviours are utilized as a positive adaption to incarceration (e.g., alleviating stress and passing time) as well as in preparation for life post-incarceration (e.g., anticipatory socialization).

Authors

• Pegah Memarpour, Memorial University

• Rose Ricciardelli, Memorial University of Newfoundland