The Production of a Correctional Officer: An Ethnographic Study of Prison Guard Training in Canada

• In Event: The Effects of Prison Culture on Correctional Staff

Abstract

Research on penal system internationally has traditionally focused on the impact that incarceration has on inmates and the ways in which the 'system' further intrenches various forms of social marginalization. Unfortunately, little attention has been placed on the people who run correctional facilities: correctional officers. One of the limitations to our understanding of how correctional officers do their work is a lack of clear clarity on how prison guards are produced in the first place. Based on an embedded ethnographic study of a 9 week prison guard training program in Canada, this paper explores the process under which the correctional officer comes into being both at the official and symbolic levels where one's identity as a guard is shaped by the types of skills you are expected to employ. This paper also examines how the correctional officer culture and the ways in which inmates are depicted impacts how new recruits think about and approach their jobs. Particular attention is placed on the gendered nature of the job and the challenges women face when breaking into this field of work.

Author

• Amy Klassen, University of Toronto