Weathering Adaptation and Punishment

• In Event: Impact of Incarceration on Inmates and Correctional Officers

Abstract

The predominate study of penal adaptation takes rates of misconduct as measures of inmate adaptation, which assumes that there is or should be an inherent connection between organizational goals and inmate behavior. Drawing on ethnographic data collected in a Southern California county jail system, the author presents a perspective on penal adaptation that is rooted in the experiences of inmates. The results demonstrate that adaptation is an asymptotic process instead of an achieved disposition that has little to do with challenging the goals of penal punishment. Instead, penal adaptation is about (re)establishing a sense of normalcy. These findings emphasize the importance of coercive contexts for shaping how inmates respond to penal punishment.

Author

• Michael Lawrence Walker, University of Nebraska at Omaha