Re-negotiating the Prison Code: How Ex Gang Members and Sexual Offenders Navigate Daily Life in a Joint Unit

• In Event: Prison Gangs

Abstract

In the Canadian context we have very little understanding of the day to day life of inmates within our correctional facilities. This is especially true for the conditions of those in protective custody, or PC. PC units are primarily used to house ex-gang members who have “dropped their colours” as well as sexual offenders whom are referred to as skinners by both inmates and correctional officers. We are filling this knowledge gap by drawing on 30 in-depth qualitative interviews and observational data of inmates held on the two PC units in the Calgary Correctional Centre. Our prime aim for this presentation is to explore how two different types of inmates—ex gang members and sexual offenders—interact with each other when being forced into one unit, and how the dynamics on such units look like. Ex-gang members have often spent the majority of their lives within prisons as active gang members, adhering to the so-called inmate code that dictates to be physically violent against sex offenders and to “check them off” the general population units. When dropping their colours, and being placed in protective custody units, they are now living on units alongside sex offenders, forcing them to re-negotiate the prison code.

Authors

• Ashley M Kyle, University of Alberta

• Sandra M Bucerius, University of Alberta