Title: “Doing Time”: Correctional Staff and Conceptions of Time in the Prison Environment

• In Event: Job Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction Among Correctional Officers

Abstract

This study examines the narratives of correctional staff across 18 focus groups. This paper offers a retrospective analysis, in which staff described their experiences in terms of an economy of time. New and veteran correctional staff identified a complicated picture in which staff "buy time" through "doing time" in the prison environment. Although correctional staff locate retirement as a primary reason for obtaining the occupation, findings suggest that the institutionalization of personnel bars them from reaping the benefits. Analysis reveals the narratives of correctional staff as a lens to investigate the institutionalizing power of the prison environment on personnel.

Authors

• Amanda Roberts, University of Louisville

• Ethan M. Higgins, University of Louisville

• Kristin Swartz, University of Louisville