Between care and control : community-based supervisor practices in an hybrid institution

• In Event: Novel approaches to community sanctions and sentencing

Abstract

Community supervision measures are increasingly common in Quebec and elsewhere (Phelps, 2020). These measures are often hybrid in nature, combining control objectives and social reintegration objectives. In Quebec, community-based supervisor oversees application of these measures. While their function is traditionally associated with the care sector, the implementation of community supervision measures also involves them taking on control and monitoring functions. The aim of this presentation is to understand how community-based supervisor appropriate these different functions and apply them in their day-to-day practice. Based on individual interviews with community workers responsible for implementing community surveillance measures (N=20), the presentation will address these supervisors' perceptions of the concept of social reintegration and how these perceptions influence their day-to-day practices. From the perspective of the sociology of work and institutions, the presentation will offer an analysis of supervisors' perceptions to show how the penal and correctional systems produce forms of treatment of others that blend different, even opposing, intervention styles and relational modes within the same institution (Barel, 1979; Laforgue, 2009). The tensions that emerge from their work, between their perceptions and practices on the one hand, and the demands of the institution on the other, will be explored.

Authors

• sabrina bourget, Université Laval

• Elsa Euvrard, Université Laval