Post #17

The NBC documentary, “Lockup—Inside North Carolina Women’s Prison” has arguments that are very similar to those of the Britton book. However, there are some differences between them. I honestly was a bit surprised and disturbed by the documentary.

In regards to relationships between officers and inmates, Britton says that officers take one of two stances. They either believe that the inmates are human and deserve to be treated as such, or they believe that inmates are too privileged. Either way, officers must be weary of the relationships they develop with the inmates they are supposed to be watching. I think the documentary showed the relationship between officers and inmates in both ways. First, there was the officer that told one inmate that her packet of ketchup was contraband. This would be an example of Britton’s position that officers may believe that inmates are too privileged. Next there was the example of the officer getting her hair cut by an inmate in the prison’s Cosmo program. She believed the inmate was human and treated her as such by letting the inmate cut her hair. She also compared it to being in the real world getting a haircut.

Britton also says that officers who become too friendly with inmates may lose respect with other inmates because they appear to have favorites. One of the inmates in the video alluded to having inappropriate relations with officers and trading sexual relations for money, food, etc. The overseer of the prison said that the few times that an officer had become involved with inmates an investigation was conducted.

However, a positive relationship that officers have with inmates is hearing about inmates’ lives after leaving prison. One of the officers in the documentary said that it was nice to hear about women getting jobs and improving their lives, and how it was sad to see repeat offenders.

There were some essentialized assumptions exhibited by the officers in the documentary, especially in regards to the maximum-security inmates, or the segregated inmates. Many of these inmates were seen as potentially violent and were forced to wear handcuffs and shackles on their ankles, and were also only let out of their individual cells for only 45 minutes a day. According to officers that Britton interviewed, inmates are seen as being emotional, liars, and manipulators. I think the emotional side was definitely shown with the relationships that the inmates had made with each other. The overseer of the prison alluded to the fact that this was something that was unique with women. The one inmate that was put in segregation because of a fight with another inmate and the resulting separation from her “girlfriend” exemplified another example of the emotional nature of women. The one aforementioned inmate who had inappropriate relations with officers, getting them to perform sexual acts and getting money out of it, could be seen as exemplifying the manipulating nature of women.

Britton mentions that the race of officers did not cause them to confront different situations in both male and female prisons. Because of the high concentration of minority inmates, it was through that minority officers would be more apt to befriend inmates. The race of the officers did not have any affect on situations within prisons. The documentary really made no mention of race other than a few inmates claiming that the fact they were black was a strike against them. In general, it seemed as though sex was a more apparent characteristic that caused officers to confront different situations. The male officer in the documentary explained how he had to be followed by a fellow female guard at al times, especially when he was in the dormitory. He also had to alert the female inmates to his presence when entering a dormitory or different part of the building by yelling “male in the building.” He alluded to the fact that being a male officer in a female prison was difficult.

Britton doesn’t really touch on social control, but forms of social control were shown in the documentary. Inmates were placed in segregated cells when they acted out, where they were forced to stay inside for 23 hours out of the day. The fear of being segregated from the rest of the inmate population forced inmates to stay on good behavior. Plus, when these segregated inmates got out of their cell for 45 minutes, they were placed in outdoor cells with handcuffs and leg shackles. One of the inmates compared her situation to being in a dog cage.