The Prison Officer Uniform
Identity and Interaction in Carceral Spaces
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Publishing:13th May '27
£85.00
This title is due to be published on 13th May, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
When thinking about uniforms in prison, most people think about what prisoners wear, but what about all the people for whom the prison is their place of work? This book explores the identity, actions and interactions of prison staff through the lens of the clothes and uniforms they wear.
Based on 221 interviews with staff and prisoners across 14 prisons in Australia and Norway, Eriksson looks at how uniforms make prison staff visible, a prism that captures and expels identity, culture, power, morality and ideology, and discusses to what extent these dynamics are reflective of wider societal norms and dynamics in the different countries. Eriksson pays particular attention to the role of staff who are not seen as the ‘traditional’ prison officers. This includes women, who are in essence 'wearing masculinity' while on the job, as well as the large percentage of non-security staff including educational- and vocational staff, psychologists, administrators, chefs, counsellors, and medical staff.
Using clothes and uniforms as lenses into the cultural, political, social, economic, and historical context of practices of imprisonment in different jurisdictions, this book also pays attention to important local variations, and places the focus on the people who live and work inside these different institutions of punishment. Importantly, the discussions here are not only relevant for those who work, lead or research prisons around the world, but for other uniformed professions where similar dynamics and considerations around the uniform exist, such as the police and the military.
Throughout human history dress and fashion have been symbols of both identity and status. The ‘uniform’, however, has always been the visual signifier of power. From militaries to religions to bodies of State, it acts as both the representation of power, and disempowerment. The uniform is never passive. It shapes the wearer and the viewer. Yet these social and relational interactions have been under explored in criminology. Anna Eriksson’s fascinating book tackles this head on by exploring the role of the prison officer’s uniform. It is a timely and important contribution to penology and the sociology of prisons. -- Jason Warr, University of Nottingham, UK
Eriksson's newest book explores the prison officer uniform as a lens through which to examine the negotiation of professional identity in prison, juxtaposing negotiations in Norway and in Australia, between men and between women, and across categories of people in prison from custodial and non-custodial staff to prisoners and researchers. The book contributes to our understandings not just of prison culture, but to comparative penology, construction of gender in prison, and methodological questions about negotiating identity and access as a prison researcher. In sum, Eriksson takes a single, seemingly mundane object (a uniform) and examines it from a surprising array of perspectives. Through that examination, she changes the way we see both the uniform and the institution of the prison in which it operates, revealing refreshing theoretical insights about the critical role of workforce culture in prison operation and reform. This is one of those books I expect to be assigning to aspiring prison researchers for years to come. -- Keramet Reiter, Professor of Criminology, Law & Society at the University of California, Irvine and author of 23/7: Pelican Bay Prison and the Rise of Long-Term Solitary Confinement
ISBN: 9781350560390
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
208 pages