Order or Stability

The Role of Penal Administrators in the Transformation of Instability within Correctional Institution

Bibliographic Data

ID2153652
AuthorsSalvatore Cerrato (Correctional Officer, USA), A Cerrato (corresponding author), S A Cerrato (corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume45
Issue1
Pages26-49
Publication date2024-01-02
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueDeviant Behavior (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0163-9625 • E-ISSN: 1521-0456
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01639625.2023.2237167
OpenAlexW4385065288
LanguageEN
References cited64

Within unstable correctional institutions, inexperienced politically appointed penal administrators achieve order at the expense of stability. Order, defined as involuntary inmate compliance with prison norms, depends upon the appendages of formal and informal social controls. In contrast, stability is voluntary inmate conformity to prescribed prison objectives, realized through democratic, non-placating administrative mechanisms. Inexperienced penal administrators perceive order to be analogous to stability, thereby tolerating, supporting, and perpetuating chaotic correctional institutions. In introducing original scholarship to the correctional literature, I draw from decades of experience working as a correctional officer within unstable, zoo-like penal institutions. I describe the practical failure of emphasizing order over stability. Within the parameters of this inclusive correctional taxonomy, order, given its volatility, becomes a formidable, yet fragile fault line that can alter an institution’s social climate. Also discussed are the salutary effects embodied in participatory management; the criminogenic ramifications that manifest from our prisons’ weak, ineffective, and underwhelming disciplinary apparatuses encouraging inmates to offend the prison’s prohibitions; and the penological oversights of unscrupulous prison practices that stem from the intellectual failings of out-of-touch academics who are far removed from real-world correctional environments to offer viable solutions

Business · Conformity · Criminology · Insider · Institution · Mass incarceration · Officer · Order (exchange · Political science · Prison · Scholarship · Social order · Sociology · Total institution · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Law · Psychopathy, Forensic Psychiatry, Sexual Offending

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