Ambivalent Actions: Prison Adaptation Strategies of First-Time, Short-Term Inmates
Document Type
Article
Language
eng
Format of Original
25 p.
Publication Date
1993
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Source Publication
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography
Source ISSN
0891-2416
Abstract
A person who is incarcerated for the first time becomes a “prisoner” but does not automatically acquire a meaningful status within the prison world. If the incarceration is short term, the person is unlikely to ever achieve a significant prison status because participation in the prison world will be inhibited by identification with the outside world. This condition of social marginality results in an ambivalence that directly shapes inmates' strategies for survival within the prison world. This article examines the effect of ambivalence on inmates' adaptation strategies. Data for the study were collected through participant observation and focused interviews with inmates at a maximum security prison for men.
Recommended Citation
Schmid, Thomas J. and Jones, Richard S., "Ambivalent Actions: Prison Adaptation Strategies of First-Time, Short-Term Inmates" (1993). Social and Cultural Sciences Faculty Research and Publications. 161.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/socs_fac/161
Comments
Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. 21, No. 4 (1993): 439-463. DOI.