Aspects of the Prison's Social Structure

Abstract

In the prison the conflicts between criminals and law-enforcing agencies persist in modified form. Though placed in a subordinate and defensive position, the inmates counter the repressive measures of the administration by condemning them and by intriguing against them. With resultant hostility intensified rather than abated, the convicts and the officials become relatively isolated and assume logically extreme positions, the members of each group responding to the other as stereotypes. These hostile and collective stereotypes are expressed in their opposing ideologies. The officials, through the "contrast-conception," depict the inmates in negative antithesis to themselves, while the prisoners contradict and nullify the ideology of the officials.