Abstract
Prison is a complex organizational environment featuring numerous actors. In general, two highly distinctive groups of prison actors are present in modern prisons: prisoners and prison workers. The first group is represented, in most countries, by prisoners, remand prisoners, prisoners sentenced for a misdemeanor, prisonerssentenced to substitute prison, and juvenile prisoners. Prisoners who represent the largest group are in the role of subordinates, which prevents them from influencing the decision-making process in prison. Simultaneously, they present an audience that evaluates the eligibility of prison workers’ authority and legitimacy of their position in the prison setting. The second group comprises the management (prison facility directors and heads of departments), specialized workers (social pedagogues, pedagogues, social workers, psychologists, sociologists, labor instructors, and health and medical technicians), and prison officers (heads of security and prison officers). They represent the authority in prison, and hold a position of power-holder that depends on the prisoners’ recognition of legitimacy and perception of their legitimacy.
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Notes
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In Slovenia, small prisons are numerous in which senior managers are in everyday contact with prisoners. In such cases, the role of the senior managers changes as they do not represent a distant authority but rather serve as the real authority that is constantly present in the lives of prisoners. The role of managers of small prisons lies somewhere between the role of specialized staff (treatment component) and the role of prison officers (security component).
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Vodopivec et al. (1974) described the treatment game as the ongoing process where everyone pretends to be something different, with the controller pretending not to be in control and the controlled behaving in a way that will satisfy the controller.
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Hacin, R., Meško, G. (2020). Prison Actors. In: The Dual Nature of Legitimacy in the Prison Environment. SpringerBriefs in Criminology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32843-6_3
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