Pelican Bay State Prison

For new inmate, the bus ride to prison, the processing at the prison reception center, and the belittling shouts from the inmates are all part of the early stage of what is known as prisonization (Clear, Cole, Petrosino, Reisig, 2015). It is the process whereby newly institutionalized individual are introduced to and come to accept prison lifestyles and criminal values; the learning of convict values, attitudes, roles, and even language (prison argot) (Schamelleger, 2001). The new inmates gradually learn the set of rules of conduct that reflect the

Hirschi’s social bond theory is made up of four basic elements; attachment, commitment, involvement and belief. The element of attachment has to do with one’s involvement in society, and the bonds they form with others. Social bond theory is based on the idea that deviancy occurs in an individual when social connections are weak or non-existent, the element of attachment has to do with the bonds one forms with individuals or institutions. Attachment acts as an indirect control factor, as attachment determines one’s status in society, which in turn determines how much social capital one possesses. Attachment is largely influenced by one’s parents, interpreted as children “inheriting” social capital from their parents based on the level of

Prison culture or the “values, norms and attitudes that inmates form in terms of institutional survival” (Bartollas, 2013), can be described in one of three models. The Deprivation Model describes the inmate’s behavior as the product of the environment, more specifically the attempt to adapt to that which he is deprived of as a result of incarceration (Bartollas, 2013). An example of such would be the pseudo family unit or physical relationships that inmates form as a result of the absence of such relationships while incarcerated.

In this paper I am going to go with the video for social structure theory when covering the following topics. I will introduce how the video supports a social structure theory, the primary subject and content, major principles of the sociology theory addressed and social issues discussed. I am going to discuss, in the last part of this paper, what are some possible consequences for a social policy change. The video that I have chosen to do this paper on will be the “Pelican Bay State Prison: War Zone” to best fit with my beliefs of social structure theory simply the top reason for criminality evolving.

After listening to and or reading the transcripts of Locked Down: Gangs in the Supermax by Michael Montgomery, one gets a glimpse of prison life, sociological issues inmates and staff face, and the subculture of prison life faced by staff and prisoners alike on a daily basis. However, instead of delving completely in to the situational circumstances of prisoner life, it is more important to understand the history of this Supermax prison and why it was constructed to begin with. Further, it is important to understand the philosophy of the need for the Secure Housing Unit, which is the most secure and isolated portion of Pelican Bay Prison.

In other words, no behavior is inherently deviant on its own. According to this theory, it's the reaction to the behavior that makes it deviant or not; such as the development of stigma. Deviance is defined as a behavior that departs from societal or group norms. Rios argues that the punishing arm of the state (the prison system) and the nurturing arm of the state (the education system) work together to criminalize, stigmatize, and punish young inner city boys and men which he coins this form of criminalization as the “youth control complex”. This culture of punishment that comes from this complex pushes the young men into the very criminality that the punishment is meant to deter. The “hypercriminalization” notably harms these young men. Sometimes they would sell drugs because they believed they had no choice and nothing to lose. The author acknowledges such choices are unhealthy but explains that young men make them in the context of the limited resources available to them. The punishments meted out by the criminal justice system usually fail to support rehabilitation and social reintegration. Instead, once young men of color have entered the criminal justice system, they have “negative credentials” which lead to further stigmatization and criminalization in schools, in the community, and other institutions, and which severely restrict their

The Stanford Prison Experiment sought to recreate a prison experience to study behaviors of prisoners and guards. The authors were seeking answers to the question of dispositional hypothesis which states “that the state of the social institution of prison is due to the “nature” of the people who administer it, or the “nature” of the people who populate it, or both” (A Study of Prisoners and Guards in a Stimulated Prison, 1971, pg. 2). In other words, they were studying whether the prisoners and guards behaviors changed due to their personalities or was it the prison environment that caused these changes. The authors considered the recidivism rate that was 75 percent at the time, conditions in prisons, and the belief that prisons

Examination of the macro sociological perspective of incarceration and completed educational programs will confirm or oppose if rehabilitation on inmates can make a difference and create a safer environment for society. Inmate human development and socialization are critical and an affair of importance. Although, inmates are placed in unpleasant conditions the well being of the human mind must be taken into consideration to be mended and preserved. The prison system is known to be dangerous and a degrading environment leading prisoners to become resentful, hostile, and feeling hopelessness. Therefore, inmates could commit more crimes out of anger causing more danger to society.

Attachment refers to the degree to which an individual is close to non-deviant others, including, family members, friends and peers. One’s willingness to conforming to norms and expectations is dependent on how attached they are to others. This element goes on to extends

Individuals with strong and stable attachments to others within society, such as family, friends and community institutions are presumed to be less likely to violate social norms, because such behaviour would distress these respective attachments (Reginald et al, 1995). Second, is commitment, meaning having an individual investment in social activities. For example, an individual who has invested time, energy and resources into conforming to social norms, such as educational and career goals, is less likely to become involved in a gang (Goodwill 2009). In particular, since they have invested heavily in conforming these individuals have more to lose than those who have not invested in their future in a conforming fashion. (Reginald et al, 1995). Third, is involvement, which Hirschi utilized in order to illustrate that when large amounts of structured time are invested in socially approved activities, such as sports or work, the time for available deviance is drastically reduced (Reginald et al, 1995). Specifically, active engagement in conventional endeavors acts as a powerful protective factor against delinquency (Huebner and Betts, 2002). Hirschi’s final element of social bonding is belief. This pertains to an actor’s level of belief in the moral validity of shared social values and norms (Reginald et al, 1995). When an individual strongly believes in the conventional norms they are less likely to deviate from

Social bond theory was initially developed by Hirschi in 1969. The basis of this theory is that criminal behaviour occurs when social bonds are broken. Hirschi (1969) explains how there are four key factors of a social bond and the strain on these factors motivates deviant behaviour. By applying Hirschi's social bond theory to prison can begin to explain why the prison experience may increase later reoffending. Nagin et al (2009) furthers this explaining how prison may have negative effects on offender through reducing exposure of positive pro social bonds and increasing the exposure of negative influences.

The film, “Prison State” was extremely informative in the area of prison life that I knew little to nothing about. The film told a few stories of two children and two adults that were incarcerated and spent lengthy times in prison and juvenile detention centers. Therefore, the video focused on criminals, the type of norm violations that are legal norms. We see in the video the two children that were locked up were girls in their early teens who grew up in a community within Kentucky. We can see that once they get out of the correctional system, they are set to stay in this community for up to 6 months on probation. In this community, the norms were the same as most communities, but breaking the norms in this community had a larger punishment such as skipping school resulted in weeks in a correctional facility. In chapter six, “Deviance”, we learn that the deviance level varies within different cities, states, and even countries. The film discusses many theories throughout the chapter such as the Labeling theory, this means that each person in the film is given a discredited identity. A discredited identity is the identity you are given in your community.

Social bond theory shows an interesting way to look at the social problems, such as crime, that surround the world we live in. The theory primarily focuses on the peers and peer groups of individuals. The four basic elements that the theory focus on are attachment, commitment, involvement in activities including both criminal and noncriminal, and also the the common values that are giving to an individuals groups and subgroups. The element of attachment can be described as the values or the norms that someone has in their society. Attachment is most important with the figures that have a strong influence over a person 's life such as parental figures. Friends at school can also be important people related to attachment. Commitment is different than attachment in that it focuses on how much a person is committed to abiding by legal behavior. As a child we are hopefully taught was is the right thing

“The history of correctional thought and practice has been marked by enthusiasm for new approaches, disillusionment with these approaches, and then substitution of yet other tactics”(Clear 59). During the mid 1900s, many changes came about for the system of corrections in America. Once a new idea goes sour, a new one replaces it. Prisons shifted their focus from the punishment of offenders to the rehabilitation of offenders, then to the reentry into society, and back to incarceration. As times and the needs of the criminal justice system changed, new prison models were organized in hopes of lowering the crime rates in America. The three major models of prisons that were developed were the medical, model, the community model, and the crime

Attachment is the most basic element of social bonds - it is the internalization of the norms and values of a society. More plainly speaking, attachment is the emotional bond an individual has to the society around them.The three basic forms of attachment are attachment to parents, peers and school. The strongs these attachments the less likely a juvenile is to engage in criminal activity. As Hirschi found, juveniles with strong attachments who are tempted to commit criminal behavior, will refrain from that behavior due to the negative consequences of that act. An juvenile with a strong emotional attachment to the people around them will not act upon criminal behavior that might harm those people or put their relationship