Carceral Residents’ Responses to Inconsistent Policy Adherence
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Foudray, Chelsea
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Abstract
With high rates of incapacitation in the United States, policies and procedures are a major aid in managing day-to-day prison operations. However, organizational research notes that policy and practice implementation often differ significantly from formal written procedures/practices/rules. This has potential detrimental effects to the functioning of an organization and to the perceptions of those living/working within that organizational environment. This thesis explores carceral residents’ responses to perceived inconsistent policy adherence through secondary, qualitative analysis. Merton’s anomie and strain theory supplemented by Maier and Seligman’s learned helplessness theory frame this work. Findings suggest carceral residents perceive a great deal of inconsistent policy adherence. To adapt to these misalignments, more than half of residents adapt their behavior. The majority of these adaptations are consistent with learned helplessness and tempered conformity. Implications of this work include advancing knowledge about the formal/informal systems in place in carceral environments and recommendations for remedying some of this gap. Implications also include modernizing prior criminal justice theories such as strain and including cross-disciplinary theoretical framing from learned helplessness into today’s carceral environments as a way of understanding current practices and resident response.
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Policy and procedures, Corrections, Prison, Inconsistent policy adherence