Blog 20

Whoever wrote the article for The Phoenix Magazine coverage of the hostage crisis in the Lewis Prison was in desperate need of a visit with the editor. My initial critique of this is piece of writing was its lack of fluidity, proper conventions and an overall logic in progression of events. I’m not suggesting by any means that I am a writer worthy of bestowing such criticism; I just expect a certain level of quality. I felt the hostage situation was not described with sufficient detail. The Inside Tower document did an excellent job of describing the facts in an engaging way. Aside from lack of attention to detail, there was too much emphasis on Dora Schiro’s character. Her character, however, does reflect the conditions of female identity described in Britton’s study.

Schiro was described as possessing traits which were either too feminine or too masculine to properly lead the Arizona prison system. The author uses words like “too soft” and “unflinching ramrod” to describe her style of management. Women in positions of power must walk a thin line to stay in between these extremes. Her struggle to remain in the center of these extremes reflects the prison system in terms of the gendered conditions of women in non-traditional jobs.

The hostage situation in Arizona reflects the discussion of “keepers” and “turnkeys” because the Arizona prison system was established on these principles until Schiro came in to make some serious changes. The notion of keepers and turnkeys comes from the “lock them up and throw away they key” ideal. The first prisons were governed from a standpoint that prisoners needed to be locked up and forgotten, sometimes without the privilege of bread and water. When Schiro stepped in to facilitate Arizona’s ruined corrections system, she saw a similar trend in regards to the lack of educational, recreational and vocational activities.

The officers in the article and the officers in the text experienced problems in terms of training and working conditions. While the hostages in the text faced an indescribably horrible situation that does not compare to the situations that officers in the text faced, they both could have benefited from adequate training. Had the officers in the Lewis Prison been properly trained on how to handle hostage situations, maybe they could have diffused the situation quicker. The officers in the text could have benefited from proper training on working in female prisons especially dealing with emotional versus violent inmates.

Prisons are total institutions because people live the course of their lives here, for a period of time. Total institutions are like small societies within themselves where every aspect of an inmate’s life is monitored and supervised by correctional officers. This mini-society setting makes it easy to identify the gendering process which is why the author conducted her research in prisons. Other examples of total institutions include nursing homes and the military.

The prison officer is an engendered occupation because of the intersection of these elements; the structures of prison organizations, cultural and ideological assumptions of workers themselves, coworkers, administrators and managers. The structure of prison organizations is founded on a gendered belief that males are natural protectors and should be in charge of detaining society’s worst scum. In conjunction with this view, women are viewed as having no place in such a violent place. The cultural and ideological assumptions that their alleged nurturing and passive feminine identities would put themselves in danger also makes a prison guard a gendered occupation. Finally, workers themselves can choose to follow these structures and ideologies to conform to ideals of gendered occupations which keeps them alive…or they could reject these beliefs and change entire social structures and personal belief systems.

Some of Britton’s recommendations for change include lessening the effects of the connections between gender and inequality, encouraging positive portrayals of prison life and engaging in telling stories real-life women. These recommendations for change are geared towards changing the minds of a white, popular imagination could possibly be useful for avoiding a hostage take-over. If all these recommendations would have been implemented 100 years ago, the life of an inmate would be much improved and there would be no need to escape with forceful violence.