Life in a Southwest prison: A study of the culture of the Penitentiary of New Mexico.

Abstract

This is an ethnographic study of the old Main Facility of the Penitentiary of New Mexico, located In Santa Fe, New Mexico. The central question of this ethnography is focused on identifying what environmental and social forces help to shape and perpetuate the culture found among inmates and employees in the prison. Using both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, this study examines the behaviors, beliefs, attitudes, and, values of both inmates and employees within a correctional setting. The findings of this study support those of Gresham Sykes (1958) Who identified deprivation as the underlying and primary organizing feature of inmate culture, in his work Society of Captives. In addition, The use of quantitative methods lends support to the qualitative findings of this study, which have been gathered, for the most part, in the manner typical of field based ethnographic research. The levels of prison culture identified in this ethnography are: The Core, comprised of inmates; The Inner Margin which is populated by security staff; The Outer Margin, made up of non security employees; and the Periphery, which includes prison administrators and Corrections Department employees who have little or no contact with inmates. Topics covered include: The 1980 Riot Social Control and Resistance, Sex and Sexuality, and various chapters which describe elements of prison life ranging from anger, to boredom, to danger. The ethnography concludes with a brief discussion of anthropological theory in which a cultural materialist approach to analyzing prison culture is utilized.