Characteristics of Total Institutions Erving Goffman

CJ 365, Summer 2001 May 29, 2001

Introduction
Institutions:
Buildings or plants in which activity of a particular kind regularly goes on. Every institution captures something of the time and interest of its members and provides something of a world for them.

Total Institutions
They are different in that the total character is symbolized by a barrier that is often built into the physical plan.
Wire fences, high walls, cliffs

Total Institutions
Totalistic features:
One of the central features of the total institution is the breakdown of barriers between spheres of life (sleep, play & work)
All aspects of life are conducted in the same place Each activity is carried out in the company of a large group Activities are tightly scheduled Daily tasks all come together to serve a larger goal of the institution.

Total Institutions
Staff-Inmate Split
Two different social and cultural worlds develop There is considerable social distance between the two groups

Work
Whatever incentive is given for work it will not have the same significance it had on the outside.
Work payment structure of our society

The family

Inmate World
Mortification processes
Presenting Culture
What the inmate brings to the institution The goal of the total institution is NOT to provide a different culture but to develop a tension between the home world and the institutional world.

Stripping Processes
Mortification of the self ID#, uniform, channels of communication shut off

Authority System
Authority is of the echelon kind
ANY member of the staff has a certain right to discipline

The authority of corrective sanctions is directed at a great multitude of items of conduct

Dress, manners, social intercourse

Misbehavior in one sphere of life are held against ones standings in other spheres Rules are abundant, novel, and closely enforced

Privilege System
House Rules
Formal set of proscriptions that lay out the main requirements of inmate conduct.

Rewards and Privileges

These remunerative controls are held out in exchange for obedience to staff. Release binge fantasy

Punishments
Usually given out as a result of rule breaking Usually more severe than would be given out in the outside world.

Privilege System
Punishments and privileges are themselves modes of organization peculiar to total institutions.
No cigarettes, weight room pass.

It is important to see that the question of release from the total institution is elaborated into the privilege system.
Increase in good time, sentence extensions

Punishments and privileges come to be geared into a residential work system

Immediately associated with this system is some standard social processes important in the life of total institutions.

Informal Privilege System

Institutional Lingo Secondary Adjustments
Techniques that do not directly challenge the rules but allow inmates to gain some satisfaction. Inmate code

Kitchen Strata
Largely informal stratification of inmates

Adaptation Alignments
Situational Withdrawal
The inmate withdraws from prison society

Rebellious Line
The inmate intentionally challenges the institution Rebel morale

Colonization
The inmate takes the largest satisfaction possible from the institution Breaks the tension between outside and inside self

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Adaptation Alignments
Conversion
The inmate tries to take on the role of the perfect inmate. square johns

Playing it Cool
Most inmates take on these alignments at different times, but do not go to the extreme. Hybrid model

All of the alignments serve an important role in inmate coping

Immunize the self from the tension with the outside world

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Culture Themes
There is a strong feeling that time spent in an establishment is time wasted
Inmates feel that they are totally exiled from living

A peculiar and high level of self-concern is engendered.

The story

Removal activities
These activities draw the self out of the current situation Movies, weightlifting, social activities

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Consequences

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