The social meaning of snitching in Chinese drug detention centers

Snitching is the act of providing information to the authorities in exchange for rewards. Although snitching is, strictly speaking, a taboo among street offenders and prison inmates worldwide, offenders regard some types of snitching as relatively more acceptable than others. Studies regarding the social meaning of snitching have mostly been conducted with reference to American and European contexts, while the situation in the Asian or Chinese context has not been thoroughly explored. This paper helps to fill a research gap by examining the characteristics of the social meaning of snitching in a severely under-researched context—the inmate culture within Chinese drug detention centers. Our discussion is based on data collected from semi-structured interviews with 28 former inmates of drug detention centers, and it endeavors to explore how offenders conceptualize snitching and why they perceive snitching in the way they do. Our findings show that, while inmates in Chinese drug detention centers generally despise snitching, they see some specific forms of snitching as normal or even necessary. We analyze how inmates rationalize snitching behavior in these specific cases, and argue that this process is shaped by the collective control system implemented in the detention centers: (1) the collective merit system that connects each person’s well-being to the collective well-being, and (2) the informant mechanism that divides inmates into competing factions. Finally, theoretical implications are provided.

“We’re all travelers, all sojourners” : A pseudo-ethnography of incarceration and adaptation

The study intends to describe the dynamics in jail, the notable features of incarceration, and cultural premises used by inmates to achieve adaptation to a different environment. Using participant observation and several indigenous methods of gathering data twenty inmates in a city jail were purposively selected for this qualitative study. Several findings are notable. First, traveling is a fitting metaphor to depict the inmate culture developed inside the jail, more so that it is consistent with how the inmates call their incarceration as a momentary “biyahe,” i.e., a sojourn. Second, the inmates reveal that a must-learn code of conduct “patakaran” or “magna carta” which is rooted in respect and discipline, is essential to survival. Third, by tacit agreement with the jail management, the inmates have organized themselves with distinctive hierarchical roles that should be respected to maintain discipline and order. Each cell has it its own structure to impose discipline and to accomplish every member’s task. Fourth, a system of meting out punishment to disobedience of rules is strictly enforced. Ultimately then, inmates adapt to a new environment and acquire behaviors appropriate to their community. Fifth, pockets of resistance are afforded, albeit in small and imperceptible manners. The study concludes that culture inside the facility is dynamic and inmates assert their roles beyond the prevailing social and structural forces.

Doing Time: A Group-Analytic Perspective on the Emotional Experience of Time in a Men's Prison

A group-analytic approach is described within the context of a therapeutic community setting in a high security prison. In group therapy inmates are described gradually unfreezing and speaking about the locked and secret internal world experiences that have been sources of pain and trauma to them. The concept of trauma being frozen in time and undisclosed unless appropriate therapeutic space is available for its unfolding is contrasted with the prison inmate culture which normally discourages emotional openness.

Smoke 'Em if You Got 'Em: Cigarette Black Markets in U.S. Prisons and Jails

Since the mid-1980s, cigarette-smoking policies have become increasingly restrictive in jails and prisons across the United States. Cigarette black markets of various form and scale often emerge in jails and prisons where tobacco is prohibited or banned. Case studies of 16 jails and prisons were undertaken to understand the effects of cigarette bans versus restrictions on inmate culture and prison economies. This study describes how bans can transform largely benign cigarette “gray markets,” where cigarettes are used as a currency, into more problematic black markets, where cigarettes are a highly priced commodity. Analysis points to several structural factors that affected the development of cigarette black markets in the visited facilities: the architectural design, inmate movement inside and outside, officer involvement in smuggling cigarettes to inmates, and officer vigilance in enforcing the smoking policy. Although these factors affect the influx of other types of contraband into correctional facilities, such as illegal drugs, this study argues that the demand and availability of cigarettes creates a unique kind of black market.

A Comparative Analysis of Organizational Structure and Inmate Subcultures in Institutions for Juvenile Offenders

This study provides a partial test of the importation and deprivation models of prisonization by examining inmate subcultures in ten different cottage units in four institutions for juvenile offenders. A typology of juvenile institutions based on both the correctional goals pursued and the methods of intervention and social control distinguishes four different treatment models used in institutions for juveniles. Matching and controlling for the effects of differences in inmates' background characteristics within and between settings, the study describes the relationships between the formal organizational structure and respective inmate culture. The study demonstrates a clear and consistent rela tionship between the formal and informal organizations: The more custodial and punitive settings had inmate cultures that were more violent, more hostile, and more oppositional than those in the treatment-oriented settings. The crucial organizational differences were in the extent to which staff members contained and controlled subterranean inmate violence by encouraging the communication of information about the activities within the inmate sub culture.