Abstract
Rebecca Trammell, Enforcing the Convict Code: Violence and Prison Culture, Lynne Rienner Publishers: Boulder, CO, 2011; 157 pp.: 9781588268082
In this relatively short book, Trammell seeks to conceptualize the role of violence in the California prison experience from the perspective of former prisoners. Enforcing the Convict Code: Violence and Prison Culture demonstrates how prison gangs, racial tensions and even the underground economy may function to decrease violence in prisons. Trammel’s focus is on how the social code among prisoners, largely enforced through violence or its threat, maintains order and thus decreases danger. Beyond providing insight into the experiences of individuals while incarcerated, Trammel also seeks to explore how prison culture continues to affect the experiences of former prisoners after release.
The manuscript is well written and intriguing, seizing the reader’s attention from the first pages. Trammel’s ethnographic account illuminates the multiple dimensions of the humanity of prisoners. For example, she documents her experience accompanying former prisoners, who belonged to a racist skinhead gang, to a community meeting in Long Beach, California. In this account, she reveals that these men, although tough, were simultaneously considerate and kind – they chose to cover their tattoos to avoid offending other former prisoners at the meeting. This portrayal of the humanity of ex-prisoners is a welcome feature of the text. Above all, Trammell captures the fact that former prisoners are people – no more and no less.
The empirical substance of the manuscript is derived from 73 extensive interviews conducted in 2005 and 2006 with formerly incarcerated men and women in California. Despite sampling limitations (e.g. convenience/snowball), Trammell provides an extensive qualitative study that appears comprehensive. She presents an interesting comparison of the experiences of men and women during incarceration, contrasting the violence in male versus female adult facilities, as well as variations in the codes of conduct to which male versus female prisoners adhere. She also touches on how these social codes shape strategies to deal with the ‘pains of imprisonment’. Given the growing adult female and male prison populations in the United States, the book is a timely and valuable contribution to the corrections literature.
Trammell presents realities about the arguably non-rehabilitative and largely punishment-oriented environment former prisoners described experiencing when in prison. Although the issue is not always explicit, the reader is enticed to consider what such a climate and culture does to the incarcerated person. How can anyone successfully reintegrate into society when they have spent years, even decades, in a violent tense environment? When all aspects of one’s life are controlled and structured at the hands of others, with or without formal authority, how can one adapt to a world lacking such controls? Indeed, what skills have former prisoners learned to facilitate their reintegration? Is prison at all rehabilitative? What does this all mean after individuals are released? Trammell does not necessarily seek to answer such questions; she presents the prison context in a way that allows readers to ponder these realities as they learn about the American prison culture in California. An analysis of desistance might have made the manuscript even more valuable.
Trammel provides an interesting discussion of the socialization processes that are evident in prison and offers the reader insight into the realities of prison living. However, further theoretical development and integration of more recent literature could have strengthened her analysis. Moreover, some of the ideas presented in the text leave the reader seeking additional empirical support for the claims. Trammell presents an overly idealistic prison environment, suggesting that no random acts of violence or chaos occur in prison. This is remarkable, at least considering how boredom and idle time can easily lead to misconduct or at least mischief in prison. Trammell’s suggestion that prison culture helps to undercut violence and discord is certainly novel, although innumerable studies that suggest quite the opposite need to be engaged much more directly.
Despite these reservations, the information and insight into the gang situation in California prisons is timely and well developed. Trammell provides interesting facts about racial tensions and gang relations as described by the former prisoners she interviewed. She also notes that prison policies serve to promote rather than eliminate gangs, and provides an interesting and plausible justification for such claims. The comparisons between male and female experiences are noteworthy here as well; she found that race-based conflict is much less prominent in women’s prisons, although it can still be an issue of concern. Among men and women, race was an acceptable criterion to determine with whom alliances could be made. Trammell in this sense demonstrates that in prisons, race is more about creating a sense of belonging than perpetuating hate. Moreover, she theorizes that much of what appears to be race-oriented conflict or violence in prison is actually a ‘performance’ aimed at maintaining an order in interactions that is necessary to ensure code adherence and a ‘less dangerous’ prison environment.
Overall, the book demonstrates that much of prison life and the code of conduct revolve around violence and order. Conflict is widespread – among prisoners and between prisoners and correctional officers – as prisoners struggle to establish their own place in the prison’s social order. Trammell argues that women offenders, unlike men, do not want to cause harm or hurt others when incarcerated. She explains this difference by suggesting that women in prisons are taught to ‘co-operate’ while men are taught to ‘compete’. She also notes that women in prison are provided with even fewer services than men.
Overall, this text is crucial to exposing the realities of what actually takes place in prisons and what is happening to persons who are sentenced to prison in California – people who often lack a voice in the outside world. Trammell reconceptualizes the role of violence in prison living and provides an initial analysis of how prison culture affects individuals post-release. Enforcing the Convict Code is an important contribution to both academic and practitioner literature.