The Prisoner Society: Power, Adaptation, and Social Life in an English Prison (review)

The Prisoner Society: Power, Adaptation, and Social Life in an English Prison is an ethnographic analysis of penal power and its influence on the day-to-day lives of prisoners, staff and administrators in HMP Wellingborough, a Category C (medium security) prison in the United Kingdom. The author, Ben Crewe, conducted in-depth field work at Wellingborough in the form of observations – he was given a set of keys and access to all areas of the prison, including cells, wings and exercise yards – and interviews with guards, administrators and prisoners without apparently compromising trust from any of these groups. Prisoner interviews were based on the subjects' life histories and prison experiences. The result of his fieldwork yielded a rich, important, and frankly, excellent study that is key to understanding not only the everyday existence of prisoners' lives, but the ways in which power and resistance are deployed within prisons.

The first three chapters of the book provide the theoretical context for the study and an overview of changes in the carceral landscape in the United Kingdom in the past 40 years. Chapter two includes some discussion of the problems that have emerged in Wellingborough as a result of national shifts in criminal justice policies and an increased reliance on punishment. Over-crowding, few resources for education or rehabilitation, the arbitrariness of prison rules (as reported by prisoners), the difficulty in getting medical treatment or medicine, and confinement far away from family, friends and loved ones all combine to paint a bleak picture of life at Wellingborough. While Crewe does not claim that the conditions at Wellingborough are representative of the conditions in all prisons, his data suggest striking parallels between Wellingborough and some prisons in the United States – the world's "number one incarcerator" – which brings attention to the increasingly globalized nature of penal practices.

Crewe's analysis of power was excellent, and was one of the greatest strengths of the book. He offers a compelling analysis of the perception held by prison officers and administration on their institutional power. Because of changes in the penal landscape and because power was moved to higher levels of the institution, officers did not perceive themselves to be powerful and on the contrary, felt "demoralized and fragmented."(76) Governors (operational managers who spent much time managing staff) also reported feeling powerless in a variety of ways and complained of having little autonomy to run Wellingborough. Interestingly, both governors and officers reported feeling powerless to make any structural changes because prisoners did not show visible or sustained discontent in response to institutional conditions. The result was that some uniformed staff expressed dissent by disengaging from their work, whereas governors expressed compliance to organizational goals (77).

Crewe argues that prisoners are affected by power through the institution and its officials, and the prisoner community. Psychologists were the individuals that prisoners complained about most, as they determined prisoners' futures by writing reports recommending or discouraging release; these reports were given heavy weight by the parole board. Crewe highlights prisoners' observation that more often than not, these psychologists were of a different race and class background from prisoners. Prisoners felt that psychologists had little experiential knowledge about the circumstances that led to their incarceration, yet were the authority on their futures. Prisoners adapted to these conditions in a number of ways, with many regulating their actions on a daily basis so as not to receive negative reports. This example underscores Crewe's analysis that in the prison, there is little room for sociological or structural analysis of one's crimes; rather, one must accept personal responsibility for the criminal act without serious interrogation of circumstances that often lead to crime, such as poverty.

The ways in which power worked amongst the prisoner community were manifold. Drugs were the main source of power for prisoners, with drug dealers holding a great deal of sway over those dependent on the substances. Consumer possessions, too, conferred status...