ABSTRACT
The prevalence of homosexuality among inmates has consequences for the staff and, in turn, for staff action affecting inmates. The latter ultimately reduces to the question of what, if anything, the prison staff can do to motivate inmates to substitute more approved behavior for homosexuality as a reaction to imprisonment. At least four specific results are seen by inmates as deriving from limited staff knowledge and understanding: the focusing of most punitive action and personal disgust on the obvious homosexuals—the butches; the inability to make the important distinction between true homosexuality and the temporary, situational involvement of most inmates; the misinterpretation of certain nonhomosexual types of affectional behavior such as hand-holding and embracing; and the inability to distinguish between two women who are close friends and women who are lovers. The first two problems are of special concern to homosexuals, while the last two apply to non-homosexuals as well.
