ABSTRACT
IV The portrait which emerges from the collective experience of the correctional officers at Auburn gives shape, depth and substance to the traditional caricature of correctional officers as passive and manipulated prison operatives. The words of these officers provide us with a new view of the prison world from the officers’ perspective. This view shows us that officers act as well as react; that they manipulate their environment as much as they are manipulated by others; that they define their own tasks as much as their work is defined by their formal job descriptions; that they experience and cope with stress and derive rewards from their work in ways far more complex and varied than the traditional anti-inmate correctional officer subculture description would lead us to expect. The material in this section attempts to access the impact of these findings on our understand ing of correctional officers’ contributions to life in the prison community.
