ABSTRACT
Personal Authority Most officers do not feel that they “have authority” simply because they put on a uniform or because they have rules to fall back on. These officers believe that they must somehow develop and in a sense earn the legitimacy needed to exercise authority effectively. The key to gaining this legitimacy is the individual officer’s ability to gain the inmates’ recognition that his authority is legitimate, i.e. that he as an officer merits the inmates’ obedience to rules and the compliance with his directions.
