ABSTRACT
SUMMARY-1986 New officers coming to work at Auburn reflect the changing economic character of the general central New York area. Coming to prison work at a younger age, with less work experience, more likely to have more education and more likely to be from out of the county surrounding the prison, these officers are also arriving in much larger cohorts. While their more experienced counterparts readily estab lished human relationships with inmates, these new officers are more likely to find inmate hostility and resort to stereotypes in establishing their initial rela tionships with inmates. In addition, their sense of awareness of prison issues coupled with changes in the character of the inmate culture are more likely to lead them to experience a “negative reality shock,” when their experienced coun terparts were “underwhelmed” by their initial prison experiences.
