ABSTRACT
The ‘inmate code’ represents one of the key empirical and theoretical terrains of prison sociology. Defined as the idealised model of inmate behaviour, the code has been discussed in relation to a range of phenomena, including inmate leadership (Sykes 1958; Sykes and Messinger 1960; Ohlin 1956), the processes of inmate socialisation and reintegration (Clemmer 1940; Wheeler 1961; Atchley and McCabe 1968), the alleviation of the pains of imprisonment (McCorkle and Korn 1954; Sykes and Messinger 1960) and the maintenance of order within prisons (Sykes 1958). The debate about whether the prison’s internal value system is generated by imported factors (Irwin and Cressey 1962; Jacobs 1974) or by the structural deprivations of prison life (Sykes 1958; Sykes and Messinger 1960; Goffman 1961) is well documented, and requires little elaboration here. Few researchers now doubt that prison culture is determined by a combination of institutional and external variables. There may be little room for significant theoretical advances in this area.
