ABSTRACT
It is in the last stages of the criminal justice process that we find the lowest public visibility for organizational practices. Prisons, unlike police and judicial organizations, operate with very little scrutiny until something occurs that comes to the attention of the public. This is why field research is so important in these institutional settings. Although there have historically been numerous studies about the various aspects of prison life, the enormous growth of prison construction and heterogeneous inmate populations has changed the way in which these facilities operate. In addition, the past several decades have seen a dramatic change in the population of those who now occupy the positions of correctional officers. These two fundamental changes in the prison environment necessitate the need for a better understanding of the prison as a work world.
