The Prison as an Autocracy

One potential source of information, not only about prisons but also about the sort of social environment of which the prison is typical, is the inmate group itself. As yet this source has been but little exploited on anything approaching a quantitative level. The neglect of this source is unfortunate, since information obtained in studies of the inmates can be of considerable use both in formulating practical penological policy, and in constructing socio-psychological theory. From the point of view of social psychology, the prison is especially interesting at the present time as a prime example of the autocratic group; i.e., a group in which policy is, for the most part, determined by the top members of a hierarchy. From the angle of penological practice, it is clear that no program aiming at anything more ambitious than mere segregation and punishment can be effective without taking into account the reactions of the majority of its subjects. It is important to know not only what the program means to the administrator, but also what it means for the prisoner. Reliable information about the meaning for the prisoner can be obtained only by going directly to large numbers of the inmates themselves.