Stratification and Conflict among Prison Inmates

Prison studies have most often emphasized the inmate code, inmate distributive systems and the colorful argot roles which are said to be functional for the emergence and persistence of both normative and distributive systems.Little systematic attention has been paid to the significance of racial, political, and religious stratification or to formal inmate organizations.Yet, systems of stratification and formal organizations are the background against which primary groups, attitudes, and individual and group conflict develop.Inmate behavior cannot be understood without reference to these allegiances and commitments.Donald Clemmer, the pioneer student of this subject, did offer some indication of the significance of intermediate level structures and allegiances among the confined when he spoke of the elite, middle, and hoosier classes.'These classes were rooted in pre-prison residency (urban versus rural) and criminal careers.There was a diffuse sense of class consciousness among the inmates in the penitentiary which Clemmer studied, and we may assume that primary group relations developed among individuals already linked by class ties.We may hypothesize that primary groups are formed among members of the same class, faction, or secondary group because of the emotional, and to a lesser degree, material advantages of friendship cliques.Primary groups, however, do not necessarily reinforce the norms and values of the inmate society.Instead they may be said to reinforce the norms and values of those classes and secondary groups from which the primary groups are drawn.What is at stake in focusing attention on inmate stratification systems and formal organizations is the viability of the background imagery which informs research on prison organization.The view of prisoners as isolated individuals who may or may not