Advancing Corrections Journal - Edition #17 - Designing a Humane Corrections: Possibilities and Challenges (ACJ17-A007)

Article 7: Normalizing Work and Working Relationships in Correctional Industries: Creating Space for Social Support and Mature Coping in a Prison Environment (ACJ17-A007)

Abstract

Prison labor and work programs are essential to prison management as well as providing opportunities for incarcerated individuals to gain skills for reentry. Recent research shows that Washington State Correctional Industries significantly improves institutional behavior, increases post-prison employment, and reduces recidivism. Yet, little is known about how staff and incarcerated workers come together to experience highly structured work environments that produce these positive outcomes. Based on interviews with incarcerated workers and corrections staff, the results of this study show that structured work programs can serve as spaces where staff and incarcerated individuals can normalize professional relationships and provide opportunities for the incarcerated to cope maturely within the prison environment.

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Authors

Courtney Bagdon-Cox

Senior Research Manager, Washington State Department of Corrections, United States

Courtney Bagdon-Cox, PhD is the Senior Research Manager at the Washington State Department of Corrections. Her work includes leading research studies and program evaluations to inform agency best practices and working with external researchers engaged in projects with agency data, incarcerated persons and correctional staff. She graduated from Washington State University in 2020 with her Doctorate in Criminal Justice and Criminology with a focus on Corrections. Her dissertation Seeking Humanity and Freedom: An Examination of Prison Work Environments and Mature Coping in Incarcerated Workers won the Academy of Criminal Justice Science’s Michael C. Braswell/Routledge Outstanding Dissertation Award for 2021 and served as the foundation for her work in advancing evidence based and humane correctional policy and practice in the State of Washington and beyond.

Faith Lutze

Professor, Washington State University, United States

Faith E. Lutze, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Washington State University. She teaches courses and conducts research on violence toward women, institutional and community corrections, treatment courts, and evidence-based practices in criminal justice. Dr. Lutze has published the results of her research in numerous peer-reviewed journals and is the author of the book, The Professional Lives of Community Corrections Officers: The Invisible Side of Reentry (2014). She is a certified instructor for the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, and she is a graduate of the Washington State Department of Correction’s Correctional Worker Core Training Academy. She is intent on promoting justice, human rights, and activism that encourages professionals to advance justice through research, education, policy, and practice.

Advancing Corrections Journal - Edition #17 - Designing a Humane Corrections: Possibilities and Challenges (ACJ17-A007)

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