Factors shaping inmate trust in correctional officers in Taiwan: Do procedural justice and distributive justice really matter?

Abstract

While humane care, fair treatment, and respect for the rights and interests of prisoners have been found to reduce the levels of prisoners’ psychological distress and maladaptation (including mistrust in correctional officers) in the West, there is a lack of empirical research examining the relationship between inmates and correctional officers in a non-West society. Drawing on well-established theoretical models (importation, deprivation, and normative models) developed in the West, this article aims to address the core process of inmate attitude formation towards correctional officers. Using data collected from 1,025 adult inmates incarcerated in 10 Taiwanese prisons in 2020, a series of binary logistic regressions (BLR) was used to examine these survey data in considerable depth. Results showed that more than 60% of the respondents report having trust in the correctional officers in the facilities where they were incarcerated. Multivariate analyses showed that social support from staff, procedural justice, distributive justice, age, and gender (male) all produced significant and positive associations with inmate trust in correctional officers. Discussion of the results observed and policy implications for institutional corrections practice are presented in closing remarks and observations.