Jail Adaptation and Loyalty to the Code of the Incarcerated

Abstract

This article assesses the ability of the adaptation theories of deprivation and importation to explain loyalty to the “inmate” code in a jail setting. The code emphasizes shared values such as respectability, toughness, self-reliance, domination, violence, distrust of institutions, and not meddling or snitching. Prior literature assessing how people adjust to incarceration has used the theories of deprivation or importation mainly to examine prison conduct. Research about the code of the incarcerated has also failed to examine the code in jails. Given the history of mass incarceration and the accompanying impact on correctional facilities, we should subsequently reassess the principles of adaptation theories, including their role in code loyalty, and specifically in the jail setting. In this study, we used nested, ordinary least squares regression to analyze the results of a survey conducted in two jail facilities in one state. Though loyalty to the code in jails was explained by the tenets of both theories, importation had a slightly greater influence. This implies that while jail correctional subculture emerges from both the shared experience of life behind bars as well as the characteristics of individuals who are among jail populations, some pre-jail characteristics are particularly relevant.