Inmate Adjustment to Prison and the Transition to Community Life

Abstract

Traditional prisons contain two separate and to some extent mutually ex clusive institutional cultures: the formal culture promulgated by the adminis tration and staff and the informal inmate subculture. While prior research on inmate adaptation to prison has focused on the inmate subculture, this paper examines inmate assimilation into the formal prison culture as well and ex plores the relationship between mode of adjustment to prison and the process of transition to community life. This study consisted of two phases. Phase 1 delineated four modes of adjustment to incarceration-rebellious, institu tionalized, manipulative release oriented, and positivistic-through the use of behavioral, attitudinal, and demographic data. Phase 2, a six-month follow-up study of a sample of inmates after their release from prison, found that pa rolees who had used the institutionalized mode of adjustment to prison had the greatest difficulties during the first two months on parole and rebellious in mates made the smoothest transition. In addition, prisonization was not found to impair postrelease outcome. These results suggest that inmate conformity to the formal institutional culture may lead to difficulties after release, while nonconformity may enhance short-term postrelease adaptation.