Learning to Watch Out

Abstract

In this article, I examine how prison chaplains are socialized to the risks of working with inmates. The dialectical tension of prison work—both routine and repetitive while also potentially uncertain and volatile—requires a distinctive working personality (see Skolnick 1966). I argue that the institution has a significant impact on the construction of a workplace culture defined primarily by risk management. The institutional culture of corrections creates perceptions of risk that chaplains come to internalize and negotiate in various ways. Using qualitative interview data, I discuss chaplains’ management of risk. I conclude by discussing the relationship between working in a total institution and the development of a working personality unique to correctional chaplains.