A Study of the Inmate Code of Conduct in Spanish Prison

ABSTRACT

The adaptation to life within the prisons is still unknown today despite having been defined almost 80 years ago by Clemmer under the name of prisonization. The aim of this paper is to estimate the phenomenon of prisonization in the Spanish penitentiary environment through a sample of 509 inmates. For data collection an instrument has been developed of the estimation of the prisonization. Correlation and regression analyzes have been carried with variables of both importation and deprivation models of prisonization. As a novelty, personality variables have been included in the analysis whose relation to prisonization has not yet been studied. The results showed a high reliability value (α =.810) of the scale and that it is a personality variable, the aggression, followed by two variables related to the deprivation model which would explain the prisonization of the Spanish inmates.

Acknowledgments

We appreciate the support provided by the General Secretariat of Penitentiary Institutions, Ministry of the Interior, Government of Spain, give us access to penitentiary centers. Without your consent this work could not have been done.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maria Penado Abilleira

Maria Penado Abilleira: Professor at the Universidad Isabel I (Director of Psychology), PhD in clinical, forensic and legal psychology from the Complutense University of Madrid.

Her publications focus on explaining the aggressive behavior of adolescents (gender violence and other deviant behaviors), as well as the study of the personality variables and conditioning factors of inmates deprived of liberty.

María Luisa Rodicio-García

María Luisa Rodicio-García: Professor at the University of A Coruña (Faculty of Education Sciences) Linked to the University since 1982 Phd in Education Sciences from the University of Santiago de Compostela Coordinator of the FORVI Research Unit, Training and Orientation for Life.

She has more than 30 years of experience in the university world and has participated in more than 30 collective works (books and book chapters), directed theses and more than 20 articles related to educational orientation and attention to minorities (women, immigrants and prisoners).

Her publications are developed in the field of prevention and intervention in cases of bullying and the perception of basic emotions in minority settings such as prisons