To snitch or not to snitch, that is the question: Exploring the role of inmate informants in detecting inappropriate relationships between the keeper and the kept

Abstract

This paper investigates the role inmate informants play in detecting inappropriate prisoner–guard relationships. Data for this exploratory study were collected as part of a larger project, where the author conducted 32 face-to-face interviews with prisoners who engaged in inappropriate boundary violations with correctional officers. Twelve of these respondents (38%) reported that their relationships were brought to an end due to an inmate informant. Based on the interviews, it is likely that inmate informants are motivated to violate the subcultural norm of silence when they perceive fellow prisoners are engaging in inappropriate behaviors with prison staff. Further research in this area is warranted.

Keywords:

• informants
• inappropriate relationships
• prison culture

Acknowledgements

The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance, support, and wonderful hospitality of countless TDCJ employees in Human Resources and Internal Affairs for making this research possible. The author also acknowledges the valuable input of staff on local prison units. Finally, the author deeply appreciates all the staff in Executive Services for facilitating this research project, in countless ways, from beginning to end. While the Texas Department of Criminal Justice approved this study, this does not imply the Department's endorsement or concurrence with statements or conclusions contained therein.

Notes

R.M. Bloom, Ratting: The Use and Abuse of Informants in the American Justice System. (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2002), 3–5.

E. Brown, Snitch: Informants, Cooperators, and the Corruption of Justice. (New York: Public Affairs Books, 2007), 169–75.

M. Dodge, ‘Juvenile Police Informants: Police, Persuasion, and Pretense’, Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice 4 (2006), 236–40.

See Note 2, pp. 3–9; A. Natapoff, Snitching: Criminal Informants and the Erosion of American Justice (New York: NYU Press, 2009), 17–27, 70; A. Natapoff, ‘Beyond Unreliable: How Snitches Contribute to Wrongful Convictions’, Golden Gate Law Review 37 (2006), 107–16.

G. Sykes, The Society of Captives: A Study of a Maximum Security Prison. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1958), 89–90, 94.

J.W. Marquart and J.B. Roebuck, ‘Prison Guards and Snitches: Deviance within a Total Institution’, British Journal of Criminology 25 (1985), 220–25, 232.

B.M. Crouch and J.W. Marquart, An Appeal to Justice: Litigated Reform of Texas Prisons (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1989), 47, 55; L. Glenn, The Largest Hotel Chain in Texas. (Austin, TX: Eakin Press, 2001), 27.

R. Perkinson, Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire (New York: Picador, 2010), 279.

R. Morris, The Devil's Butchershop: The New Mexico Prison Uprising. (Albuquerque, NM, 1988), 41–46.

R.M. Worley, J. Marquart and J.L. Mullings, ‘Prison Guard Predators: An Analysis of Inmates who Established Inappropriate Relationships with Prison Staff, 1995–1998’, Deviant Behavior 24 (2003), 179.