Corrections at Work

""Drawing on unprecedented access to a state department of corrections, TaLisa Carter's groundbreaking study develops and tests the Institutional Response Model to illuminate how organizational responses to employee behavior are shaped by individual characteristics, institutional contexts, and social identities within the criminal justice system. Through rigorous mixed-methods analysis of human resources files and ethnographic observations, the author demonstrates that commendations and sanctions are distributed based not solely on merit, but on the visibility of actions, institutional context, and the social status of actors. This essential contribution fills a critical gap in criminal justice scholarship by centering correctional employees rather than those processed through the system, offering both theoretical innovations and concrete policy recommendations for addressing systemic inequities."" - Jennifer Cobbina-Dungy, author of Hands Up, Don't Shoot: Why the Protests in Ferguson and Baltimore Matter and How They Changed America ""Few understand the people who work on the front-lines of our prisons, jails, and correctional facilities. In fact, for the most part, these individuals are invisible except that we acknowledge that the facilities that they work in are all too often considered toxic. Along comes TaLisa Carter, who brings her experiences as a correctional officer as well as a criminologist to appreciate the role, responsibilities, and factors that affect the work that correctional staff are involved in. This book facilitates a greater appreciation for the correctional workforce, and one that we can use to reconsider how to reform carceral facilities to better serve those who live and work in these facilities."" - Faye S. Taxman, co-author of Handbook on Moving Corrections and Sentencing Forward: Building on the Record ""In Corrections at Work, Carter combines personal experience with rigorous, innovative, and embedded scholarship to reveal the important work of correctional officers and the institutions that shape their work experience on the inside. She challenges the current binary conceptualizations of corrections work and describes the nuances of prison work, as well as how it is influenced by broader systemic structures and associated failures."" - Beth Huebner, co-editor of Moving Corrections and Sentencing Forward: Building on the Record ""Corrections at Work provides readers with a much-needed window into the world of correctional officers—who are often maligned and neglected in the study of criminal justice. Drawing on her unique experience as a former correctional officer turned scholar, she masterfully bridges the gap with her extraordinary grasp of the complex issues tied to the profession. Moving past the redundant studies on policing, Carter's book provides current and aspiring corrections scholars with a roadmap for understanding the inner workings of the corrections profession. The groundbreaking work introduces readers to her Institutional Response Model of Social Control that represents a promising way to understand institutional responses to employee behavior. Quite frankly, correctional administrators would be wise to consider her well-reasoned recommendations."" - Shaun L. Gabbidon, co-author of Race, Ethnicity, Crime, & Justice: An International Dilemma ""In Corrections at Work, Carter weaves her own rich experiences as a correctional officer (CO) with the experiences of individuals working in correctional institutions in unprecedented and thoughtful ways. Via her Institutional Response Model, Carter skillfully details what COs endure, what they create, and how their employing institutions assist, and at times, fail them. This book is a welcome addition to the litany of scholarship devoid of the important positionality Carter brings and a new go-to reading for anyone hoping to reform corrections in America."" - Danielle S. Rudes, author of Surviving Solitary: Living and Working in Restricted Housing Units