blog 20

Dora Schriro, was the first women “in the job.” Dora was recognized as the first women in the United States to have ran and headed “two state prison systems.” The reading, first off explains the awards and experiences of Dora. She had been in the prison system for a long period of time and achieved a lot. She was announced in the year of 1999 as the “nations top correctional director.” It is uncommon that a women would receive such credentials and recognitions let alone receive head position of a prison system. Dora came to Arizona to take over a “10 prison,” which had about 32,000 inmates. When Dora began working there had been some improvements and immediate changes that had taken place.

Arizona Lewis Prison was recognized as the site that had the longest “prison hostage crisis.” This unfortunate incident lasted for 15 days. Dora Schriro, was in charge and took immediate actions. It was confusion as to finding the basic information needed for the site. Schriro tried asking numerous guards about the tower that was taken hostage. In this tower there were 2 inmates that had taken prison guards hostage. This tower was designed not to have any weapons in it however, it consisted of “arsenal weapons” that was in the hands of the inmates. Schriro, discovered within hours of taking over that the security was “careless” and that there were no “uniformity” in the training.

At Work In The Iron Cage, identified many conditions and issues that can happen in prison. Britton argued that being a correctional officer can be dangerous at times. There are many issues that arise and in this case at the Arizona Lewis Prison, the inmates took two officers hostage. One was immediately hit in the head, and the other was raped. Lois, one of the officers that was held hostage, was new that prison site. While in the tower she opened the tower to a person who appeared to be another guard. The person that appeared to be a guard was an inmate. In relation to Britton arguments, prison systems can be violent and officers are not to trust inmates. Also, the gender stereotypes in the reading, reflected how male displayed women as a sign of weakness. Women are usually thought to react based upon emotions without thinking. Dora Schriro, did not act she tried to think of a plan and she had patience. She didn’t want anyone to get hurt they could have easily taken the building down though she didn’t want the hostages to get hurt. Lois also, while held hostage, thought before acting. Men believe that women act upon emotions as explained earlier, however, Lois did not panic and took everything to extreme she simply acted as if she did not know how to do anything because she was new. She acted as if she didn’t know how to load a rifle, open the gates, etc..

This situation at this prison displayed total institution because the who prison was effected by it. Not only were the prison affected by it but also others. Also, these prisons are considered as a total institution because it consist of “small class organizations” (pg. 3). These inmates lives there whole lives at these institutions. They basically have their own society however, within their society the have restrictions and rules that they have to follow.

Since prisons were created and established there have been gendered organizations. Everything is solely based on gender. According to the reading, male and females differ in these correctional facilities. Women, have more of the disadvantage then what men do. There is more expected of a women then a men because of the non traditional job. Even though the system is trying to be neutral it still is based off of masculinity. Masculinity traditionally reflects a man. In the article, Lois was perceived to be a sign of weakness. In relation to Britton, male colleagues feel that women guards are a sign a weakness. While in court during the hearing and trial of the inmate that had taken her hostage, she became nervous. During the ordeal she though of committing suicide which shows as a weakness to her giving up instead of fighting. On the other hand, men are viewed as masculine and therefore, they can handle more violent situations than a women. This type of occupation is engendered because the prison system have always been viewed as violence. It doesn’t “exist as a neutral bureaucratic entity.” Engendered in the prison is basically formed from “gender, race, class, and sexuality.” However, looking back at the article, Britton recommendations in the reading could have positively affected the situation. Since Britton recommends more training as one of the recommendations, I believe it could have overall helped the situation but do not know if it would have prevented it from happening.