The Inmate as the Nonperson

• DOI: 10.1177/0032885515596516
• Author: Mackenzie Rundle,Rebecca Trammell
• Date: 01 December 2015
• Published date: 01 December 2015
• Subject Matter: Articles

The Prison Journal

2015, Vol. 95(4) 472 –492

© 2015 SAGE Publications

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DOI: 10.1177/0032885515596516

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Article

The Inmate as the

Nonperson: Examining

Staff Conflict From the

Inmate’s Perspective

Rebecca Trammell1 and Mackenzie Rundle2

Abstract

Midwestern state inmates were interviewed to determine how they

understand and interpret staff conflict. Qualitative analysis has shown

that inmates describe being ignored or disregarded because of verbal and

sometimes physical fights between staff members. While others show that

those occupying a nonperson status are in a powerless position, inmates

explain that this highlights the fact that staff members are not paying

attention to them and this engenders inmate misconduct and contributes to

a culture of disrespect.

Keywords

inmate violence, staff conflict, nonperson, inmate perspective

There is certainly no shortage of research about the causes of inmate miscon-

duct in U.S. prison systems. A good deal of work examines the reasons why

inmates hurt each other and the administrative response to violence. For this

article, we examine inmate violence from a different perspective. We focus

on how inmates interpret staff conflict and how this influences their own

1Metropolitan State University of Denver, CO, USA

2Independent Scholar

Corresponding Author:

Rebecca Trammell, Criminal Justice & Criminology Department, Metropolitan State University

of Denver, Campus Box 10, Denver, CO 80217, USA.

Email: rtrammel@msudenver.edu

596516TPJXXX10.1177/0032885515596516The Prison JournalTrammell and Rundle

research-article2015

Trammell and Rundle 473

behavior. Specifically, we use interviews with a sample of male inmates in a

Midwest prison system to determine how the observations of staff-on-staff

conflict influence their own behaviors.

As we coded our interviews, two themes emerged. First, interviewees

explain that staff conflict highlights a security breach, as staff members

attend to interpersonal problems rather than inmate behavior. Moreover,

inmates describe staff members as disclosing personal information in front of

the inmates as if they are not present. These findings suggest that staff

treat the inmates as the “nonperson” as described by Goffman (1959). In

essence, the nonperson almost serves as an inanimate object that goes unrec-

ognized because they have little power to discredit or disrupt the performance

of those interacting before them.

Goffman (1959) warned that although nonpersons appear to be subordi-

nate, they wield a great deal of power because they observe things that the

performer would not want anyone of equal or higher status to know. Our

interviewees claim that they are privy to a good deal of personal information

about the prison staff. Moreover, they legitimate their own violent behavior

because they believe that staff members are not paying attention to them.

They explain that this behavior increases tension and disrespect in these facil-

ities. In fact, “disrespect” was the most common cause of inmate violence in

these facilities, and some inmates blame staff for increasing the level of dis-

respect in prison. In this sense, the inmate as a “nonperson” could increase

security threats due to the conflict among employees.

While previous studies explore why inmates assault staff members (Lahm,

2009), how inmates fraternize with staff (Beck, Harrison, Berzofsky, Caspar,

& Krebs, 2010; Worley, Marquart, & Mullings, 2003), or how inmates use

violence as a response to administrative control (Colvin, 2007; McCorkle,

Miethe, & Drass, 1995), we propose that the relationship between staff and

inmates is more nuanced than previously believed. Theoretically, we argue

that the prison system is a holistic social structure influenced in part by how

conflict is managed by authority figures. Inmates may or may not have an

amicable relationship with prison staff; however, they pay close attention to

these authority figures. As Goffman (1959) pointed out, this can give power

to the subordinated nonperson as they gain inside knowledge about the group

of people tasked with controlling the inmate population.

From a policy perspective, our findings show the importance of conflict

management among prison staff. To be sure, it is important for authority fig-

ures in all institutions to set a positive example to others. In prison, this is

especially important as staff problems might instigate problems in front of

the inmates. Clearly, this means that behaviors such as officer stress and con-

flict (Cheeseman, Kim, Lambert, & Hogan, 2011; Farkas, 2001) should be