“We’re Silent Heroes”: Inmate Firefighters’ Experiences with Dignity and Shame in a Prison Labor Program

• Author: Taryn VanderPyl
• DOI: 10.1177/00328855211029626
• Published date: 01 September 2021
• Date: 01 September 2021
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/00328855211029626

The Prison Journal

2021, Vol. 101(4) 398 –419

© 2021 SAGE Publications

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DOI: 10.1177/00328855211029626

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Article

“We’re Silent Heroes”:

Inmate Firefighters’

Experiences with

Dignity and Shame in a

Prison Labor Program

Taryn VanderPyl1

Abstract

Adults in custody (AICs) in a prison labor program experience conflicting

messages and feelings of shame and dignity. Despite the program’s mission

to help ease reentry, experiences of shame and shaming from correctional

officers (COs) and the community may be setting AICs up for an increased

likelihood of reoffending upon release. Using the concepts of shame and

dignity, 21 program interviewee narratives were explored for their insights.

Program improvements and recommendations for interventions with

correctional officers, AICs, and the community are offered.

Keywords

prison labor, dignity, shame, reentry

Introduction

“We were on the news, and my very first fire I’m on the news, and it talks about

this lady, and she was like, ‘There’s a 30-man crew out here and I’m so grateful

for these guys out here. They saved my house. They did all this. Thank you so

1Western Oregon University, Monmouth, USA

Corresponding Author:

Taryn VanderPyl, Criminal Justice Sciences, Western Oregon University, 345 Monmouth

Avenue North, Monmouth, OR 97361, USA.

Email: vanderpylt@wou.edu

1029626TPJXXX10.1177/00328855211029626The Prison JournalVanderPyl

research-article2021

VanderPyl 399

much.’ The next day, I see the next day and it’s the same lady and she’s like,

‘Well, come to find out that this 30-man crew are all inmates. If that were the

case, I wouldn’t even want them out here.’ Okay, next time we’ll let your house

burn down, lady.”

The epigraph summarizes succinctly the conflicting experiences in the battle

between dignity and shame of the adults-in-custody (AICs) at South Fork

Forest Camp (SFFC), a minimum-security prison in Oregon. SFFC boasts a

forestry and fire fighting work program at its remote facility housing 200

AICs (Oregon Department of Corrections, 2021). The mission of SFFC is to

“provide cost effective, skilled inmate labor” for regional forest and fire

protection; “promote public safety by holding inmates accountable”; and

“reduce recidivism by modeling pro social behavior and teaching work skills

that help inmates be productive citizens upon release” (Oregon Department

of Forestry, 2019). The program seeks to address a number of concerns that

could potentially help ease reentry. Yet, interviews with the AICs reveal there

is constant tension as the participants experience feelings of dignity and

shame that threaten to undermine the program’s goals of reducing recidivism

and reintegrating the men into society as productive citizens.

As studies have documented, the public commonly reacts to those who

have made criminal mistakes or choices with shaming and hostility.

Middlemass (2017) refers to society’s treatment of formerly incarcerated

individuals as pariahs as a form of social disability. “When felons exit prison,

society stigmatizes, discredits, and fears them, which results in a societal

exclusion” (p. 26) and being met with “social hostility” (p. 30). Such a reac-

tion is reflected in the introductory quotation.

This attitude toward those reentering society is concerning in that most

AICs will be released to rejoin communities that may not want or welcome

them. As a result, AICs face multiple socially constructed barriers despite

having been punished for their offense. Braithwaite (1989) warns that stigma

often has “crime-producing consequences” resulting from treating formerly

incarcerated people as outcasts and focusing on the offense rather than the

individual. Middlemass (2017) supports this notion by positing that a felony

label changes an individual into a “forced outlaw” (p. 3).

This phenomenon was also described by Gutterman (1992) in his evalu-

ation of dignity in prisons. He explained that AICs are considered, “socially

threatening. . . . It is generally accepted that prisoners, isolated from pub-

lic view and regarded with disgust by the politic, are receiving their ‘just

desserts’” (p. 898). For example, one participant in a study about juvenile

prisons shared, “We can save lives inside as earthquake relief and fire-

fighters but outside the prison walls we’re a bunch of filthy ex-cons”