The Prison Officer Uniform

When thinking about uniforms in prison, most people think about what prisoners wear, but what about all the people for whom the prison is their place of work? This book explores the identity, actions and interactions of prison staff through the lens of the clothes and uniforms they wear. Based on 221 interviews with staff and prisoners across 14 prisons in Australia and Norway, Eriksson looks at how uniforms make prison staff visible, a prism that captures and expels identity, culture, power, morality and ideology, and discusses to what extent these dynamics are reflective of wider societal norms and dynamics in the different countries. Eriksson pays particular attention to the role of staff who are not seen as the ‘traditional’ prison officers. This includes women, who are in essence 'wearing masculinity' while on the job, as well as the large percentage of non-security staff including educational- and vocational staff, psychologists, administrators, chefs, counsellors, and medical staff. Using clothes and uniforms as lenses into the cultural, political, social, economic, and historical context of practices of imprisonment in different jurisdictions, this book also pays attention to important local variations, and places the focus on the people who live and work inside these different institutions of punishment. Importantly, the discussions here are not only relevant for those who work, lead or research prisons around the world, but for other uniformed professions where similar dynamics and considerations around the uniform exist, such as the police and the military.