Seminar in Criminology - Research paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Seminar in Criminology - Research paper - Essay Example These are not good prison films because they show criminals suffering behind bars, but they are good because the actors capture those moments as if they were real. Though there are critics that may argue that the films do not provide an authentic presentation of prison life, the film directors try as much to capture all the details. In United States, prisoners have always had to adapt to so many pressures which most of them have to adapt to so as to survive while in prisons (Pollock, 2011). This has always been the turn of events in the last few decades. In the last seven to nine years, the criminal justice system has transformed and it is now changed the way most prisons are today. As noted by the prisoners who are there today, the challenges that the Federal Bureau of Prisons registers in its records from prisons shows that they have intensified and exchanged as opposed to the way they were 20 or 30 years ago (Thistlethwaite & Wooldredge, 2014). All prisons have a specific subculture that is exceptional only to them. It is the functional code or a system of beliefs that inmates adhere by when in any prison. However, looking at the behavior of inmates while in prison it is important to know the terms involved. What is a prison subculture? Thistlethwaite and Wooldredge (2014) it is a means of adapting to the deprivations that inmates face while in prison. According to Blackbrun, Pollock and Fowler (2012), prisoner subculture refers to the inmate code which is the set code of behavior among inmates, or special languages or values and prisoner roles. From this description, the subculture of prisoners shows that it is usually associated with negative use of words such as â€Å"sissys† and â€Å"punks† (Blackbrun, Pollock and Fowler, 2012). Based on what Blackbrun, Pollock and Fowler (2012) see as a prison subculture, development of such prisoner roles, and