Federal prisons across the U.S. are in lockdown. The reason? Two inmates were killed, and two were injured during a fight involving members of the notorious street gang MS-13 at the federal prison in Beaumont, Texas. United States Prison (USP) Beaumont is just one of the 122 federal prisons in the U.S. In total, there are over 153,000 inmates in U.S. federal prisons. The concern that sparked the lockdown was the possibility of retaliation for the deaths by other factions of MS-13 located in federal prisons across the country. This lockdown crisis offers us an opening into the topic of total institutions, an isolated group whose goal is to control every aspect of its members’ lives.
Prisons are a type of total institution. Other examples include boarding schools and military boot camps. These institutions work to transform the individual through the process of resocialization, an identity transformation in which social norms and roles are altered or replaced. Resocialization is different from socialization, the process by which one learns the appropriate attitudes and behaviors within a culture.
In prisons, the resocialization process includes molding the inmate to conform to the ways of the institution. This involves losing access to personal belongings, being required to wear a uniform, and being assigned a number. Additional resocialization measures include determining where you will live, what time you wake up and go to sleep, and what time you eat meals. A degradation ceremony, an event, ceremony, or rite of passage used to break down people and make them more accepting of a total institution, is a common occurrence in total intuitions. In prison, the strip search qualifies as a degradation ceremony.
Some people may try to prepare for their experience in a total institution with anticipatory socialization, the process of learning different behaviors or activities in an effort to aspire to group membership. For high-profile or wealthy prison inmates, this may include hiring a “prison consultant” to teach them the ins and outs of prison life. People entering military boot camps may try to prepare themselves ahead of time by developing their mental and physical stamina.
