Institutional Control Models
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Institutional Control Models
Institutional control models encompass means used by different institutions to gain control over the subjects. There are three control models used in the prison context, which are the control model that puts the power entirely in the official hands. Decisions are made by the facility officials and passed down to the inmates (Yeung 2016). The responsibility model assumes that the inmates are responsible for their actions and, therefore, their lives in the correctional institution. The consensual model seeks decision making from involving the inmates, and changes made have to be in the consultation with the inmates.
The three models of control relate to one another through social, cultural, and administrative aspects. Communication in the control model flows vertically from the officials through the staff to the inmates, keeping it strict and formal. The responsibility model assumes a less stringent and formal means of communication. The transfer of information in the consensual model is formal. The relationship between staff and subjects is also different in both models. The staff has no discretion and power to make a judgment without supervisor approval in the control model. In the responsibility model, the staff has less choice and can make the necessary judgment. The consensual model gives the staff the freedom to make judgment of a situation. Both models, however, work within standard rules that govern and guide the operation within the facilities.
The proposed withdrawal of security guards from the California department of correction and rehabilitation was a classic case of how criminal justice influences these power models. Withdrawal of security affected officials control over inmates hence affecting the control model. It is necessary to keep the models in check by operating with a standard set of rules with the models differential applicable to different group of offenders,
References
Yeung, K. T., & Somashekhar, M. H. (2016). Sense Experience and Institutional Control: Sensory Resistance and Agency in Old Prisons. Theory, Culture & Society, 33(3), 79-101.