Feedback Questions regarding the book “Society of Captives”

Paper instructions:
Read the following short book:

Sykes (1958, 2007). The Society of Captives: A Study of a Maximum Security Prison.

Then ANSWER ALL 7 QUESTIONS

1) Discuss the defects of total power. That is, explain the limits and corruption of guards’ official authority (e.g., ability to give and have orders carried out by prisoners).
2) Discuss the pains of imprisonment. What impact do these pains have on the prisoners?
a. Which deprivation do you think would be most “painful?†Explain why.
3) Do you agree with Sykes that the behavior of inmates (and a common inmate culture) is related to their present incarceration rather than influences that were imported from outside the prison (i.e., their life before confinement)? Explain why or why not.
4) Discuss the argot roles of the prisoners. Explain how these behavioral patterns (modes of adaptation) depict prisoner responses to the pains of imprisonment.
a. What argot role best fosters social cohesion among the prisoners? What role(s) are most disruptive to social cohesion within the prison? Explain.
5) Discuss Sykes’s theory of prison riots or collective action by prisoners (Chapter 6). Do you agree with his hypothesis? What might be other explanations for riots and collective violence? Explain.
6) Sykes’s research was conducted in the 1950s. How do you think inmate society has changed in the era of mass incarceration? That is, what do you think is different in prisons today? Explain.
7) Should we care about inmate culture or the social life in prisons? Explain why or why not.