What is the new inmate culture? What caused this culture to develop, and what affect has it had on prison life?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The importation of outside values into the inmate culture has had a dramatic effect on prison life and has started a change of the old inmate subculture. The old inmate subculture helped create order in the institution and prevented violence among the inmates. The death of the old systems seems to have been precipitated by the black power movements in the 1960s and 1970s. Black inmates were no longer content to play the subservient role and challenged the power of established white inmates. As the black power movement gained prominence, racial tensions in prisons created divisions that severely altered the inmate subculture. For example, older, respected inmates could no longer cross racial lines to mediate disputes, and predatory inmates could victimize others without fear of retaliation. In the new culture, African American and Latino inmates are much more cohesively organized than whites. Inmates with long histories of delinquent and antisocial behaviors imported their cultural values into prison. New prison groups formed out of religious or political affiliations and others out of efforts to combat discrimination in prisons. Racially homogenous gangs are so cohesive and powerful that they are able to replace the original inmate code with one of their own.