Correctional officers’ practices and representations in Italy - A disciplinary discourse

The thesis aims to investigate a localized phenomenon, namely the level of adherence of correctional officers’ representations and practices working in an Italian prison, to specific disciplinary models, linking it to the broad macro processes that have framed systems of institutional power and culture. In doing so, I concentrate on two variables pertaining to the correctional officers’ constructs, gender and merit, exploring the level of discretional power linked to them. Using gender and merit as variables entails to examine in depth whether correctional officers’ practices reproduce and reify specific representations of prisoners, developed from a shared culture pertaining to the prison system and to wider disciplinary models. Moreover, the presence of an unequal narrative of meritocracy based on different gendered expectations impacting prison’s sanctioning and rewarding system has been inquired as well.