Loyalty, Integrity, Protection and Gender: The Making and Breaking of Correctional Officer Collectivity

ABSTRACT

Discourses of ‘brotherhoods’ prevail in public safety sectors and remain empirically limited regarding correctional officers (COs). We nuance the CO ‘brotherhood’, referred to as the CO collectivity, to avoid the gender-exclusion of the term ‘brotherhood’, specifically to interpret the solidarity (or lack thereof) shaping relationships between COs. Drawing on qualitative interviews with federally employed COs in Canada (n = 62), we focus on nuancing the definition of the CO collectivity, explaining how the collectivity is constructed, and what constitutes inclusion. By interpreting the boundaries of inclusion in the CO collectivity, we show how officers, of all genders, feel obliged to perform to varying degrees the conventions of the collectivity that strengthen the likelihood of their inclusion. We show how CO embodiment of gendered traits must be in flux within prison and strategically reconstructed based on occupational challenges. We conclude by putting forth considerations for increasing inclusivity, safety, and pro-social comradery within CO and prison workspaces.