The “left” and “right” arm of the prison: Prison work and the local legal culture of the penitentiary

Abstract

This contribution aims to explore the tension between the juridical dimension of the prison system and the everyday practices that take place within it. The article focuses on prison officers’ and health professionals’ legal culture, drawing from ethnographic researches made by the authors in 4 correctional facilities in Northern Italy. Prison officers’ and health professionals’ working practices can be representative of two ideal-typical patterns of prison staff’s action, that we exemplified using the “right” and “left arm” metaphor. The empirical researches conducted by the authors, while highlighting differences and affinities between the two working styles, describe the mutual adaptation of both groups to the peculiarities of the “local legal culture” that characterizes the prison environment. Both groups, grafting within this local legal culture of the prison, contribute to reproducing the maintenance of order and the pursuit of security, which are the main aims of the prison itself.