Introduction
Prisons comprise of all types of inmates, both social and anti-social inmates. The anti-social inmates develop behavior that lacks respect for other people and may have adverse effects on the society. Anti-social inmates often have an anti-social personality disorder that involves socially irresponsible, guiltless, and exploitative behavior. With this type of behavior, the anti-social inmates tend to manipulate the staff in prisons and their fellow inmates. They develop this behavior due to depression, substance abuse, domestic violence, or psychosocial impairment. The outcome of this behavior is often the anti-social inmates committing suicide or they constantly disturb in prisons. Inmates with the antisocial personality disorder usually present excessive management problems because they are easily irritable, aggressive, disregard other people’s rights, and are not remorseful of their behavior (Allen & Bosta, 1981). Anti-social inmates disregard the law and hence manipulate the staff and violate other inmate’s rights. This paper describes the antisocial inmates and ways in which they manipulate staff and other inmates.
How antisocial inmates manipulate staff and inmates
Antisocial inmates develop all manner of ways to manipulate staff and other inmates in order to bend rules in prisons. These inmates develop relationships slowly with the staff to ensure they bend rules in minor ways and then use those breakages of the law against the officers. The inmates make the guards smuggle goods or submit to sexual acts in case of female officers. Inmates observe guard’s physical behavior to notice any uneasiness or nervousness in the correctional officers. The inmates go ahead to deliberately break rules and then look for soft staff. The inmates know that soft officers often would like to avoid confrontation and so they will allow them to bend such minor rules. Inmates may also target hard officers who ruthlessly enforcing rules in the prison.
Inmates often learn the likes and dislikes of staff members, their personal history in order to form a close bond with them. Most of these antisocial inmates work in groups and hence they are able to manipulate guards easily. The inmates also select the staff to manipulate based on their newness in the prison. Officers who are new in the prison may not be aware of the activities that go on inside the cell and hence are easy targets for criminals. Furthermore, most of the new employees do not have defensive skills, and hence are susceptible to manipulation by clients.
Antisocial inmates manipulate staff by violating rules and asking for small favors from the officers in charge of them (Fagan & Ax, 2003). The inmates test the officers by asking for small favors that they are not entitled to and continue with this trend to ask for bigger favors. This behavior is similar to the principle of cognitive dissonance where if one does a small favor, he or she will find it easier to do a bigger favor in future (Fagan & Ax, 2003). The inmates manipulate the staff in this way so that they can set them up in the future by asking for greater favors that they cannot deny them. After testing the officers, the criminals proceed with their manipulation by offering support to the officers. The inmates will label the target officers with certain names and proceed to assist them with their work chores. This way the inmate becomes indispensable to the officer and may begin to go absent for sometimes. Another manipulative tool inmates use is offering compliments to the officers. According to Quizlet (2011), compliments enhance the ego of the staff complemented yet they are usually false. Therefore, antisocial inmates use them to get to officers and violate rules without punishment.
Inmates also manipulate correctional officers by pleading for help with them. The inmates share their life experiences with the officers and ask for help from them as a way of improving the bond between the officer and the inmate. The information that inmates often feed the officers is false and most aim at getting extra leniency from such officers. Such inmates often reject help from community support groups because they are often faking the help.
Antisocial inmates also manipulate female officers by using them for sexual activities, while male officers are used for bringing in contrabands, such as alcohol or marijuana, to the prison (Topham, 2000). The inmates use sex or sexual remarks in the presence of female officers as a way of manipulating them, but will often distance themselves from the remarks. For instance, one inmate may say that a certain fellow inmate was making sexual remarks about a female officer but the inmate stepped in to silence the other inmate. This kind of talk brings in the idea of sex in the presence of the female officer but makes the inmate appear non-threatening. The female officer in this case should take the initiative to say that she does not allow such talk in her presence because remaining silent would mean consent.
The inmates also blackmail and manipulate male officers through creating a bond between them and asking small favors. The little favors eventually bring forth larger favors which are mostly illegal, such as bringing contrabands to the prison cell. Antisocial inmates manipulate the officers by making them break simple rules and then use them to break greater rules (Allen & Bosta, 1981). The inmates also develop a habit of presenting the staff with a shopping list for contrabands such as a small cigarette, drugs or sex and once the officer consents; it becomes difficult to refuse future favors. The inmates will in future present the staff with greater demands, which if the officer decides to refuse, the inmate threatens him or her about reporting past behavior to seniors.
Most antisocial inmates suffer from mental illnesses that make them manipulative to their fellow inmates and the staff in charge of them. Such inmates force their fellow inmates to act irresponsibly and get to the wrong side of the law. They may force the inmates to take drugs with them and smuggle them into prison in order for them to be on the wrong side of the law. The antisocial inmates begin fights with other fellow inmates and then blame the inmates for the criminal activities. They disregard the feelings of other inmates, lie, steal, and carry out other criminal activities while blaming their fellow inmates for the unruly behavior. These category of inmates behave in this manipulative manner blaming their mental condition for the behavior.
The inmates further manipulate staff by making them empathize and sympathize with them (Cornelius, 2009). The inmates pretend to relate with the problems of fellow inmates and staff and identify with their problems without feeling sorry. This type of empathy is a way of manipulating the staff to get their attention. The inmates also get the staff and other inmates to sympathize with them yet they are often faking the problem just so they can break rules. Inmates gather information about ways to manipulate officers by listening to their conversations or observing behavior of the staff with other inmates and staff. Therefore, the staffs need to be careful about their conversations because they serve as a tool for manipulation by the antisocial employees whose motive is to break rules.
Recommendations
Officers should be aware of flattery remarks that inmates make in order to boost their ego because they act as ways of manipulation. The staff should make boundaries between them and inmates, and avoid excessive friendliness with the inmates because they only breed manipulation and once in the trap, it becomes difficult to escape. In addition, the staff and other inmates should report any breakage of the law however small it may appear because the inmates use such mistakes to manipulate the staff in future. The staffs need to be careful with minor offences because they set the trap for manipulation by the inmates to break greater rules.
Limitations
It is not always possible for correctional officers to distinguish between honest inmates and dishonest ones. Some officers fall into the trap of the inmates because they act very honestly by sharing their problems with the staff. Some of the inmates may genuinely suffer from mental illnesses that make them manipulative.
The correctional officers fail to recognize genuine inmates because they do not have the skills of psychologists and hence end up becoming victims of manipulation. The officers need to investigate further any deals with the inmates to ensure that they do not fall for their traps. Psychologists can assist these officers to identify the genuine and false inmates and their problems to determine if they aim at manipulating officers or not (Cornelius, 2009). The environment that officers operate in the correctional areas also limits the ability of identifying tricky inmates and honest ones. The officers should take measures to investigate if the inmates are suffering from antisocial personality disorder or other mental illnesses.
Conclusion
It is important for staff to draw a clear line between the inmates and themselves to avoid targets for manipulation. The staff should avoid discussing one inmate with others especially if they have an antisocial personality disorder or a mental illness. The officer should address the inmate in their proper names and avoid discussing the inmate with other staff. In addition, the officer should avoid using abusive language or asking the inmates about their crime. With these standards in place, staff and other inmates avoid instances of manipulation from antisocial inmates.
References
Allen, B. & Bosta, D. (1981). Games Criminals Play: How you can profit by knowing them.
Roseville, CA: Rae John Publishers.
Cornelius, G.F. (2009). Offender’s Personality
Accessed at: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7733/is_200911/ai_n42859735/?tag=content;col1
Fagan, T.J. & Ax, R.K. (2003). Correctional mental health handbook. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage Publications, Inc.
Topham, J. (2000). Florida Department of Corrections
http://www.dc.state.fl.us/pub/compass/0003/page03.html
Quizlet.com LLC (2011). Recognizing inmate deception and manipulation
http://quizlet.com/1911758/recognizing-inmate-deception-and-manipulation-flash-cards/
