Hester Paanakker

53 that this refers to the general notion of guaranteeing safety within the facility, meaning a safe environment for detainees during incarceration and the minimizing of incidents of aggression, violence and an atmosphere that is conducive to such incidents – only one respondent extends this focus directly to the safety of employees. This is as much a quality of the governance process (think of an adequate employee—detainee ratio or prison cell inspections to check for weapons or drugs) as a professional quality of the prison officers who, according to respondents, should actively steer on security. It is well captured by the value orientation of ‘safety awareness’ through which respondents report important spill-over effects from the safeguarding of humanity to the safeguarding of security: knowing one's detainees well (which includes clear humanity orientations such as close monitoring of behavior and anticipating (potentially) divergent behaviors by entering into dialogue) directly enables security to be preserved. Tensions are managed by means of contact and involvement. Although only 4 respondents mention this relational security explicitly, it was hinted upon by many others. Examples include: What is security about? [..] About being on your own floor with the crooks you know, with the activity program you know. […] So security has to do with: how much contact and influence do you have with respect to your environment. […] Because if [the prison officer] feels safe, he also creates safety. (respondent 14) Security is not just doors open and shut or having 3 guys on the prison yard, but security is also: in what state does the detainee reside behind that door. (respondent 5) …. if that boy explodes and ends up in isolation while you could’ve also just talked to him. You will take away a lot of tension for such a person. […] listening to what he has to say, a bit of safety, protection. Seems odd to say, but that they feel at ease here, so to speak. (respondent 1) A second, often-mentioned security orientation relates to the behavioral disciplining of detainees. Almost half of the respondents perceive a disciplinary attitude towards detainees to be part of their craftsmanship, either as opposed to the treatment styles clustered under humanity, or as a complementary treatment style, necessary to obtain a healthy balance between loose and strict employee—detainee interaction. These respondents feel that a good prison officer sets clear boundaries to undesirable and unacceptable behaviour from detainees as a way 53 Craftsmanship at Street Level