Hester Paanakker

on honesty or empathy (for example, being polite does not necessarily mean never breaking promises, and one can be very honest and straightforward without showing any empathy). Of course, such orientations can also exist alongside each other, or even complement each other. Finally, with respect to reintegration efforts and task effectiveness, far less divergence was found. Essentially, reintegration efforts can be reduced to two interpretations: a quality of prison officers themselves to engineer change within the detainee, or a quality of the detention process to organize detention in a way that assists the detainee to get to grips with his post-incarceration life through in-house training and with the help of relevant external chain partners. Task effectiveness seems to contain the most convergent orientations and refers to the coherent notion of there being not too much chaos and having sufficient time to fulfil the daily tasks of a prison officer. In addition, there can be different combinations of value orientations that may further obscure the illusion of a highly uniform interpretation of craftsmanship. For instance, individual care and support of detainees was outlined by the vast majority of respondents, yet very different treatment styles were suggested to describe how this support was to be provided. Some advocated a disciplining perspective founded on the display of authority and preservation of distance towards detainees, others opted for an emphatic approach founded on sheer equality and purposeful employee—detainee proximity and levelling. Several respondents also recognized that the concept of a homogenous penal craftsman was not feasible, and some explicitly said this was undesirable: ‘ There is no such thing as the ideal prison officer, rather you need a mix of people, and people themselves are also a mix of various aspects’ (respondent 14). 2.8 Discussion and Conclusion This chapter examined value orientations and consequent value convergence towards public craftsmanship among frontline professionals in the Dutch prison sector. It concerns the classification of meanings and the way corresponding value orientations are expressed to fit public officials’ own ideas and the professional framework of craftsmanship. In their conceptions of ideal craftsmanship, prison officers exhibit both similarities and differences. First, the prison officers demonstrate remarkable convergence on a more aggregated level of abstraction and prioritization, that, in addition, reflects well on the Dutch penal mission. Clearly, prison officers have internalized the values that underpin it and mirror them in their conceptions of good craftsmanship. Respondents adhere to the same (types of) values of 59 Craftsmanship at Street Level