Hester Paanakker

Table 3.1. Respondent characteristics Prison officials ( N=32) Prison officials ( N=32) Gender Years of service Male 25 5-10 4 Female 7 10-15 7 Age 16-20 5 30-35 1 21-25 4 36-40 2 26-30 9 41-45 7 >30 3 46-50 9 51-55 5 56-60 7 61-65 1 As professionals working at street level, prison officers are a suitable representation of the type of craftsmen we set out to research. Typical of street-level work, the work of prison officers entails the shaping of prison policies through the frequency, nature and effectuated impact of their interaction with detainees. In the Netherlands, prison officers are granted substantial professional decision-making authority “in the support, motivation, and stimulation of detainees, in the intervention in aggressive behaviors and crisis situations, in the individual support of detainees as mentor, in the informing of detainees, and in the drafting of detainee (behavioral) reports” (Dutch Correctional Agency, 2009b). This also signals the unique and complex professional skillsets that Dutch prison officers, as true craftsmen, acquire, partially through their common professional (in house) training and partially learnt on the job. This unique skillset sets them apart from the security guards that are prison officers in many other countries. In the Netherlands however the core staff in prisons consists of two distinct groups of personnel: security guards who control all movements into, within and out of the penal facility, and prison officers who are assigned and trained to undertake a range of responsibilities in detainee care, providing motivation, and facilitating and fostering behavioral change among detainees, which includes core competencies such as “sensitivity” to (their own role in) other people’s feelings and needs, and “professional integrity” (Dutch Correctional Agency, 2009b). Prison officers furthermore share a professional code of conduct – prescribing desired professional behaviors, and giving detailed guidance on 75 Mismatch Between Ideals and Institutional Facilitation