LEGITIMACY AND ORDER IN PRISONS

This paper attempts to theorize some aspects of problems of order in p risons in the light of recent contributions in the theory of legitimac y by Beetham (1991) and Tyler (1990). Previous work in the sociology o f imprisonment has generally raised the problem of legitimation only i mplicitly, and often merely to deny its possibility. Drawing on fieldw ork in two English maximum security prisons, we argue that while priso ns present chronic problems of legitimacy, it may nevertheless be poss ible to specify circumstances under which prisoners are more or less l ikely to confer or withhold degrees of recognition of legitimate autho rity of prison staff and regimes. Such conditions include not only the regularity and efficiency of service delivery, but also perceived dis tributive and procedural fairness of treatment, as well as human quali ties in the nature of routines. We deploy these considerations in anal ysing aspects of current British penal politics.