Kendra Clark (University of Colorado, Boulder) wrote a compelling paper titled, “Rethinking Prisonization: A Longitudinal Investigation of Adherence to the Convict Code Across Stages of Incarceration.”
This study is a longitudinal examination of changes in adherence to the “convict code” within individuals across multiple periods of incarceration. The author proposes a “durability model” to describe the nature of prisonization and tests it alongside the importation and deprivation models using data from the Pathways to Desistance study.
The author’s efforts to advance criminal justice theory by proposing a new way to think about the nature of prisonization really stood out about this paper, as did the way that she leverages the Pathways data to examine prisonization as a dynamic process evolving across multiple periods of incarceration/release. The paper is well-organized and the writing is clear and polished. The author engages with the literature effectively and uses appropriate research methods. She justifies her methodological choices and explains the methods used clearly and concisely.