Promotie
Jail Craft of Prison Officers in Post-Authoritarian Prisons: a Comparatieve Research between Belgium and the Netherlands
- L.R. Pardon
- Datum
- donderdag 28 mei 2026
- Tijd
- Bezoekadres
-
Academiegebouw
Rapenburg 73
2311 GJ Leiden
Promotor(en)
- Prof.dr. K. Beyens
- Prof.dr. M. Boone
- Prof.dr. A.-S. Vanhouche
Abstract
This dissertation explores how prison officers in Belgium and the Netherlands give meaning to their work in contexts of evolving prison governance. Drawing on a comparative ethnographic study conducted in four prison institutions, two in Belgium and two in the Netherlands, the research offers a detailed analysis of how prison officers navigate, embody, and contest their professional roles and occupational identities.
The central research question asks: What are the similarities and differences in prison officer roles, practices, and experiences in Belgium and the Netherlands? To address this, the study employs a thematic lens grounded in four interrelated concepts: jail craft, proximity, dirty work, and emotional labour.
Belgian and Dutch prison systems differ significantly in how officer functions are defined and structured. While Belgium has only recently formalised functional differentiation between surveillance and supervisory staff, the Netherlands has long maintained a dual system that separates PIWers (Penitentiaire Inrichtingswerkers or ‘supervisory officers’) from BEWAs (security officers). These structural arrangements have shaped diverging expectations and institutional cultures. Yet, this research finds that beyond official frameworks, prison officers across both countries deploy nuanced repertoires of craft, affect, and boundary management to maintain order and uphold professional meaning in their daily work.
The study demonstrates how jail craft, the tacit, experiential know-how cultivated on the job, is both transmitted and contested between prison officer groups. It investigates how proximity to incarcerated persons enables dynamic risk assessment, trust-building, and soft power, while also creating emotional strain. By analysing officers’ narratives and interactions, the research exposes the tensions that arise between relational engagement and custodial security, especially in contexts of reform, personnel shortages, and pressure of prison overcrowding.
Using participant observation during 13 months and 76 in-depth interviews in the four institutions, the research reveals how prison officers' practices are deeply embedded in institutional logics but are also shaped by individual attitudes, past experiences, and peer dynamics. Officers’ performances of authority, empathy, or detachment are informed by distinct workplace cultures, which in turn reflect broader national penal ideologies.
This dissertation contributes to prison research by deepening the empirical and conceptual understanding of prison officers as complex actors operating at the intersection of care, control, and craft. It challenges mainstream depictions of prison staff and offers an empirically grounded, comparative account of how frontline penal governance is enacted in everyday life in both countries.
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Algemene informatie
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