What Is A Total Institution

What Is A Total Institution This paper will argue that the model of the total institution can offer insight into the workings of the Caribbean sugar plantation under slavery. In attempting to make this connection, it is essentially looking at the model in the light of the history of the sugar plantation, as well as looking at the history through the lens of the theory. And so it will argue that the model offers some insight, but that there are clear limits to its applicability. The theory of the total institution is a theory of relationships, not of the institution that contains them. Also the point is not to argue that the plantations were designed as total institutions, but that the total institution model contains widely applicable truths about the nature of human social organisations, and the place that individuals find in them, that explain particular aspects of the plantation. The one great difference between the plantation and the total institutions that inspired the development of the concept is that the purpose of plantations is profit, through the production of a commodity, while this is seldom the case with asylums and prisons; even if they are run for profit, their aim is to achieve control, not to produce anything by means of this control. What is a total institution? Total institution is a concept introduced by the sociologist Erving Goffman in his book Asylums: Essays on the Condition of the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates (1961) to describe an institution that functions by monopolising the reality of those inmates it seeks to control. There are two aspects of the concept that relate to the institution of the sugar plantation. The first concerns the way in which power is exercised to a degree that makes all those involved as inmates and supervisors bound to follow its dictates. The total institution is one which encompasses every aspect of its inmates relationship with the world, and controls them by controlling their understanding and their motivations. The other aspect of the total institution concerns the inmates themselves they internalise the rules and perspectives of the institution, and define themselves by their standards; essentially investing their identity in the role they are taught to play. Goffman argued that this was true of those with authority in the institution, as well as those whose behaviour and consciousness it was designed to shape. Perhaps the most important thing about this model, with respect to the sugar plantations, is that Goffman did not see the total institution as a narrowly defined tool, invented to control inmates, on the lines of Jeremy Benthams Panopticon (Smith, 2008). Rather, it is a natural outcome of the evolution of universal human and social realities within institutions which pursue their ends through a close control over the circumstances and behaviour of their inmates, because this control is effective. The power of the total institution The most powerful argument for the usefulness of the total institution model with respect to the sugar plantation is the way in which the plantation could function with such minimal physical control. Murrell (2000, 14) suggests that religion played a central role in achieving the domination that allowed slavery to persist. The complex and ambiguous role of religion in the culture of the plantation economies cannot be pursued here in any detail, but it seems fair to suggest that religion played the role that the therapeutic and normative discourse of psychology plays in Goffmans account of the asylum. A measure of the power of the slave plantation as a total institution, one which shaped the behaviour and understanding of its inmates, would be the longevity of the social relations it defined between people. The extent that plantation economies, along with the racial domination and colonial power that enabled them, survived after the abolition of slavery suggests the degree to which the social relations and identities defined during slavery had shaped the word-view of former slaves and their descendants. And slavery, in exercising virtually unlimited domination over people seen as naturally subordinate, imposed a model of family structure and gender relations on slaves which served the economic interests of their masters,(Wiltshire-Brodber, 2002) without respect for the innate desire which all people have for the closeness and security of a family. According to the total institution model, this would result in slaves embracing the roles defined for them, and internalising the identities that these roles define. And there is evidence of this effect in the way that gender relations in Caribbean societies, especially among the poorest sectors of society, continue to reflect patterns and identities that have their roots in the logic of the plantation. Matrilocal patterns of family structure and a strong belief in the value of female autonomy are combined with a strong patriarchal ideology (Momsen, 2002). Limits of the total institution model. While the total institution model can explain a great deal about the manner in which plantations functioned under slavery, there are limits to its applicability. These limits fall under two categories, which correspond, in a sense, the perspectives of those controlling, and those controlled by, the institution of the plantation. The first set of limits is illustrated by the many ways in which the total institution was subverted. The pattern of these subversive activities varied from island to island, and probably from plantation to plantation, included the survival of African religions, hidden or evolved into syncretic African-Christian forms such as sateria and used to define an identity distinct from that hypocritically imposed by western religious institutions, the persistence of secret practices, from planning for rebellion to distilling to informal patterns of domination and association, and the recourse to escape, at least on larger islands. Religion is interesting in that it so clearly plays an ambiguous role as an institution in the history of slavery. On the one hand, it contained elements that helped define a collective identity that subverted plantation authority. On the other hand, it was a source of comfort and control that made plantation life bearable and persuaded slaves not to rebel. It was partly an affirmation of African identity, partly a European lesson in being content with ones place. In the famous words of Karl Marx, religion was at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress.the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. (Marx, 1843/2002) Economics and the limits of the total institution The total institution is not generally an economic unit as well. It tends to exist as in the case of asylums, prisons, concentration camps in order to control the behaviour of those who are institutionalised. If it has an economy, in the narrow sense, it is an economy of efficient control, or exists to occupy people, like political prisoners; in a way that pays for the costs of the institution that imprisons them. The sugar plantation was an immensely profitable economic institution, however, and the economic models that evolved to produce sugar, the justifications for slavery and murderous racial oppression these entailed, and the social structures that emerged to make this violent form of slavery work, should all be seen in the light of the economic motivations they elected. It is tempting to imagine that slave societies did not obey a strict economic logic, in the same sense that capitalist societies do. Some historians (e.g. Genovese, 1989) have tried to make this point in order to define capitalisms distinctly rationalising, dehumanising and commodifying logic. But it seems clear that plantations were subject to economic logic. The difference in plantation models between those colonies most reliant on a steady arrival of new slaves, such as Haiti and those less so, illustrates that the economic exigencies defined by a particular form of productive activity are real and complex. The intensity of the exploitation that characterised Haiti is well established (Bellegarde-Smith, 1990). The economic limitations on the function of the plantation as a total institution are also, in a sense, the limits that the total institution model defines for the economic activities involved. Plantation economies were dedicated to making money, and they made a great deal of it for their plantation owners and their colonial rulers. They were for the most part seen as primitive and unpleasant places by those who made their immense fortunes there rather than societies with any redeeming, justifying values or institutions. An individual or institution dedicated to making money does not exercise more physical control than is necessary. Physical control is expensive, in the number of overseers it requires and in the limits it imposes on the activities of working people. And in the case of an economic unit like a slave plantation, with its vastly-outnumbered overseers, too much control might cause as much unrest as it prevents. It makes better economic sense to find the balance between too much control and too little, and to live with the limits (rebellion, subversive religious and magical practices, escape, clandestine romance and petty economic activities) that this permits. T he most extreme form of resistance is rebellion itself, and there were many rebellions, large and small, among the slaves of the Caribbean. Perhaps one measure of the degree to which economic calculation dominated the logic of plantation slavery is that the possibility of rebellion persisted perhaps it made more economic sense to risk the occasional bloodbath than to exercise the degree of rigorous control that would reduce the risk. Conclusion: The total institution model applies to institutions that function by means of control over the perceptions and sentiments of their inmates, rather than by means of physical force. This paper has argued that the model offers insights into the way in which slave plantation societies functioned, and were able to exercise such cruel authority with recourse to so little active control. The plantation is in fact a good test and confirmation of the model. The power that plantation owners and the government forces that supported them exercised was absolute, but it was not exercised in the form of absolute physical control. This paper has also argued that there are limits to the applicability of the model which reflect the economic motives driving the institution of the plantation. The strength and persistence of the cultural legacy of slavery in syncretic religions, in family structures and of a social order that allowed plantation agriculture to continue after the end of slavery all paint a picture of a complex reality in which the control of the total institution extended no further than was necessary to ensure a profitable sugar industry. The point is that the model of the total institution illuminates general truths about the nature of authority that help explain how and why, once the decision was made to develop Caribbean economies on the basis of slavery was, why the institution of slavery developed developed there as it did, why it persevered, and why in the case of Haiti it was overcome. References Cited Bellegarde-Smith, P. (1990) Haiti: The Breached Citadel. Westview Press. Genovese, Eugene D. (1989) The Political Economy of Slavery: Studies in the Economy and Society of the Slave South. Middletown,CT: Wesleyan University Press. Goffman, Erving. (1961) Asylums: Essays on the Condition of the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates Marx, Karl John C. Raines (2002) Marx on Religion Editor John C. Raines Philadlphia: Temple University Press, 2002 Momsen, Janet. The Double Paradox, in Gendered Realities: Essays in Caribbean Feminist Thought Editor Patricia Mohammed Kingston: University of the West Indies Press, 2002 Murrell, Nathaniel Samuel (2000) Dangerous Memories, Underdevelopment, and the Bible in Colonial Caribbean Experience in Religion, culture, and tradition in the Caribbean Authors Editors Hemchand Gossai, Nathaniel Samuel Murrell London: Palgrave Macmillan. Smith, Philip (2008) Punishment and culture Chicago:University of Chicago Press. Wiltshire-Brodber, Rosina (2002) Gender, Race and Class in the Caribbean in Gender in Caribbean Development: Papers presented at the Inaugural Seminar of the University of the West Indies Women and Development Studies Project Edited by Patricia Mohammed and Catherine Shepherd Kingston:Canoe Press UWI

Attack Essay

â€Å"Attack† is a poem written in 1917 by Siegfried Sassoon while he was convalescing from his wounds in a hospital in Scotland. He was a soldier who fought in the First World War. Attack is a short, 13-line poem written in speech rhythm with some rhyme. The poem is described in a very vivid way which makes the reader think that the author himself witnessed the scene. The poem begins with the poet describing the setting of the poem. The landscape is in a battlefield where there are still remains of previous battles. The poet pictures it in a way that makes the scene very menacing and uncomfortable. The poem goes on with the soldiers fighting in the attack with their hopes struggling in the midst of war. Sassoon then ends the poem with an impassioned plea, â€Å"O Jesus, make in stop! † One major technique that the author uses in order to convey of the horror of the battlefield and what it seemed to be like to be in an attack is literal and figurative imageries. Examples of literal images are â€Å"the ridge emerges†, â€Å"bombs and guns and shovels and battle-gear†, â€Å"lines of grey, muttering faces†. The poet uses very striking diction that makes the poem sounds more uncomfortable, for example, â€Å"scarred slope†. The colour of the atmosphere is described as dun and wild purple which accentuates on the menacing atmosphere of the setting. The verbs at the beginning of the poem are very significant as they seem to be particularly strong in this poem, like the description of the tank â€Å"creep and topple† over the ridge, the barrage that â€Å"roars and lifts† or the men who â€Å"jostle and climb to†, etc. On the other hand, the poet also uses a lot of figurative images. These figurative images include: â€Å"time ticks blank and busy on their wrists†, â€Å"and hope, with furtive eyes, †¦ , flounders in mud†, etc. These images help to personify and emphasize the meaning of the poem, for example, in line 11: â€Å"While time ticks blank and busy on their wrists† The figurative image here delivers the meaning of the soldiers while fighting in the attack, are not aware of the time and how it ticks blankly and busily on their wrists. These two adjectives creates an alliteration that further emphasizes the meaning of how the soldiers are just spending meaningless time on the battlefield, forgetting who they are and what they do. Furthermore, the same kind of hopelessness is caught by the image of the time ticks blank and busy. This idea is brought out to us more clearly by the two last lines of the poem. Hope is personified as something with furtive eyes and grappling fists that flounders in mud, as if to compare it to the soldiers. The short statement, â€Å"flounders in mud† is also mentioning the solders falling down and dying in the attack. The impassioned plea at the end by the author seems to have a great effect on the readers as it shows the emotions and how sincerely the poet wants everything of this to stop. The mood of this poem if mostly menacing to the readers, it somehow makes us sympathize for the soldiers. Seeing the images of the attack, it also seems to have an emotive effect on the readers. The punctuations in the poem also help the poem to create a bigger effect of this. In many lines, a caesura is used to make the previous sentence emphasized and creates suspense as well as having a greater effect on the readers. Overall, Siegfried Sassoon has showed through the poem Attack shows how the soldiers have to go to the battlefield to fight on the lands of previous battles, having time ticking through and as they fall down, their hope also flounders, leaving them with their faces muttered, their fists grappling†¦

Illicit Drug Use during Pregnancy Essay

Drug exploitation in pregnancy is an elaborate public health problem with conceivably serious conflicting effects for the mother, the fetus and spreading to the developing child. When a mother becomes pregnant, it is important to her baby’s health that she has a healthy lifestyle. This includes eating plenty of nourishing foods, getting a decent amount of rest and exercising normally. For a pregnant woman, pregnancy substance abuse is twice as dangerous because not only is it affecting her, its also affecting the baby that’s inside of her. Drugs may harm her own health, which will intervene with her ability to support the pregnancy; also some drugs can directly reduce prenatal development. All illegal drugs pose a danger to pregnant woman, Even legal substances such as tobacco, alcohol, and prescription drugs are dangerous to woman that are expecting. As many as one in ten babies may be born to woman that use illegal and prescription drugs while being pregnant. ( Kallen, Bengt; 2009) Alcohol consumption and illegal drug abuse is intensely precarious during pregnancy and therefore pregnant woman should admire their value to their child and never exploit them. Studies shown in 2008 that the amount of babies born to drug addicted mothers has almost doubled since 2003. Pregnant mothers have been using drugs during pregnancy for decades without knowing the effects it can have on their child. Even though many people assume that illicit drugs used by pregnant mothers cause no harm to the fetus there have been studies shown otherwise. If a mother uses cocaine in the early stages of pregnancy it can increase the risk of a miscarriage, when it is used later in pregnancy cocaine usage can lead to muscle spasm, feeding difficulties and sleeplessness. Cocaine has many street names such as crack, blow, snow, and coke. It is highly addictive and it is a central nervous system stimulant.  Cocaine comes from a plant that has been used for thousands of years in the most parts of the world, it comes from the coca leaf and it is the most dangerous stimulants of the natural origin. The drug can be injected, snorted, or smoked. It increases the addictâ€⠄¢s blood pressure, body temperature and heart rate. The risks that cocaine may cause to a pregnant woman are respiratory failure, heart attacks, nausea, seizures and also abdominal pain. Sudden death may also occur to first time users, because the body is not use to the adrenalin the drug is giving it. When a pregnant woman uses cocaine it crosses through the placenta and circulates through the fetus’s body, fetuses eliminate cocaine from their bodies more slowly then adults do. In assertive rare chances perinatal cerebral infraction associated with cocaine use has also been known to happen, this drug decreases uttering blood flow and increases maternal blood pressure. When placental abruption happens it can lead to preterm birth, severe bleeding and even a fatal death. Studies show that woman who use cocaine during pregnancy are at least twice and likely as other woman to have a premature baby, since cocaine cuts the flow of nutrients and oxygen to the fetus, the baby may be much smaller at birth than it would be otherwise. Physically cocaine exposed babies tend to have smaller head which indicates a smaller brain. Post pregnancy babies of woman who use cocaine regularly during pregnancy are between three and six times more likely to be born at a low birth weight, less than 5.0 pounds than babies who do not use the drug. Pre-mature birth is caused by low birth weight and can be caused by poor growth before birth. Low-birth weight babies are 20 times more likely to die in their first month than normal weight babies are. The babies that actually survive are at an increased risk of lifelong disabilities such as mental retardation, cerebral palsy, visual and hearing impairment. In the USA, the 2004 Survey on Drug Use and Health showed that 5% of American women reported the use of an illicit drug during pregnancy. In the UK, national estimates for pregnant drug users are lacking, but studies report that approximately a third of drug users in treatment are female and over 90% of these women are of childbearing age (15–39 years of age). A study comparing the profiles of pregnant drug users presenting to a perinatal addictions service in London (UK) found illicit heroin use (38%), followed by cocaine use (24%) as primary drugs of abuse, with poly substance use common. (Rashekhar Moorthy  Madgula, MD ; 2011) Pregnancy should be taken seriously and one should implement a healthy lifestyle to keep them and their unborn child safe. A pregnant woman’s lifestyle habits as well as her partner’s can severely affect the health of their unborn baby. If the pregnant woman and her spouse have already taken these actions into consideration it should be continued throughout the entire pregnancy. It is never too late for a pregnant woman to start thinking about making behavioral changes or having withdrawals. Staying acting during pregnancy can only have a positive effect on the baby and the expecting mother with providing her feeling more energy and developing a healthy lifestyle. References BabyCentre Medical Advisory Board (2014, July). Illegal drugs in pregnancy – BabyCentre. Retrieved from http://www.babycentre.co.uk/a541318/illegal-drugs-in-pregnancy Health and Pregnancy (n.d.). Drug Use and Pregnancy. Retrieved 2009, from http://www.webmd.com/baby/drug-use-and-pregnancy Kà ¤llà ©n, B. (2009). Drugs during pregnancy. New York: Nova Biomedical Books. Narconon (2013). Drug Use During Pregnancy. Retrieved from http://www.drugrehab.co.uk/drug-use-pregnancy.htm Using Illegal Drugs During Pregnancy | American Pregnancy. (2011, May). Retrieved from http://americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/illegaldrugs.html

Police Subculture Ethics And Ethics - 3966 Words

Police subculture undermines ethics and has a constant influence on officers’ decision-making process, which ultimately leads to misconduct. Police, like most professions, have a secretive yet unique type subculture because the lifestyles of its members are significantly different. Law enforcement officers tend to befriend other officers or people with similar roles within the criminal justice system. Many times, friendships extend to firefighters and other civil service personnel to include military members. Law enforcement officers are inducted into the police subculture early in their career. As early as the academy, law enforcement recruits begin learning about ethics, rank structure, ethos, and other values. During the academy, recruits are trained on specific tasks tailored to police work from 8 to 16 weeks. They are taught combative skills, marksmanship, defensive driving, and other techniques unique to law enforcement by the academy staff. The academy staff normally co nsists of seasoned officers that usually have military training or backgrounds. In most cases, recruits tend to emulate or try to identify with these officers. The law enforcement community operates and has similarities like the military. They both have some type of basic training. They wear uniforms, have a rank structure, policy and procedures govern their actions, and in most cases have a politician as their commander or chief. Military members make up the largest candidate pool for law enforcementShow MoreRelatedPolice Subculture And Corruption Within Law Enforcement951 Words   |  4 Pagespaper will be discussing police corruption, what it means and reasons it happens. Also exploring the police subculture, what it means, why it exists and if it contributes to corruption by law enforcement. Police subculture and corruption defined. A subculture is a group of people that generally share attitudes, views, rules, principles, beliefs, ways of living, and behaviors that differs in one or more ways from the culture. Law enforcement has a very distinct police subculture that has ideas and valuesRead MoreThe Law Enforcement System And The Criminal Justice System Essay1657 Words   |  7 Pages† In addition, in this essay I will be discussing about, the cause and effect of how the law enforcement system relates to unethical behavior, to police subcultures, and finally, corruption prevention programs. First of allUnethical behavior relates to the Law enforcement system, since according to Martin ( 2011), he states that Research into police corruption offers some understanding of the phenomenon in the hope of rooting out this behavior that serves to undermine the overall legitimacy ofRead MorePolice Enforcement And Police Officers Essay1621 Words   |  7 Pagesare various roles in law enforcement today, Patrol Police officers, Detectives, Criminal Investigators, Correctional Officers, Jailers, Sheriffs Security Guards, Private Detectives, Investigators, and various other protective service professionals. I believe they are all important in their own way, each role is crucial to the way our society operates today. I also believe the most important role in law enforcement today, is the community police officers/Patrol officers. That is due to the responsibilitiesRead MoreCriminal Justice Ethics : Edmund Exley ( Guy Pierce )1101 Words   |  5 PagesJames Hall Professor Keith Touchberry Criminal Justice Ethics CRM4712 2 December 2014 L.A. Confidential – Edmund Exley (Guy Pierce) In policing, and in so many parts of our lives, there is a code of silence, and we adhere to it. We don t snitch, we don t rat on other people because it s not part of our culture. But if one desires to consider themselves as an ethical person, it s not just about our ethics, it s about what to do when others do things that are unethical also. We truly areRead MorePolice Departments Become Corrupt When Leaders Condone Unethical Behavior Essay984 Words   |  4 PagesPolice departments become corrupt when leaders condone unethical behavior. The Standard Operating Procedures are words on paper if officers are not properly trained on and is leadership enforced. The act of â€Å"breaking ranks† and the â€Å"blue wall of silence† are realistic ethical issues that affect police departments. It is the responsibility of leaders to properly protect, control and enact changes. Detective Serpico The inner workings of a police department promote an atmosphere of uniformity andRead MoreEthics in Criminal Justice3581 Words   |  15 Pages | |Ethics and Criminal Justice |Assess a Case Scenario to Foster a Culture of Ethics | | | | Faculty Use Only Running Head: CASE SCENARIO Assess a Case Scenario to Foster a Culture of E \LaChara S. Hill Northcentral University Ethics and Criminal JusticeRead MoreSimilarities and Differences in the Criminal Subculture and the the Police Subculture2511 Words   |  11 Pagesthe Criminal Subculture and the Police Subculture Criminology August 14, 2012 The Similarities and Differences in the Criminal Subculture and the Police Subculture A police officers job is to protect and serve. An officer is to offer assistance to those in need and to enforce the laws established by the law makers. A police officer’s job is not the monotonous 8-5 job that most have†¦..it is ever changing, 24-7. It is not a normal environment. Think about it, a police officer runsRead MoreTraining Day - Police Corruption Misconduct1160 Words   |  5 Pagesï » ¿ â€Å"Training Day† Police Corruption and Misconduct L**** C**** Ogeechee Technical College Criminal Justice Criminal Justice Practicum (CRJU2090) Neal Owens June 8, 2014 â€Å"Training Day† – Police Corruption and Misconduct Special units in police forces are essential to the function of any organization, however some of these special units might evolve into feeling superior to the rest of the agency. The mentality of doing it their own way sets in and more likely than not thisRead MoreThe Corruption Of Police Corruption1484 Words   |  6 Pagesconcerning police officers, police corruption has become a major topic. Police officers seem to be making more questionable and unethical decisions according to the media. With these questionable actions, the idea that police officers are corrupt has been a steadily growing opinion. I will be focusing this literature review on the history of police corruption, mostly in major cities/countries; the nature of police corruption; the ethics involved in law enforcement; causes for police corruption andRead MoreTextbook, Ethical Dilemmas and Decision Helps with Difficult Decision2021 Words   |  8 Pagesdilemma that I was faced with while working as a police const able, within a uniform capacity for the Peel Regional Police. I currently have 6 years experience as a police constable, the ethical dilemma which I was involved in occurred when I only had 2 years on as a police officer. I was working the 12hr night shift on a warm summer’s night, my patrol consisted of general front line duties such as answering calls, and conducting proactive police work by patrolling many parks and complexes, targeting