Bo Lin

Professor Alvarado
Sociology 1
3 February 2015
Project 1: Video/DVD Analysis
Video Information:
How Prisons Can Help Inmates Live Meaningful Lives
TED x Monroe Correctional Complex
Dan Pacholke

Mar 14, 2014

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pacholke_how_prisons_can_help_inmates_live_meaningf
ul_lives
Video Highlights:
Dan Pacholke, an officer from Washington State Department of Correction,
explains the current situation of the prison system which incarcerates more people per
capita than any other country in the world and becomes the new asylum. He tries to
innovate the prison system by shifting the focuses from containing and controlling to
opportunities for meaningful work and learning. From years of experiences, he finds out
that depriving people of social contact actually deteriorates them. Therefore, although the
prison has been equipped with more advanced tools to manage the people inside, such
works cant solve the fundamental problems. Pacholke started to run a small experiment,

first a longer training program is provided for officers in teams and the new staff is paired
with veteran staff, second the institution adds verbal de-escalation skills to the officer and
the prisoners are also taught with the same non-violent application, last of the
experiment, they change the environment to be more relatively friendly. Then, when
Pacholke was later reassigned as superintendent of a small prison, he worked with some
scientists and ran small experiments and studies in the prison, both officers and prisoners
are excited about the studies, they were inspired and made a contribution to the studies
(rainforest ecological system). Therefore, Pacholke argues that IMUs aim only at
punishments, with new system adopted by the prison, the prison is getting safer for both
staff and inmates, and working with other social organizations, the crime rates will be
decreased by reducing recidivism.
Comte/ Marx/ Durkheim:
From Comtes point of view: the innovation of the prison is a representation of a
experiment from the science of living beings. Such experiment is a good reach to the
stage of positive. It strengthens the social order by reducing the crime rates, so it is a
successful case in the stage of investigation. With efforts made by the officers, prisoners
might not enter the system again; and although the true positive cant be reached, at least
it establishes more stability in the society increasing its positive.
From Marxs point of view: the prison is the result of the conflict between the
society and the prisoners. Prisoners behave of deviance, but the bourgeois is the biggest
part of the deviance, and because of such class, the society will generate the prisoners.
Therefore, we should take the wealth from them and devote these resources to help the

people in the prison to be better educated and less violent, so they will not get into the
system again.
From Durkheims point of view: prison is a complex system of interrelated parts,
in the past, each element works together to maintain the stability. The prisoners perform
crimes in the public, the public recognizes the prisoners and transferred to the prison, the
prison controls and takes care of the prisoners;; therefore, they work together to maintain
a safer environment in the public. With the new innovative system, after prisoners are
transferred, the prison accompanying with outside organizations focus more on educating
than control. The prisoners will be less violent and might not committee any illegal
actions; therefore, they are now work together to create a safer environment on both the
public and inside the prison as well.
Paradigms:
All three paradigms are presented from the contents of the video. Structural
functionalism focuses on the role of prison, prisoners group, officers group and other
organizations. They construct a balanced social cycle and, when all parts work together,
they will make positive contribution to the society. That is officers, besides concerning
solely on containing and controlling, can work together with the outside institutions to
modernize the traditional prison system, so the prisoners can actually learn to be less
violent; therefore, the crime rate might be reduced and the society as a whole will become
more safety. Conflict paradigm can be seen from the current system where the officers
and prisoners stand more apart and make it impossible for inmates to really get out from
the system. Symbolic interaction are more on the time when the rainforest ecologist came
to prison and ran the studies. The prisoners and officers are working together for the

project, and with more social contact, the violent incidents become less and prison is
getting safer.