Why Do Inmates Snitch? An Officer's Point of View

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By Jason Halper

Published: 10/28/2002

What do people see or think about when they are exposed to the concept of being in prison? One might think that prison is a cesspool of hatred and the outcasts of society or others might think that it is a large building that houses the deviants of society. Either way, what emerges behind the walls is a complicated subculture that emphasizes survival of the strongest, independence from society and the need to gain respect.

The subculture is made up of people who are all convicted of felonies. Inmates come from different racial and ethnic backgrounds and have vast differences in education and upbringing. This subculture relies heavily on associating with an inmate's own race and people. If a person does not associate within their given race, sanctions could be levied on the person such as beatings, extortion, or even death. The idea behind this is a system is the strongest make the rules and the weak are forced into a distinct form of submission to survive. Above all, respect for each other and their beliefs are the golden rule. A person who does not adhere to this may face more severe sanctions from the other inmates than they bargained for.

The prison life is not an easy one. The living conditions are very regimented and close quartered, the lifestyle is based upon strength, and the overall rule is to not violate the subculture. This is where my research comes in. What makes a person violate the subculture? Specifically, What makes an inmate snitch (turn in another inmate) on their fellow inmates? This is an extremely sensitive and dangerous area to discuss. I have always been fascinated by this and will discuss what I know and what I have found. I have also been fortunate to discuss this subject with some inmates and correctional officers as well. However, I have omitted their names to keep their comments anonymous in nature and for their own protection from the other inmates and officers.

The Research

I became interested in this subject when I first became an officer in 1997. I have worked in several different types of prisons and jails ranging from maximum to minimum security, have dealt with plenty of problems and disturbances and have seen several snitches get hurt for violating the subculture. I have also seen the direct result of a snitch giving information to the officers through drug busts, contraband seizures, and by moving inmates into protective segregation. Personally, I have also had several snitches work for me on various occasions when problems arose and we have made some very good contraband and drug busts because of them. This has always interested me because of the personal risks involved and the repercussions that could be enacted against these inmates if they are caught.

The methods for studying this area were not easy. I was forced to utilize a combination of participant and non-participant approaches. By this I mean that I had to use some of my own experiences for information because many inmates will not talk about this subject at all. Fortunately, I was able to discuss this subject with several officers and former inmates. One area that intrigued me was the racial balance of the responses to my questions.

Of the inmates that I interviewed, the white inmates spoke about this subject without much hesitation, the Native-American inmates spoke a little bit about this subject, and while the African-American and Hispanic inmates would not discuss this subject at all. Another area that did prove difficult to obtain information is the lack of trust for the outside world by the inmates. I noticed that when an outsider spoke with the inmates on any subject, they would be very cautious at first but would relax after an element of respect and trust was established between the inmate and the outside person.

Findings

The male and female inmate subculture is a very complicated and confusing system at times. Male inmates will act in a certain way just to prove how tough they are, while female inmates are more docile but can be just as dangerous. However, both of these groups have their commonalities in behavior such as:

1: Don't snitch on another inmate
2: Do your own sentence and time
3: Don't lie to another inmate
4: Don't forgo your debts

There are considerable differences in each of these groups. Females are much more emotional and dependant on each other than the males are. This also holds true due to the way many of the female inmates are incarcerated. Many female inmates are in prison for taking the blame for a boyfriends' crime and may come from an upbringing of abuse or poverty (or both). Females tend to view prison as a place of acceptance and many of them find support and love that they did not have on the outside.

In contrast to this, male inmates are much more tough and demanding. The amount of respect they receive depends upon their crimes, physical size and their overall demeanor. The male inmates must also go through a process of proving themselves in which they must show other inmates that they can survive. This is done by defiance of prison rules, attacking or conning inmates from another group, or attacking an officer. Females normally do not do this. They lean towards accepting each other and use each other for support and protection while still attempting to maintain contact with their previous lives before incarceration. Either way, both groups hold very true to their ideas and have severe sanctions for violating them. These violations and sanctions will be discussed later.

After looking at some of the basics within the inmate subculture, several categories begin to emerge from the populace. Even though these categories have a multitude of titles, descriptions and sub-groups, the basic ideas listed below tend to remain the same. I have chosen the titles used here as a general guideline for describing these types of inmates:

1: The Loner/Manipulator: The major characteristics include manipulation of other inmates and staff for their own gain, doing easy prison time at the expense of others and getting the best jobs in the prison unit. This is the category in which most inmates who snitch come from in order to meet their own needs.

2: The Hardcore: The major characteristics here include constant defiance of prison rules, gang membership, drug dealing or using or a number of other anti-authoritative activities. These inmates will almost never snitch and are quick to carry out sanctions on other inmates who have snitched.

3: The Cooperative: The major characteristics include wanting to change themselves, being cooperative with everyone, and participating in prison programs. These inmates will snitch for the good of all inmates and to assist staff when they may be threatened.

Given these three groups of inmates, inmates will snitch for a variety of reasons. I have surveyed four former male inmates (three white, one Native-American) about this subject and their responses demonstrate a relation to the above groups and practices:

Inmate #1: I have snitched for the good of all inmates' [when our] well being is threatened. (Authors note: I have seen this when I was working as a kitchen security officer in a minimum unit that I worked in. One of my inmate workers came up to me and told me that another inmate worker had dumped an entire can of cleanser in the spaghetti sauce that was for dinner that night. The inmate who told me what happened was not labeled as a snitch but as a hero for this while the other inmate went to lockdown.)

Inmate #2: A snitch will do anything to better themselves and make their lives better while in prison. (Authors note: An inmate that I had dealt with tried this by constantly giving false information and in the process, was spying on the staff for his own benefit. He was caught and severely beaten by an unknown group of inmates. He now sits in segregation for the remainder of his sentence.)

Inmate #3: People may snitch on each other usually to get out of trouble with the other inmates. I've seen inmates snitch also as a course to get revenge on another inmate who screwed them. (Authors note: I had this situation when an inmate who was being moved to another area had a syringe hidden in the body of a colored marker. This was found after another inmate who had problems with him snitched to the staff about where the syringe was hidden.)

Inmate #4: Some officers are really cool and relaxed. The other staff mess with them. I'll snitch to them to help them get out of problems or give them an extra good mark on their records.

From these responses, some commonalities are evident. Manipulation, revenge, and good intentions can be seen as the underlying causes of inmates who snitch. This is very difficult to prove however due to the small sample I have studied and the lack of inmates who will speak about this subject.

The officers that I have spoken with agree with many of the above reasons the inmates provided and their responses were very similar with a few variations. I surveyed four officers (three white, one Native-American) and these are the responses that had some interesting variations and different ideas from the above:

Officer #1: Some inmates respect the officers and even want to protect the officers they deal with from problem inmates. They may also snitch to even up the odds in their living areas from racial problems or to get rid of a threatening person.

Officer #2: Inmates will better their own situation by expecting favors from the staff if they give any information. (Authors note: This is the most common form of snitching due to the inmates acting the same way with police on the streets for some sort of profit.)

Officer #3: Inmates may show a confidence in the officers and will try to help them whenever they can.

Officer #4: Inmates will try to get revenge on each other for reneging on debts or they will try to control the dorm by fabricating something about a stronger inmate to have them removed.

The responses above complimented the inmates' responses but also added some other motivations. Keeping the peace, helping their own situation and control have become evident as reasons behind snitching. It can be said that an inmate who snitches on another inmate, regardless of being in any of the three categories, can have a variety of intentions including the above as well as a multitude of other reasons.

Female inmates will not snitch on their fellow inmates that often for revenge or control. The reasons behind this include a more family-oriented subculture and fear of repercussion from the inmates they may snitch on. I attempted to survey some female inmates about this subject but was unsuccessful due to the females not wishing to discuss this subject. From a personal note, I have seen female inmates snitch on other inmates in order to keep the peace in the living area, manipulation for favors, and health problems that may affect everyone in the living area. These are the primary reasons that I have observed but there could be many others along with other intentions. I remember a situation that described this idea very well:

I was asked to be spoken with by a female inmate when I was performing a security check on the female area of a facility I worked in. I called for another officer and the two of us went to speak with the female inmate. She was telling us about another inmate who was smuggling drugs on the streets and arranging drug sales from the living area phone. When she was done talking, she looked at me and stated, 'Would you ever consider dating an inmate? ' I told her 'no' and she responded with a statement of 'I just gave you this information and you just throw me away?' She was then locked back into the dorm and transferred to another area the next day. Furthermore, the information proved to be false and there were serious sanctions placed on her by the other inmates. The female was then beaten that night by several unidentified inmates and remained in segregation for the remainder of her sentence.

Although female inmates do not snitch on each other very often, the sanctions for snitching are just as severe as the males. I have not dealt with female inmates in this area that often but have seen the after affects of the carried out sanctions.

After discussing and identifying some of the causes and motives of inmates who snitch, one question comes to mind. What are the sanctions for snitching on other inmates? I have already touched on them a bit and these are some of the most common sanctions that I have seen and the people I surveyed reported:

Male Inmates:
1: Being forced into positions of servitude to the gang or ruling hierarchy by doing them favors, giving them anything they want, or taking the fall for a crime that was performed while in prison.
2: Being beaten up and forced into extortion with the threat of being beaten up again.
3: Being forced into protective segregation by the other inmates.
4: Death (this does not happen that often unless the snitch got someone in extremely serious trouble)
Male inmates are quick to deal with these sanctions and will also carry them out with such ferocity to set an example for other would be snitches'.

Female inmates contrast the previous reasons in the following ways:

1: Being forced into giving sexual favors to the other inmates.
2: Being ousted from their emotional support group and being left alone in prison.
3: Being beaten up and forced into segregation.
4: Death (this is extremely rare and usually results from injuries from being beaten).

Female inmates will carry these out in very covert and permanent way. The ferocity is not as severe as the male inmates, but is just as deadly. The female inmates normally will not make a public example of a snitch but will talk about it with each other to promote the idea of not snitching. As with the inmates that I spoke with, most of them would not discuss this. However, only one of them discussed the sanctions that can happen to a snitch.

In conclusion, I have found that inmates will deviate from the inmate subculture for the ultimate reason of survival while incarcerated. Because there are so many people within the correctional environment from various racial and ethnic backgrounds, there are inevitably going to be clashes between these people. This melting pot is extremely volatile at times and can explode without any warning. Considering also that the inmate subculture is based upon the notion of 'only the strong survive', an inmate is going to do what they need to do to make through their sentences. If this is accomplished by serving the gangs, taking control, or snitching, they will do what must be done. The inmate subculture is still constantly changing with each new inmate and their own ideas, but snitching still remains a major violation that is punishable by death if warranted.

About the Author

Mr. Halper has worked within the correctional field as an officer for over five years. He has just recently completed his Bachelors of Science degree in Sociology and aspires to become a probation officer in the future. He can be reached for comments at jnh363@cs.com.

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