Self-legitimacy of Prison Officers - Correlations with Personal and Organisational Factors in the Prison Environment in Slovenia

Abstract

The paper presents a study of factors that affect relations between prison officers and prisoners, identification of prison officers with the prison organisation, prison officers' perceptions of procedural justice of supervisors, relations with colleagues, and self-legitimacy of the prison officers. Data were collected in 2014 from a sample of 101 prison officers employed in prisons in Ljubljana, Celje and Maribor. Results showed that relations between prison officers are affected by their identification with the prison organisation and self-legitimacy of the prison officers. At the same time, prison officers' identification with the prison organisation depends on the quality of relations with prisoners, relations with colleagues, perceptions of procedural justice of supervisors and perceived legitimacy. Relations with colleagues, a sense of belonging to the prison organisation, perceptions of legality and perceived legitimacy affect prisoner officers' perceptions of procedural justice of supervisors. Furthermore, quality of relations between prison officers depends on perceptions of procedural justice of supervisors, identification with the prison organisation, perception of legality and perceived legitimacy, while relations with prisoners and stress affect self-legitimacy of the prison officers. Violence against employees occurs mainly in the form of insults and threats.