Drawing on interviews conducted with former federal and provincial prisoners in Ontario, Canada, we consider how the unique social conditions in these two institutional contexts shape interpersonal dynamics and the prisoner experience. Despite notable differences in federal versus provincial prisoner culture, we suggest that prisoners in both contexts lived in environments marked by uncertainties and risk; in response, they tended to adapt to a highly individualistic orientation toward doing time. Based on our analysis, we complicate the conceptualization of prisoner culture as primarily serving an adaptive function, suggesting the prison social climate may actually drive the most salient pains of imprisonment.

通过对加拿大安大略省前联邦和省级囚犯的采访，我们考虑了这两种制度环境中独特的社会条件如何影响人际关系和囚犯体验。尽管联邦和省级囚犯文化存在显着差异，但我们认为两种情况下的囚犯都生活在充满不确定性和风险的环境中；作为回应，他们倾向于适应高度个人主义的时间取向。根据我们的分析，我们将囚犯文化的概念复杂化，因为它主要服务于适应功能，这表明监狱社会氛围实际上可能会导致最显着的监禁痛苦。