Studying (with) prison officers: the merit of participatory observations

In 2019, the Belgian Penitentiary Act introduced significant changes in the Belgian prison officer's training, job description, and organisation of their work. It introduced a differentiated occupational role for prison officers, now divided into detention supervisors and security assistants. These new roles require new training programs. Although academic studies have, after a period of paucity, recognised the importance of researching prison officers work, much less is known about the training that is offered and how this prepares them for the field. These new roles and a new curriculum lent impetus to a qualitative study of their basic training program.
The study set out to develop an understanding of how one 'becomes' a prison officer and how that process is influenced by basic training. Participant observations were used to capture the complexities of these dynamics. This method enables the researcher to grasp the merits and limitations of occupational training, its content and context. However, it also requires a willingness to research and be researched for a prolonged period in a particular setting. For example, the researcher took part in the first weeks of a basic training, which took place within prison walls. This process asks the researcher to manage the field's emotional, personal, and interpersonal reverberations. Some are experienced with the recruits; others are exclusive to the researcher.
This presentation will dive into some preliminary results and the methodology of participant-observation, its limitations and merits in a context that does not often grant researchers the time and space to truly study (with) tomorrow's prison officers.