WOMEN GUARDS

Abstract

Prisons host two important groups, prisoners and staff who working there. Prison guards also experience a form of confinement and share the same space and, to some extent, the same fate as prisoners. Guards are responsible for security and surveillance in prisons, and also for various practices and programs aimed at improving and rehabilitating prisoners' execution times. In parallel with the rapid increase in the number of women prisoners in Turkey, the number of women’s jail and women employees working in these jails is increasing. In this article will discuss the data obtained as a result of a field work realized in “Bakırköy Women Closed Penal Institution” from April 2011 to May 2012. We conducted in-depth interviews with forty female guards who worked in this institution. We will try to analyze job descriptions, personal rights, relations with colleagues, superiors and prisoners of these women guards. In recent years, the increase in the number of highly educated young people who have chosen the duty of guardianship has changed the way that this profession is performed, and the relations of these young people with the older guards and prisoners have also been changed.