L. Squillace et al. (2025), Quality of relationships, interactions with leadership, and the use of force in the prison context. Findings from two surveys on prison officers
December 30th, 2025
The article “Qualità delle relazioni, rapporto con i vertici e uso della forza nel contesto carcerario. I risultati di due indagini sulla Polizia Penitenziaria” [Quality of relationships, interactions with leadership, and the use of force in the prison context. Findings from two surveys on prison officers], by Laura Squillace, Chiara Chisari, Alessandra Sacino, and Roberto Cornelli, presents the results of two surveys conducted in correctional facilities in Lombardy and Piedmont, Liguria, and Aosta Valley, involving a total of 1,350 prison officers. These are the first surveys carried out in Italy across entire regional districts of the Prison Administration, contributing to a field of research — the professional experience of prison staff — that remains largely underdeveloped in the country.
Drawing on the data collected, the article examines the relationship between the quality of interactions that officers maintain in their workplace, their perception of institutional delegitimization, and their readiness to use force. The findings reveal a widespread sense of inadequate support and recognition from the Prison Administration, relational difficulties with both the incarcerated population and organizational leadership, and a readiness to use force that affects a significant proportion of the sample. Rather than attributing these outcomes to individual characteristics of the officers, the article adopts a relational and institutional perspective, showing how the readiness to use force is rooted in the organizational and cultural conditions that shape officers' everyday working experience.
At a time when public and legislative debate tends to respond to the challenges of the prison system by prioritizing logics of control and repression, this research points in a different direction: it is the quality of relationships and the sense of institutional recognition that most significantly shape the way officers exercise their authority.
The article is published in Rassegna Italiana di Criminologia, XIX, 4, 2025, and is freely accessible by clicking here.