KORYDULLO: A STUDY OF A GREEK PRISON FOR WOMEN OFFENDERS
type: CreativeWork
description: A review of the literature reveals that more and more attention is being focused on the prison as an object of scientific study. Despite its vast dimensions the field has been confined--except in a few instances--to the study of male prisons. The female prison, in the United States and in other countries, has been overlooked. To offset this shortcoming in criminological research, this study seeks to explore the structure of a Greek prison for women offenders. The data for this study were gathered over a period of approximately one year at Korydullo, the only prison for women offenders in Greece. In the tradition of field research, a combination of methods and techniques were used to collect data: (1) formal interviews were held with higher-echelon staff members, that is, the director, his assistant, the administrative secretary and social workers; (2) formal interviews were conducted with lower echelon staff members, e.g., headguards, their assistants, work supervisors and prison guards; (3) participation in prison functions, such as, meetings between the director and inmates, philanthropic gatherings, special Easter and Christmas services, and concerts put on by local entertainers; (4) scrutiny of prison documents, visitors' ledgers, inmate library cards and dossiers; and (5) administration of two different interview schedules, one for the inmate population, the other for the prison personnel. The schedules were administered to seventy women offenders and forty-eight prison personnel. In the evaluation of the data, there were three considerations. First, at critical points this work analyzes the relationship between Greek culture and prison life. That is, it investigates the degree to which cultural ideas--among which were: philoxenia (hospitality), philotimo (honor), meson (influential person),--not only permeate and influence behavior in the larger social structure but how these same ideas are manifested in the prison social structure. Second, some consideration …
abstract: A review of the literature reveals that more and more attention is being focused on the prison as an object of scientific study. Despite its vast dimensions the field has been confined--except in a few instances--to the study of male prisons. The female prison, in the United States and in other countries, has been overlooked. To offset this shortcoming in criminological research, this study seeks to explore the structure of a Greek prison for women offenders. The data for this study were gathered over a period of approximately one year at Korydullo, the only prison for women offenders in Greece. In the tradition of field research, a combination of methods and techniques were used to collect data: (1) formal interviews were held with higher-echelon staff members, that is, the director, his assistant, the administrative secretary and social workers; (2) formal interviews were conducted with lower echelon staff members, e.g., headguards, their assistants, work supervisors and prison guards; (3) participation in prison functions, such as, meetings between the director and inmates, philanthropic gatherings, special Easter and Christmas services, and concerts put on by local entertainers; (4) scrutiny of prison documents, visitors' ledgers, inmate library cards and dossiers; and (5) administration of two different interview schedules, one for the inmate population, the other for the prison personnel. The schedules were administered to seventy women offenders and forty-eight prison personnel. In the evaluation of the data, there were three considerations. First, at critical points this work analyzes the relationship between Greek culture and prison life. That is, it investigates the degree to which cultural ideas--among which were: philoxenia (hospitality), philotimo (honor), meson (influential person),--not only permeate and influence behavior in the larger social structure but how these same ideas are manifested in the prison social structure. Second, some consideration …
author: PANAGOPOULOS, JENNIFER ANDREA
keywords: Sociology, Theory and Methods
date published: 1979-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:23:09Z
provider: University of New Hampshire
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of New Hampshire