Polk Youth Institution is a correctional facility where Sergeant Furman Camel has worked as an officer (Camel, n.d.). The audio presents different stories from a number of officers, which gives a presents life in correctional facilities from the perspective of a prison guard (Camel, n.d.). Ideally, the different accounts offered to paint an image of what actually occurs, which gives a unique standpoint of deviance and social control (Camel, n.d.). The podcast brings up various issues such as the fact that most of the inmates are black, how some of the inmates get worse, while some get better once they are in the facility, how the guards handle the threats from the inmates, and what characterizes their work (Camel, n.d.).

It also brings out female guards and how they handle themselves in threatening situations, for example, guards like Alicia Covington whose son was arrested and brought to the same institution (Camel, n.d.). While the podcast brings up various issues, the aspect of deviance and social control comes severally throughout the playback. Sergeant Camel, for instance, presents the issue of the inmates masturbating at the windows while looking at the female officers and also presents the cases of the inmates killing each other and other forms of violence while in the prison (Camel, n.d.). Ideally, this presents the issue of how individuals get worse when they get into prison. This analysis aims to present the effect of labeling individuals as criminals and how religion plays a role in defining deviance.

The various situations and activities that both the prisoners and the guards engage in inside the prison bring out different aspects of deviance, from how it develops and is defined to how it is handled. However, while this can be observed, it is also evident that the inmates get worse while in prison than how they were before coming to prison. For instance, as previously mentioned, the sergeant observes that some of the inmates masturbate while watching the female guards (Camel, n.d.). Additionally, some prisoners have even murdered others while in prison, whereas others do not even seek to transform themselves to become better versions of themselves.

Moreover, various methods of social control are being implemented to try and correct the behaviors of the inmates and later release them to the society as transformed individuals (Little, McGivern, & Kerins, 2016). For instance, there seems to be the application of the surveillance method suggested by Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) as cited by Little et al. (2016, p.273). However, this method seems ineffective as the inmates now have the courage of continuing their deviance even under supervision. This can be attributed to the fact that social control is also directly affected by the strengths of the social bonds which by the mere fact these inmates have been secluded; the social bonds seem to have been broken and the social restrictions do not ideally apply to them (Little et al., 2016).

The issues observed above can be viewed as the effect of labeling as described by the labeling theory. The theory suggests that people gradually believe that they are, for example, deviant because they were initially labeled deviant (Little et al., 2016). Therefore, in my opinion, different prisoners might be trying to mimic what they ideally consider as ‘inmate behavior’ such as masturbating and increased violence (Little et al., 2016). In such a situation, religion can be seen as an aspect that establishes social control and has become a measure to identify deviant behavior (Little et al., 2016). For instance, masturbating is brought out by Sergeant Camel as deviant behavior, but this seems to have a religious grounding (Camel, n.d.). Therefore, religion is brought out, just as Emile Durkheim theorized, as an aspect that is used to “establish rules or norms, and concentrate collective energies” (Little et al., 2016, p.606); thus, it is used as a measure of deviance.

In conclusion, labeling seems to bring about far worse repercussions than earlier anticipated, especially when the incidences described by the guards are anything to come by. However, it is also important to note that while some prisoners choose to identify themselves with the identities they were labeled with, others choose to change, which is evident from the two who saved the guard when she was almost assaulted by other inmates. Therefore, this shows that while labeling has been ineffective in various instances, along with methods such as surveillance in various respects, further research is required to devise better means of correction and bring about social control. Additionally, it is evident that religion plays a major role in defining deviance as it leads to the development of norms and separates the acceptable and the unacceptable.