Corrections officers and acquired immune deficiency syndrome: balancing professional distance and personal...

In this article the dynamic between professional distance and personal involvement is examined. Interviews were performed with New York City Correction Department officers who work with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) patients on prison hospital wards to determine how they relate to inmates, to inmates who are dying, and to inmates who are dying of AIDS-related illnesses. The article focuses on the degree to which identification with inmates occurs and, as a consequence, how much grief is generated by their deaths. Grief is mediated by: (a) the social organization of prison work; (b) the social construction of AIDS; (c) magic and mythology related to AIDS; (d) corrections officers' occupational ideology; (e) social values; and (f) American attitudes toward death.