Abstract

The article proposes a comparative analysis of the role of the prison officers in France and Italy by highlighting their professional contribution but also the contradictions and the limits of the applicability of the laws in force, often hampered by a self-referential and control logic that still permeates prison reality today. The empirical research presented in this context is driven by the intention of understanding how the perception of the role identity of prison officers is evolving in an institutional framework undergoing a deep transformation. By analysing the way in which the directives by European Union and the national laws are assimilated and interpreted by operational officers in the different prisons, it will be possible to verify whether a cultural change is indeed underway, a change which concerns not only the perception of the role of the prison officer but also, more generally, the surveillance itself in penal establishments, under constant tension between the stated purposes and their effective functionality.