Towards a Rapprochement between Security and Law in Prisons ? Questioning Dynamic Security

This article allows us to return to one of the aspects that can be deduced from the process of prison normalisation: the transformation of the security model via the advent ofthe idea of dynamic security. Articulating security imperatives and setting up a socialspace behind bars, this alternative model of maintaining order relies on the redefinitionof relations in the prison environment. It consists in examining the incidences of thetension between security and law in the organizational reshaping caused by normalisation. Based on an empirical study carried out in a French prison, the author questionsthe effects of this new security approach on the role of prison officers in prisons, as wellas reactions amongst the prison staff.