Symbolic Interaction and Meaning-Making among Female Drug Offenders: A George Herbert Mead Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35814/f1svks97Keywords:
Communication, George Herbert Mead, Meaning-Making, Symbolic Interaction, Women InmatesAbstract
This study examines how female drug offenders construct meaning through symbolic interaction while serving their sentences at the Class IIA Pondok Bambu Women’s Correctional Institution. Using a descriptive qualitative approach informed by George Herbert Mead’s theory of symbolic interaction, data were collected through in-depth interviews, observation, and documentation with four primary informants and three supporting informants, then analyzed through the concepts of mind, self, and society. The central finding is that communication inside the correctional institution functions not merely to deliver information but as the primary mechanism through which inmates construct meaning: everyday interaction with family, officers, and fellow inmates, together with participation in guidance and religious activities, becomes a symbolic resource that informants interpret (mind), use to reconstruct a more positive self-understanding (self), and negotiate against the norms, support, and stigma of their surrounding social environment (society). Although the four informants followed a broadly similar adaptive trajectory, they diverged in which relationships and activities carried the most meaning for them, showing that identical correctional experiences can generate markedly different personal meanings. These findings extend communication studies by demonstrating that institutional and interpersonal communication within a correctional setting operates as a meaning-making process that shapes inmates’ self-transformation and their orientation toward life after release.
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