Stratification is a phenomenon that is largely biological, characteristic not only of humans but also of many groups of living beings. For the purposes of this work, we will use the concept of stratification and strata in its social meaning as applied to human beings, and we will focus specifically on informal stratification. The division of groups of people, united by some characteristic, into informal strata is a common phenomenon in any collective that has existed for a more or less extended period of time.
There are no identical people in nature. Each person differs from another in biological, property-related, educational, territorial, and countless other characteristics, each of which can in turn be divided into subcategories.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the large group of prisoners is also divided into strata.
There are many names for these strata. In fact, these prisoner communities are usually referred to as strata only by sociologists. In the prisoners’ slang, the word “mast” has become established as the term for informal subgroups (communities) within their environment. Researchers of the penitentiary system, lawyers, and human rights defenders most often use the word “caste” to describe these informal prisoner subgroups. We will also use this term in our work. It is interesting that the neutral word “caste,” when applied to the penitentiary environment, has acquired a negative connotation — and in this work we will attempt to demonstrate why such a connotation is justified.
Here you can read the full text of the expert’s work and download it (available only in Russian): https://doctorsby.com/ru/2024/08/19/13139/
Machine translation from Russian.