The Classical Dilemma and Probation Officer Training in Florida: An Ethnographic Content Analysis of Rules, Routines, Roles, Rituals, and Relationships

American bureaucracies are often assigned inconsistent goals, expectations, roles, and functions (Goodsell, 2004; Lipsky, 2010), exemplified in probation by Klockars’ (1972) classical dilemma of corrections that describes a punitive-rehabilitative dichotomy. A failure to prepare bureaucrats in corrections to address the classical dilemma this results in probation officers (POs) making decisions between and among competing options that consequently generally emphasize only one of the primary goals of probation (Ellsworth, 1990). This dissertation offers insight into and prompts rethinking of how corrections agencies prepare POs to address the classical dilemma.
Few studies focus on how organizations educate POs to address the classical dilemma. This dissertation applies ethnographic content analysis to examine the messages communicated to correctional probation officers in the 95 lessons of the curriculum used by Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) to train new officers. To analyze the data and the meaning conveyed by the FDC I applied Saldana’s (2016) 5Rs framework of rules, routines, roles, rituals, and relationships.