Edit position

Last set 2 weeks, 2 days ago. Manual moves override automatic placement until the next shelfie/spine match.

Screw : observations and revelations of a prison officer

by Pat Merlo

This memoir documents a woman's twelve-year career as a correctional officer within the Victorian penal system, detailing her experiences working with both male and female prisoners.

Accession 9780949873576 ISBN 9780949873576 Publisher Hudson

Book Images

Reference and live side by side Hover to see live images

Reference

Screw : observations and revelations of a prison officer spine

Screw : observations and revelations of a prison officer cover

Live

CONNECTIONS

No connections

State

on_shelf: True
position_updated_at: 2026-05-05 17:11
orientation: vertical

Details

Physical

binding_type: Hard Back
dimensions: none captured
spine_text: PAT MERLO Screw HUDSON

LOCATION HISTORY

B 4 Current vertical

2 months, 3 weeks ago

B 4 vertical

4 months ago

B 4 vertical

5 months, 1 week ago

Book Location

Updated 2 weeks, 2 days ago

Book Images

Reference and live side by side Hover to see live images

Reference

Live

Vernon snapshot

Frozen copy of Vernon's record from the last sync. Fields tagged → flow back into the Pulse record.

Never synced from Vernon

Identity

name→ title

Screw : observations and revelations of a prison officer

vernon_id

—

accession_no→ accession_number

—

vernon_slug

—

Drives Pulse state

curr_loc_status→ on_shelf

—

location_name

—

location_reason

—

isbn_issn→ isbn (when valid)

—

Descriptive

production_date

—

object_type

—

object_status

—

brief_description

—

Subjects & people

authors→ author (initial fill only)

—

tags→ tags

—

subject_people

—

subject_objects

—

Topics and Themes

Based on the book's core subject — a female correctional officer's decade-long experience working in both male and female prisons in Australia, and her fight to clear her name of a false accusation — here are 8 themes and topics to help draw connections to other books in a library:

---

1. **Life Inside Prison: The Officer's Perspective**
Rather than the more common prisoner's-eye view, this book offers an insider account of prison life as experienced by a correctional officer — the daily routines, dangers, moral compromises, and human encounters that define the job.

The book's central vantage point is: what does it mean to be the person holding the keys, not the person behind the bars?

Connect to books about: prison memoirs, correctional officer culture, criminology, institutional life.

---

2. **False Accusation & the Pursuit of Justice**
A driving force of the narrative is Merlo's struggle to clear her name after an unfounded accusation — a process that exposes how institutions handle internal allegations and how individuals fight back against systemic power.

The book asks: when an institution turns on one of its own, what recourse does the individual have?

Connect to books about: wrongful accusation, whistleblowing, workplace justice, institutional betrayal.

---

3. **Women in Male-Dominated Workplaces**
As a woman working in both male and female prison environments, Merlo navigates a profession historically dominated by men, confronting questions of authority, credibility, and gender bias in a high-stakes setting.

Connect to books about: women in law enforcement, gender and work, feminist sociology, occupational identity.

---

4. **Power, Control & Institutional Authority**
Prisons are one of the most concentrated expressions of state power. This book examines how authority is exercised, negotiated, and sometimes abused — both over prisoners and over staff — within a rigidly hierarchical system.

Connect to books about: Michel Foucault's *Discipline and Punish*, institutional power, bureaucracy, state authority.

---

5. **Moral Complexity & Ethical Dilemmas in Custodial Work**
Working daily with people who are incarcerated forces officers to confront difficult ethical questions about punishment, compassion, dehumanisation, and their own role in a system that is often far from just.

The book's quiet tension is: how does a person retain their humanity while enforcing a system that can strip others of theirs?

Connect to books about: ethics in criminal justice, moral injury, applied ethics, penal philosophy.

---

6. **The Hidden World of the Carceral System**
The book pulls back the curtain on a world that the public rarely sees — the subcultures, informal rules, violence, and psychological toll of prison life as it is actually lived, not as it is officially described.

Connect to books about: prison reform, incarceration policy, carceral studies, investigative journalism about justice systems.

---

7. **Occupational Identity & Professional Trauma**
Sustained exposure to violence, confinement, and moral strain reshapes a person's sense of self. Merlo's account touches on what it costs — psychologically and personally — to do this work over years.

Connect to books about: vicarious trauma, first responder mental health, occupational stress, identity and work.

---

8. **Australian Penal History & Criminal Justice**
Published in 1995 and set within the Australian corrections system, the book is a document of a particular time and place in the history of Australian criminal justice — a country whose very origins are entangled with incarceration and punishment.

Connect to books about: Australian criminal justice, penal history, comparative penology, Australian social history.

Screw : observations and revelations of a prison officer

Book Images

TAGS

CONNECTIONS

State

Details

LOCATION HISTORY

Book Location

Book Images

Vernon snapshot

Topics and Themes