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The case-study of a women´s prison in Hungary explores the relationship between in-prison inequalities and the prison s strong emphasis on discipline. This project sets out to test Charles Tilly s hypotheses about organizations (re)producing durable inequalities; their tendency to take over categorical inequalities out of convenience, which helps them accomplish other organizational work (Tilly 1998). The analysis demonstrates that a robust inmate hierarchy is in place: members of the elite are the extended arm of prison administration, a group of women are stigmatized as bad girls and warehoused until the day of their release; and the great majority of women are made disciplined workers. This work introduces the sorting mechanisms - e.g. job placement; or placement to cell - and the categories the prison uses - e.g. reliability, presentability - to distribute women in the various subgroups. The analysis uncovers the often direct translation between these internal categories and external social inequalities related to ethnicity or sexual orientation.

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Herta Toth is a feminist scholar from Hungary, with a particular interest in gender and organizations. She holds degrees in economics, gender studies, as well as sociology and social anthropology. She is one of the founders of Hungary´s first hotline for victims of domestic violence in 1994.

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