To better understand the sociological perspectives within Shawshank State Penitentiary, we must first understand the environment in which these actions take place . Similar to that of a bureaucracy, Shawshank State Penitentiary has a hierarchy of authority, impersonality among workers, and employment based on technical qualifications. For example, Samuel Norton is an educated man with the qualifications to run the prison as warden, and by default he is responsible for all other employees of the penitentiary. He regularly commands other guards, notably Captain Byron T. Hadley, to perform various tasks throughout the penitentiary. In our society, once an individual is convicted of a criminal act, they are most often sent to a correctional facility. These individuals are taken from their familiar environment and integrated with other deviant individuals. To survive in this new environment, an individual must adapt to their environment by establishing a new identity and accepting their role as a prisoner within their community. This can be b...