The Comparison of the Attitudes of Prisoners and Employeesof Khalkhal Prison toward Citizenship Rights

Citizenship is considered as a kind of membership that includes some rights, duties, and responsibilities encompassing the concepts of equality, justice and independence. The scope and nature of citizenship, at any time is perceived by some interrelated dimensions such as texture, content, depth, and territory. The complete concept of citizenship is obtained only when the barriers on the way of its establishment become identified and removed. This research was conducted with the aim of studying and comparing the attitudes of prisoners and employees of Khalkhal prison toward the rights of citizenship. The theoretical framework of this research was based on the sociological theory of citizenship of Brian. S. Turner and the historical sociology of citizenship of Thomas. H. Marshal. The survey method was employed and data was gathered using a researcher-made questionnaire. The sample size consisted of 157 individuals (25 employees and 132 prisoners) of Khalkhal prison who were selected using whole-counting random sampling technique. Results obtained from perceptual statistics show that, there is a meaningful difference between the attitudes of prisoners and employees toward the rights of citizenship and the employees had a more positive attitude toward the issue comparing to that of prisoners. Employees enjoyed a higher level of civic, political, social and cultural rights comparing to prisoners. Also it is indicated that, the attitudes of the two groups were not different according to their socio-economic bases.