Prison staff’s perception of their own legitimacy can be perceived as the foundation of a successful dialogue between prison workers and prisoners. Self-legitimacy as a specific form of legitimacy of authority is defined as the trust or confidence of power holders in the legitimacy of their authority and/or position. Prison workers enter into legitimacy dialogues with audiences with an image of themselves as confident and just power holders. Interactions of power holders (i.e., prison workers) with colleagues, superiors, and audiences present teachable moments to learn about legitimacy, as they represent opportunities to validate already formed possible selves. Antecedents of prison workers’ self-legitimacy besides the triad of recognition (supervisors’ procedural justice, relations with colleagues, and audience legitimacy) and relations with prisoners comprise feelings of obligation toward prisoners, organisational commitment, cooperation between prison services, workplace competencies, subculture of the prison staff, stress, support for different treatment of prisoners, and willingness to use force.