1. CHAPTER 12

2.  All institutions have an organizational culture  A set of values that helps the people in the organization understand what actions are acceptable & what actions are unacceptable  Unlike most other institutions prisoners do not leave the institution and do not have much meaningful interaction with the outside community  Total institution  An institution that provides all of the necessities for existence to those who live within its boundaries Prison Culture

3.  Prisonization  The socialization process through which a new inmate learns the accepted norms & values of the prison culture  Criminologists focus on:  How prisoners change their behavior to adapt to prison life behind bars  How life behind bars has changed because of inmate behavior  Inmate personalities and values:  Doing time  Jailing  Gleaning  Disorganized criminals Prison Culture

4.  Who is in Prison?  Rise of incarceration rates of women and minorities over the past three decades  Increase in offenders in prison convicted of drug and immigration violations  An Aging Inmate Population  Longer prison terms  Recidivism  An Ailing Inmate Population  At least 40% of inmates suffer from at least one ailment  Medical costs are straining correctional budgets  In Brown v. Plata the Supreme Court ruled that prisoners have a constitutional right to adequate health care  “A prison that deprives prisoners of adequate healthcare is incompatible with the concept of human dignity”  Mental Illness Behind Bars  Most public mental health hospitals closed in the 1970s, and as a result, jails and prisons are absorbing many mentally ill offenders who would have otherwise been hospitalized Prison Culture

5.  Rehabilitation & Prison Programs  Organized activities designed to improve the inmates’ physical and mental health, provide them with vocational skills, or just keep them occupied while incarcerated  Benefits  Alleviates boredom that marks prison/jail life  Helps inmates improve their health & skill-sets  Helps reduce recidivism  Budgetary constraints are forcing some prisons to limit their treatment programs Prison Culture

6.  Prisons and jails are dangerous places to live and prison culture is predicated on violence  Explaining prison violence:  It establishes the prison hierarchy  It provides a deterrent against being victimized  It enhances self-image  In the case of rape, it gives sexual relief  It is a means of acquiring material goods Prison Culture

7.  Deprivation Model  Inmate aggression is the result of the frustration inmates feel at being deprived of freedom, consumer goods, sex, & other staples of life outside the institution  Group Violence in Prison  There are incidents of group violence in prison  Sometimes prison riots erupt  Defined as situations in which a number of prisoners are beyond institutional control for a significant amount of time  Relatively rare  Researches use the term “relative deprivation” to explain group violence  Inmate aggression is caused when freedoms & services that the inmate has come to accept as normal are decreased or eliminated Prison Culture

8.  In 1918, James Parchmann, the warden at Mississippi State Penitentiary, introduced conjugal visits as an incentive for prisoners to behave & work hard.  Conjugal visits permit inmates to visit in private with their spouses.  Today, most states have eliminated conjugal visitation. It is only allowed in 6 states including CA, CT, MI, NM, NY, & WA  What are some benefits of conjugal visitation programs?  What are some challenges or concerns of conjugal visitation programs?  If you were a prison administrator would you permit conjugal visitation in your institution? Explain why or why not. Discussion Question #1

9.  Race & ethnicity play a major role in prison life  Prison violence is often an outlet for racial tension  Race determines nearly every aspect of an inmate’s life  Friends  Job assignments  Cell locations  Minority groups in prison have seized on race to help form their prison identities  Prison gang  A clique of inmates who join together in an organizational structure  Often the cause of inmate-on-inmate violence Prison Culture

10.  Prison Gangs and Security Threat Groups (STGs)  Race and ethnic identification is the primary focus of the prison gang  A prison gang is defined as a group of inmates who band together within the corrections system to engage in social and criminal activities  Prostitution, drug selling, gambling, loan sharking  Prison gangs are important to the social structure of a correctional facility  Security threat groups are considered a group of three or more inmates who engage in illegal activity that poses a threat to the safety of other inmates or staff  Prevalence of Prison Gangs  11.7% in federal prisons  13.4% in state prisons  15.6% in jails  Combating Prison Gangs  Using a security threat group coordinator to determine groups of individuals that qualify as a STG and then take appropriate actions to contain them Prison Culture

11.  Imagine you are a security threat group coordinator responsible for determining groups of individuals that qualify as an STG.  What guidelines would you establish to determine if an STG is present in your institution?  If you determine that a STG has been formed in your institution what actions would you take to contain them? Discussion Question #2

12.  Prison Employment  Steady employment and employment security  Standards for correctional officers have risen dramatically in the past decades  Becoming a Correctional Officer  Civil service exam  Go through a military-style training program  Classwork and physical training  Rank and Duties  Custodial staff is organized according to general ranks  Captain, lieutenant, sergeant, and officer Correctional Officers and Discipline

13.  Job categories among correctional officers:  Block officers  Work detail supervisors  Industrial shop & school officers  Yard officers  Tower guards  Administrative building assignments Correctional Officers and Discipline

14.  Sanctioning prisoners  Inmates receive the rules of the prison along with the punishment that will result from rule violations  Corrections officers have to enforce the rules  Most difficult & stressful aspect of correctional officers’ job  Punishments range  Loss of privileges to solitary confinement  Use of Force  Legitimate security interests (allows for necessary force)  Acting in self-defense  Acting to defend the safety of a third person  Upholding the rules of the institution  Preventing a crime  Preventing an escape  The “Malicious and Sadistic” Standard  Correctional officers do not have total freedom of discretion to apply force  Not a question about how much force was used but rather if the officer used the force as part of a good faith effort Correctional Officers and Discipline

15.  Female Correctional Officers  For many years women were not hired as correctional officers in men’s prisons  Belief that women were not strong enough  Belief that presence of females would cause disciplinary breakdowns  Today more than 150,000 women work in correctional facilities  Female correctional officers have proved just as effective as their male counterparts  The primary problem caused by women working in male prisons is sexual misconduct  Similar issues exist with male correctional officers and female inmates Correctional Officers and Discipline

16.  As previously discussed, male officers are now working in female institutions and female officers are working in male institutions.  What are the pros associated with allowing both genders to work with both male and female inmates?  What are the cons associated with allowing both genders to work with both male and female interests?  Which gender inmate would you feel most comfortable working with and why? Discussion Question #3

17.  Protecting Prisoners Rights  The 13th amendment indicates that inmates do not have the same guaranteed rights as other Americans  Courts have followed the “Hands-off” doctrine when it comes to looking at prisoner’s rights  Unwritten judicial policy that favors noninterference by the courts in the administration of prisons and jails  Courts followed this unwritten doctrine until the mid- 1970s  Treatment of prisoners is based on a balancing act between the rights of prisoners & the security needs of correctional institutions Correctional Officers and Discipline

18.  Two standards for determining 8th Amendment Violations: 1.Deliberate indifference  Established in 1976 (Estelle v. Gamble)  Prisoners must show that prison officials were aware of harmful conditions in a correctional institution and failed to take steps to remedy those conditions  Difficult to define 2.Identifiable human needs  Established in 1991 (Wilson v. Seiter)  Prisoners must show that they were denied basic human necessities such as food, warmth, or exercise Correctional Officers and Discipline

19.  Concerns relating to female inmates:  They often lack self-efficacy  Their criminal behavior is linked to parental stress  They are more likely to suffer from mental health problems  They are more likely to have been victims of physical and sexual abuse  They were involved in unhealthy relationships  Their lives are marked with poverty and homelessness Inside a Women’s Prison

21.  The Motherhood Problem  An estimated 7 out of every 10 female prisoners have at least one minor child  Inmates are often housed a great distance from their children  Costs of “staying in touch” are high  When women are in prison their children are often left in the care of the foster system  The Culture of Women’s Prisons  Compared to men’s prisons, women exhibit low levels of physical violence  Women tend to form pseudo-families  Inmates play specific roles  Younger inmates rely on the convicts acting as “mothers” for emotional support and companionship Inside a Women’s Prison

22.  Each year about 650,000 inmates are released from American prisons  Many inmates face challenges in their efforts to avoid relapse and reincarceration  Types of Prison Release  65% of inmates are released through parole (discussed in chapter 10)  35% have a sentence expiration (“maxing out”)  No further correctional supervision  Some inmates are pardoned (rare)  Executive clemency that overturns a conviction and erases mention of the crime on the person’s criminal record  Furloughs  Temporary release from a prison for vocational or educational training, to ease the shock of release, or for personal reasons Return to Society

23.  Challenges of Reentry  Prisoner reentry is a corrections strategy designed to prepare inmates for a successful return to the community and to lessen the possibility that they will reoffend after release  Specifically focus on the transition from prison to the community  Involve a treatment curriculum that continues after release  Life on the “Outside”  Life behind bars is very different than life on the outside  Rules for surviving in prison are not compatible with good citizenship  Prison environment insulates inmates Return to Society

24.  Other Barriers to Reentry  Housing can be difficult to secure  Finding employment is difficult  Physical and mental condition of the individual  Substance abuse  The Threat of Relapse  43% of ex-prisoners are back in prison or jail within three years of their release dates Reentry into Society

25.  Promoting Desistance  Desistance is the process through which criminal activity decreases and reintegration into society increases over a period of time  Most important factor in this process is the individual who has to want to desist  They will need help with the reentry effort  Preparation starts behind bars  Work Release & Halfway Houses  Nearly 1/3 of all correctional facilities offer work release programs where inmates are temporarily released for the purposes of employment  Offenders may spend their days on the job but must return to the correctional facility at night and during the weekend  Halfway houses are community-based residential centers that allow inmates to reintegrate with society  What works in reentry  Substance abuse treatment  Employment assistance Reentry into Society

26.  The Special Case of Sex Offenders  Sex offenders are denied access to many reentry efforts  The community is reluctant to receive them and the criminal justice system has not quite figured out what to do with them  Fear of sex offenders  Widespread belief that sex offenders cannot be cured and will continue to reoffend  In reality the rearrest rates for sex offenders are among the lowest for all offenders Reentry into Society

27.  Conditions of Release  Subject to extensive community supervision once released from prison (child molesters)  Special conditions of release  No contact with children  Psychiatric treatment  Must stay a certain distance from wherever children are present  Cannot own toys that may be used to lure children  Cannot have a job or participate in any activity that involves children Reentry into Society

28.  Sex Offender Notification Laws  Criminal justice authorities have established sex offender registries that contain information about the registered sex offender for the public to access  State and federal laws have also enacted sex offender notification laws  Legislation that requires law enforcement authorities to notify people when convicted sex offenders are released into their neighborhood or community  Active and Passive Notification  Under the active model the authorities directly notify the community or community representatives (bulletins or posters)  Under the passive model information on sex offenders is made open and available for public scrutiny  Effectiveness of Sex Offender Registries  Rates of sex offenses have not declined in response to sex offender registries Reentry into Society

29.  Many jurisdictions have civil commitment statutes which permit for the indefinite detention of sex offenders in psychiatric hospitals even after they are released from prison.  What are the legal implications to consider with this policy?  What are the ethical implications to consider with this policy?  What are the public safety implications to consider with this policy? Discussion Question #4