ROLE STRESS, CUSTODY ORIENTATION, AND DISCIPLINARY ACTIONS

Shifting correctional philosophies and institutional policies concerning the handling and control of inmates have contributed to experiences of role stress among prison guards. The present study, based on questionnaire responses of 144 prison guards from a maximum security prison, suggests that role stress is resolved by an intensified commitment to the custodial role. A major consequence of this is a higher rate of disciplinary reports filed by the guards. Apparently, an increased custody orientation disposes guards to a pattern of closer surveillance and control of the inmate population. This study concludes with a discussion of the implications of our findings for guardinmate relationships and for the administration of justice in the prison setting.     

The Rogue from Within: The Denial of Torture in Italian Prisons

In October 2009, Stefano Cucchi was beaten to death by prison guards while in custody. Italian public opinion toward prisons changed because of this event. Civil society organizations rose the level of awareness by showing how routine these abuses have become. This paper discusses the case of prisoners tortured in the prison of Asti, near Turin. Through the use of Stanley Cohen’s categories of denial, it will be shown how force relations inside prison make abuses possible.     

THE EXERCISE OF POWER IN COERCIVE ORGANIZATIONS: A STUDY OF PRISON GUARDS*

If the power of prison guards has been altered and reduced by recent social, legal, and bureaucratic instructions in American prisons, as has been reported by many observers, then what is the base of power by which guards currently exert control over prisoners? Following a discussion of the bases of power in prison, data from a survey of guards in five prisons are examined to determine the extent to which each power base is viewed as a resource to gain prisoner compliance. The results are discussed in terms of the guards’exercise of control within the increasingly bureaucratic structure of coercive organizations.     

The criminal justice system in a social justice society would look very different from the current system

I learned my most important lessons about criminal justice reform more than 30 years ago while working on what has become known as the Attica Prison rebellion. The Attica Prison rebellion took place in September 1971 in the maximum security prison in upstate New York. Led by prisoners with a broad social justice agenda, the prisoners’ demands were focused on basic human rights, including the right to organise, the right to be free from abuse from prison guards and the right to basic living conditions – health and sanitary conditions among others. The rebellion was ended when then Governor Nelson Rockefeller sent in state troopers to retake the prison by force, resulting in the death of 39 prisoners and prison guards. A political and legal struggle to defend prisoners charged in the uprising ensued, eventually resulting in the dismissal of the charges against the prisoners. In 2000, the people who had been prisoners at Attica during the 1971 rebellion were awarded an $8m settlement from the State of New York.     

Alienation and the correctional officer: A multivariate analysis

The increased pressures which have been placed upon correctional institutions in the 1980’s have made the retention of quality correctional officers imperative. Yet many of these officers find prison work to be an unsatisfying experience. This paper attempts to measure levels of alienation among correctional officers and identify factors which may be related to its occurrence. The amount of alienation experienced by 126 correctional officers at a Western state prison was measured utilizing Dean’s Alienation Scale. Alienation levels were found to be related primarily to institutional, and opposed to non-institutional, variables. The implications for correctional administration are discussed.     

PRISON GUARDS AND THE USE OF PHYSICAL COERCION AS A MECHANISM OF PRISONER CONTROL*

This paper examines the dynamics of the use of unofficial force by prison guards in a Texas penitentiary. The findings suggest that rather than being idiosyncratic or sporadic, guard use of physical coercion was highly structured and deeply entrenched in the guard subculture Upperranking guards served as mentors and socialized younger nonmnking guards into the process of using physical coercion. These nonranking guards actually served as apprentices. Most importantly, guards who used physical force were rewarded for their behavior with improved duty posts or even promotions.     

The role of moral disengagement in the execution process

The present study tested the proposition that disengagement of moral self-sanctions enables prison personnel to carry out the death penalty. Three subgroups of personnel in penitentiaries located in three Southern states were assessed in terms of eight mechanisms of moral disengagement. The personnel included the execution teams that carry out the executions; the support teams that provide solace and emotional support to the families of the victims and the condemned inmate; and prison guards who have no involvement in the execution process. The executioners exhibited the highest level of moral, social, and economic justifications, disavowal of personal responsibility, and dehumanization. The support teams that provide the more humane services disavowed moral disengagement, as did the noninvolved guards but to a lesser degree than the support teams.     

PRISON GUARDS' ATTITUDES TOWARD COMPONENTS OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Only recently has there been very much interest in prison guards, their behavior, or their attitudes. Although prisons and their prisoners have been the subject of many investigations, the keepers have been overlooked. This article reports guards’attitudes toward the criminal justice system and suggests what these attitudes may mean.     

The erosion of authority and the perceived legitimacy of inmate social protest: A study of prison guards

The level of control exercised by guards over inmates, it has been argued, has decreased recently as a result of therapeutic, legal, and bureaucratic changes in American prisons. Feeling that inmates too often and too easily circumvent their authority, and that greater inmate rights pose a serious threat to their ability to maintain order, guards tend to discredit inmate complaints and to deny inmates the right to lawful social protest. Questionaire data are analyzed to examine (1) the extent and degree to which guards perceive as legitimate the various means by which inmates may protest unfair treatment by staff and (2) the relationship of this perceived legitimacy of inmate social protest to a variety of factors that prior research has isolated as important in understanding prison guards as an occupational group.     

Ruling by Favors: Prison Guards' Informal Exercise of Institutional Control

This ethnographic research addresses the control strategies employed by Norwegian guards in everyday interactions with inmates under institutional conditions in which the use of official negative sanctions is restricted. The article explains how a complicated informal system of favors develops that forms a new basis for punishment through the withdrawal of rewards. By distributing favors liberally, giving an inmate only what he is entitled to serves as a substitute for negative sanctions. Inmates are not opposing the informal system, and its effect on ensuring institutional control does not challenge the intentions of formal prison rules. Still, the informal system must be monitored and protected against overuse by inmates and must also be kept hidden from the officials making up the prison administration who oppose all departures from the official rules.     

Facing drug problems and advancing sentence plan. Prisoners’ perspectives on drug treatment programmes in Finland

ABSTRACT

In Nordic countries, the rapid development of various prison-based drug treatment (PDT) programmes emerged in the mid-1990s, and this development can be viewed as a criminological shift towards a “new form” of penal welfarism combining control and rehabilitation in a revised form in a new era. This article examines PDT programmes from the prisoners’ perspective to analyse their motives to participate, experiences, and relationships with counsellors, guards, and prisoners. Data were collected from interviews of the prisoners and observations in three Finnish prisons. Both the motives connected to handling drug problems and those connected to gaining an advantage for the duration of time spent in prison were experienced simultaneously by participants. Prisoners made a clear distinction between guards and drug counsellors and were somewhat confused by staff roles that combined both rehabilitative and control features. These findings suggest that new hybrid roles already found among correctional staff seem to exist also for prisoners.     

POLITICIZATION OF THE CRIMINAL OFFENDER

A “political model” of crime and punishment is described and the utility of this model is explored in the light of depth interviews with incarcerated offenders. It is suggested that the average offender brings to prison political socialization experiences which have resulted in alienation but not ideological estrangement from the political order. It is further suggested that politicizing processes in prison, coupled with the failure of rehabilitative efforts, have mode the political model acceptable to a large proportion of offenders. this model is not acceptable to prison administrators, however, and the result is increasingly that administrators and clients are operating from conflicting paradigms.     

Is child saving dead? Attitudes toward juvenile rehabilitation in Illinois

In recent times, juvenile rehabilitation has been attacked both by liberals seeking to insert greater due process rights and protections into the juvenile justice system and by conservatives calling for more stringent handling of serious youthful offenders. The apparent pervasiveness of this attack raises the question, Is the philosophy of child saving dead? Data drawn from a survey conducted in Illinois suggest, however, that juvenile rehabilitation continues to receive support both from the public and from various groups associated with criminal justice practice and policy making. At the same time, there is also support for the notion that young criminals are responsible for their actions and are currently being treated too leniently by our courts. Finally, child saving is embraced most firmly by judges, lawyers, correctional administrators, and prison inmates and least strongly by legislators, prison guards, and the general public.     

刑事案件精神病鉴定实施情况调研报告

本文以法律职业群体和司法精神病学鉴定专家为调研对象,就刑事程序中的精神病鉴定及相关问题进行了调研,通过运用访谈、问卷、阅卷、调取司法统计数据等实证研究方法对目前我国刑事程序中精神病鉴定的现状、问题及成因展开了研究.研究的主要问题包括司法精神病鉴定主体与鉴定管理体制,鉴定程序的启动,公安司法人员对鉴定意见的审查、判断,对...     

Pandora's box: Women guards in men's prisons

The assignment of women guards to security positions in men's prisons in the United States is increasingly a correctional reality. This article considers the problems these women face in entering a previously all-male, “front-line” occupation. The discussion focuses on (1) how well female officers meet the security demands of security work, (2) the nature of, and basis for, difficulties in relating to male co-workers, and (3) occupational socialization and advancement. Drawing on available empirical and anecdotal data on women officers in male prisons and on the more general prison guard literature, the intent is to present what is known about these women officers. A research agenda is offered to guide inquiry into the problems of the sexual integration of correctional institutions.     

Prison life: Television,sports, work,stress and insomnia in a remand prison

ObjectiveTo compare how prisoners complaining of insomnia and prisoners without sleep problems describe their daily activities, stress factors and the perceived reasons for their sleep quality in prison.Method102 randomly chosen remanded prisoners complaining of insomnia and 61 randomly chosen prisoners who did not complain of insomnia.ResultsPrisoners complaining of insomnia and those reporting good sleep differed significantly in their lifestyle in prison. A significantly higher percentage of the former than of the latter reported writing letters, diaries or a book in prison, as well as doing “arts-related” activities such as painting and listening to music. A significantly higher percentage of non insomniac prisoners than of prisoners complaining of insomnia practiced sports in prison, watched television, and spent their day discussing and meeting other detainees. PSQI and GHQ scores were significantly different between insomniac and non insomniac prisoners. Insomniac prisoners complained significantly more often than non-insomniac prisoners about sleep disturbances, in the first place by roommates, but also by guards. Activities in prison and stressful events were significant factors associated with the variable “insomnia versus no insomnia” Worries about medical problems (odds ratio: 12.9), being separated or divorced (odds ratio: 8.8), having experienced stressful events during the past week (odds ratio: 8.7), “art” activity (odds ratio: 8.6), and having a GHQ score > 10 (odds ratio: 7.7) had the highest odds ratios among the tested covariates. No sports in prison and some activities were also predictors of insomnia when entered separately or conditionally.ConclusionOur study provides arguments on how to alleviate insomnia in prison: changing conditions of imprisonment is of public health benefit. Increased opportunities to practice sports in prison as well as adequate care for medical problems and psychological support to reduce context related stress should be routinely offered to insomniac prisoners.     

Determinants of social distance in a prison environment

Social distance is defined as a measured distance of human feelings toward ethnic/racial groups, reflecting race relations and underlying potential for racial tensions. Knowledge of variables' effect on social distance should allow for better understanding those things which may enhance race relations, and decrease racial tensions. The relative importance of a number of variables effecting social distance in a maximum security prison are analyzed here. The data reported in this paper were gathered from a sample of inmates at Eastern New York Correctional Facility and demonstrate that educational level and religious affiliation had significant effects on the overall social distance score; number of times in prison was almost significant; and the variables race, place of residence prior to incarceration, age, and marital status had only minimal effects.     

American politics,British policy: whole of life imprisonment and transatlantic influence

Since the abolition of the death penalty, life imprisonment in England and Wales has had a literal meaning with exceptional rarity. Now though, in the rejection of perceived interference by the European Court of Human Rights in domestic sentencing, the politics of whole of life imprisonment have become exposed, specifically, in the widening applicability of the tariff to those who kill police officers or prison guards. Borrowing from the politics of capital punishment in the United States, in both “acting out” after a particular crime, and the prioritising of victim groups, the most severe penalty in England and Wales is increasingly beginning to mirror how the most severe punishment across the Atlantic is used, represented, and politicised.     

ALIENATION IN PRISON ORGANIZATIONS:

The deprivation modelsuggests that prisonization and inmate opposition the prison organization are a function of the deprivations imposed by organization. Compliance theory maintains that alienationof the organiza tionf participants covaries with the coerciveness of the organization. Data obtained from inmates and officers in six adult correctional institutions are examined to test the hypothesis that inmate alienation is a result of the coer civeness of the institution and a cause of inmate opposition to the institu tion. The findings lend support to the hypothesized model and, further more, suggest the need to distinguish between absolute and relative deprivation.     

Introduction

In Sweden, female prison officers are a long-established fact. Today women make up about 38% of the prison officer work-force. However, the distribution of sexes in the organization is quite uneven between different types of prison wings and units, and at the in-group level there is an informal gendered division of labour going on. The article deals with how a gendered division of labour comes about as a result of socially established motives and notions among prison officers, as well as prisoners, about men's and women's different qualities in performing different types of work tasks. It is based on data from a minor interview study (from 2006), and a 3-year multi-strategic research project containing qualitative case-studies and a nationwide survey (from 2007–2009). The article concludes that a great number of female officers contribute to a more prominent position for the rehabilitative side of prison work. However, the on-going gendered division of labour in and between wings and units is also one important factor behind sub-cultural differentiation and variations in work practices in the prison organization. A more balanced distribution of the sexes would stimulate rehabilitative work and a more unified view of the occupational role throughout the whole organization.