Jail Officers’ Perceptions of the Work Environment in Traditional Versus New Generation Facilities

New Generation jails have emerged as an important innovation in local incarceration. The results of existing research suggest that new generation jail design and operation can positively impact inmates and staff, but the literature is far from unequivocal. The current study utilized data collected from a single jail complex to provide a unique test of how the type of facility influences jail staff perceptions of the work environment along several dimensions. Our results revealed few differences between correctional officers working in traditional units and those posted in new generation units. We discuss the implications of these findings, including the use of direct supervision inmate management in traditional as well as new generation jails.     

White-collar offenders and the jail experience: a comparative analysis

The incarceration experiences of white-collar offenders have received relatively little attention among criminological researchers, and the research that has been conducted has focused on offenders’ experiences in prisons rather than jails. The purpose of this study was to fill this gap by examining approximately 6500 inmates incarcerated in local jails, comparing those classified as white-collar offenders to violent and other non-violent offenders. The differences between offender types based on demographics, psychological adjustment (i.e., mental health issues since arrival to jail), and behavioral adjustment (i.e., institutional misconduct) are examined to see whether white-collar inmates have more difficulty than others adjusting to the jail environment (consistent with the special sensitivity hypothesis). Findings suggest that white-collar jail inmates do not appear to experience symptoms indicative of poor psychological or behavioral adjustment to the jail environment. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.     

Mayberry revisited: The characteristics and operations of America's small jails

Much attention has been focused on the problems of America's prisons and jails. Jail research and often jail litigation have centered on large county or municipal jails; often these resemble correctional systems and are so called. Yet many of the nation's 3041 counties are small, rural, and sparsely populated. In a 1982 survey conducted by the National Sheriffs' Association, 640 jails had bed space for 16 or fewer inmates. Many of these jails suffer from the same kinds of deficiencies as large jails, although these problems are not exacerbated by size. Most jails suffer from lack of adequate funding, but for small jails this is a particularly acute problem which affects all facets of operations.

Data from the 1983 National Jail Census and the 1982 National Sheriffs' Association survey are used to develop a profile of the overlooked but important small jail, defined for our purposes as a facility capable of housing ten or fewer inmates. This profile indicates that small jails are older, have less cell capacity, and provide fewer health and rehabilitation services than their larger counterparts. The national prevalence of small jails and some of their notable deficiencies suggest that alternatives to these facilities be considered.     

Trouble in Mayberry: A national analysis of suicides and attempts in small jails

Despite the fact that there are approximately 1,775 American jails of 99 beds or less, little is known about how these jails function, or the challenges that they confront. This study examined the problem of suicides and attempted suicides in small jails, finding that the prevalence of these incidents is two to five times greater than in their larger counterparts. Net of other factors, jails that had higher rates of admissions, as well as overcrowded facilities had a positive relationship with suicide attempts. We also found that jails that reported higher concentrations of special needs inmates were significantly associated with attempts. Specifically, facilities that had higher levels of long-term inmates were positively associated with suicide attempts. While almost one-fifth of small jails did not use formal suicide assessments at admission, and only slightly more than one-half of these facilities provided annual suicide training to jail officers, these factors were not significantly associated with suicide attempts in 2004. Implications for future research and practice are outlined.     

INSTITUTIONAL AND POSTRELEASE BEHAVIOR OF FURMAN-COMMUTED INMATES IN TEXAS*

In 1972, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty as administered constituted cruel and unusual punishment. This ruling also invalidated the death sentences of over 600 inmates in the United States, who subsequently had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. This article examines the institutional and postrelease behavior of the 47 Furman inmates in Texas from 1973 to 1986. Prior to the release of these inmates into the general prisoner population, prison officials and clinicians stated that they were dangerous and constituted a substantial threat to other inmates and to the security staff. The institutional and release behavior of the Furman inmates is compared with that of a cohort of like violent offenders. The Furman inmates committed few serious rule violations. They did not kill other inmates or staff. A minority of inmates in both groups committed the majority of prison rule violations. Of the 31 Furman inmates released on parole, 1 committed a new homicide. No cohort inmate killed again. The conclusion is that the execution of these 47 inmates would not have greatly protected society.     

CLASSIFICATION TO HALFWAY HOUSES: A QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION *

Faced with prison overcrowding, institutions must seek alternatives to imprisonment. An under researched possibility is the use of halfway houses for the placement of offenders serving prison sentences. The LSI, an objective risk classification instrument, was administered to inmates from three jails. Low-scoring inmates from two of the jails were flagged for placement in correctional halfway houses, and the third jail was blind to LSI scores. The halfway house placement rate was 51 % for the jails that used LSI scores and 16% for the jail using traditional subjective classification procedures. The results suggest that subjective offender assessments run the risk of over classifying offenders whereas objective risk assessments yield more appropriate classifications.     

Does providing inmates with education improve postrelease outcomes? A meta-analysis of correctional education programs in the United States

Objectives

Our study addresses the question: Does providing inmates with education while incarcerated reduce their chances of recidivism and improve their postrelease employment prospects?

Methods

We aggregated 37 years of research (1980–2017) on correctional education and applied meta-analytic techniques. As the basis for our meta-analysis, we identified a total of 57 studies that used recidivism as an outcome and 21 studies that used employment as an outcome. We then applied random-effects regression across the effect sizes abstracted from each of these studies.

Findings

When focusing on studies with the highest caliber research designs, we found that inmates participating in correctional education programs were 28% less likely to recidivate when compared with inmates who did not participate in correctional education programs. However, we found that inmates receiving correctional education were as likely to obtain postrelease employment as inmates not receiving correctional education.

Conclusion

Our meta-analysis demonstrates the value in providing inmates with educational opportunities while they serve their sentences if the goal of the program is to reduce recidivism.

     

Prison labor and recidivism

This study examines recidivism among inmates who participated in prison industry programs during confinement and a comparison group of inmates who were not employed in prison industry. Industry participants had lower recidivism rates than nonparticipants, but when differences between the groups on other characteristics associated with recidivism were controlled, the recidivism rates of participants and nonparticipants were virtually identical. A proportional hazards regression model was estimated that showed that, net of other variables, the effect of prison industry participation on the probability of postrelease felony arrest was small and insignificant. The findings are discussed in the context of existing correctional outcome research and recent developments in prison work programs.     

在押犯人精神障碍的特征及其预防

本文回顾了近年来一些国外学者对此问题的探索,总结在押犯人中各种精神障碍的流行病学研究及特征,结合我国实际情况,建立专门的精神障碍治疗机构和对其进行医疗服务。     

Expressed needs and behavioral risk factors of HIV-positive inmates

Considerable research has found inmates to be at high risk for HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, research has shown additional HIV/AIDS threats faced by females in the general population and especially by those incarcerated. Behavioral interventions and educational programs have been developed based on these studies. However, few empirical studies have examined the self-expressed needs of HIV-positive inmates or the degree to which inmates' needs are gender specific. This pilot study compares the needs of HIV-positive male and female jail detainees. Results illustrate surprisingly few differences between men and women and their HIV-related needs. The primary need identified for both males and females was postrelease housing. Somewhat unexpectedly, HIV treatment and care ranked low on the list of needs. The implications of these finds are discussed.     

Jails in the United States: the phenomenon of mental illness in local correctional facilities

During the last decade, the number of mentally ill inmates in local jails has increased while courts have imposed standards of inmate care upon jail administrators which require appropriate treatment of that inmate group. While jail administrators are seeking assistance from mental health agencies as well as additional resources to deal with these problems, little specific information is presently available about the numbers and correlates of jail inmates nationally that are mentally ill; their prior contacts with mental health agencies, criminal histories, employment backgrounds, etc; and the services jails presently offer to that population. In addition, little is known by geographic region or by jail capacity. Such information is essential in developing future strategies to manage that population. This paper is a preliminary contribution to the development of that information. In addition, the data analysis can serve as a base line against which to evaluate in the structure of the mentally ill jail inmate population as well as changes in services provided by jails by comparing this analysis to future jail surveys conducted by the Bureau of Jail Statistics (BJS) or the National Institute of Justice. The research will be a secondary analysis of the Survey of Inmates of Local Jails, 1983, conducted by BJS, (made available through the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research: University of Michigan, First Edition, Fall, 1985, #8274). In general an exploratory approach was used; however, a loglinear model has been asked to further refine and explore the phenomena of the mentally ill in jails.     

Rural jails: Problematic inmates, overcrowded cells, and cash-strapped counties

In the United States there were some 1,775 jails with one hundred beds or less, but there had been little empirical examination of these facilities, or the challenges that they confront. This survey of 213 jail administrators from these small facilities found that under-funding, overcrowding, and retention and recruitment of officers were the most significant challenges. By contrast, suicide and violence were perceived to be less serious problems. The small jails sampled also held relatively high percentages of special needs inmates, and this places further demands on these agencies. These challenges are very similar to problems identified several decades ago, suggesting that few structural or operational changes had been made in rural justice systems. In many places, rural jails acted as a default mechanism for failures in other social, health, or community systems and they become the place that “just can't say no.”     

US: condoms distributed to gay inmates in LA

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has quietly begun distributing condoms to gay inmates at its downtown jail, joining just six other jails and prisons in the US that make condoms available to prisoners in an effort to reduce the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases in prisons.     

Why a jail or prison sentence is increasingly like a death sentence

Because of current conditions inside American jails and prisons, a sentence to a correctional facility routinely compromises the health, safety, and life of inmates. Four environmental factors can make a jail and prison sentence appear like a death sentence: poor health care, unsanitary living conditions, high levels of violence, and an increased number of people with chronic diseases living in close proximity. Thus, a de facto death penalty, the most controversial sanction of the criminal justice system, is the result for some inmates, and a misapplication of the criminal law is thus achieved. In order to present this argument, the author reviews research which increases the likelihood that a person will die behind bars.     

The impact of density on jail violence

The operation of jails over their rated capacities is frequently thought of as a major contributor to increased tension among inmates, an additional burden on corrections officers, and a hindrance to classification procedures. The increased tensions combined with difficult working conditions are expected by administrators to contribute to correctional violence. Data for the current study were collected from 646 jails. Spatial density was found to be a significant predictor of inmate–inmate and inmate–staff assaults, but not in the manner that was expected. Increased density was associated with lower assault rates in the participating facilities. The measures of social density were not associated with either type of assaults once other variables, such as jail-level inmate characteristics or inmate supervision variables were considered. Variables such as aggregate inmate age, race, trial status, inmate/officer ratio, transiency of the jail population, and the use of direct supervision were included in the analysis.     

Jail reform litigation: The issue of rights and remedies

This paper looks at the vast array of lawsuits filed by jail inmates challenging the conditions of their confinement. While much attention has been focused on prison reform litigation, many of the nation's jails have been subject to civil rights lawsuits, and many are now operating under some form of court order. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Southern Criminal Justice Association, October 7–9, 1987, Birmingham, AL.     

Substance abusers in jail: Health service breakdown in five New York jails

The New York State Commission of Correction Medical Review Board studied five inmate mortalities which occurred between 1986 and 1989 in different New York State jails. The jails varied in size and in health care delivery capacity, but shared several characteristics, particularly severe overcrowding, high annual rates of population growth, and high concentrations of substance abusing inmates. Each inmate mortality case revealed an unprepared failure in health care delivery in which, absent such failure, the outcome may have been different. Influx of ever-increasing numbers of acutely and chronically ill substance abusers under overcrowded conditions intensifies demand on unprepared health care systems which increasingly break down. Jail health care systems should be evaluated in light of current population size and changing inmate health care needs.     

Long-term consequences of being placed in disciplinary segregation†

Being placed in restrictive housing is considered one of the most devastating experiences a human can endure, yet a scant amount of research has been conducted to test how this experience affects core indicators of prisoner reentry such as employment and recidivism. In this article, we use Danish registry data, which allow for us to link penal conditions to postrelease outcomes, to show how the reentry outcomes of individuals placed in disciplinary segregation, which is placement in restrictive housing because of disciplinary infractions, compare with those sanctioned for in-prison offenses but not placed in segregation. The results from matched difference-in-differences analyses show that Danish inmates placed in disciplinary segregation experience larger drops in employment and larger increases in the risk of being convicted of a new crime in the 3 years after release from a correctional facility than do Danish inmates who were sanctioned for a serious offense but not placed in disciplinary segregation as a result. Because being placed in disciplinary segregation, and restrictive housing more broadly, is so common, these results indicate that restrictive housing placement may be a key moderator of the effects of incarceration that merits more attention from criminologists, provided the associations shown here represent causal effects and generalize.     

公安监所“80后”在押人员感化教育问题研究

感化教育在押人员是公安监所工作的一项主要任务,是确保监所安全和从事公安监所管理工作的监管民警必须掌握和运用的基础工作。研究＂80后＂在押人员感化教育问题,是做好转型时期监管工作的基础,是提高监管工作质量和深挖犯罪工作科学化的有效途径。     

Population density and assaults in jails for men and women

Jail populations and capacities are increasing across the United States. Such increases raise questions about the potential for increased violence in crowded jails, such as those in Dade County, Florida. The study uses incident reports for the Dade County Jails Pretrial Detention Center (PTDC) for men and the Women’s Detention Center (WDC) for the year 1984. Assaults are examined in relation to total population, density by floors and total facility, and for the race/ethnicity and age of inmates. Findings show that density alone, or “crowding,” has the greatest effect on the number and rate of assaults. Neither age nor race/ethnicity appear to be significantly related to assaults, except in the WDC for white inmates. For both facilities assaults appear to decline when Black inmates are predominant in a living area and rise when whites predominate. The reasons for this phenomenon are not entirely clean. The author acknowledges the assistance of the administration and staff of the Dade County Department of Correction and Rehabilitation in the collection of these data. Kris Siddharthan, Department of Health Services Administration at FIU, and Ray Surette of the Criminal Justice Department, reviewed and made helpful comments regarding the paper.