Physical and property victimization behind bars: a multilevel examination

The majority of the extant literature on inmate victimization considers only one level of analysis, thus ignoring the interaction effects between inmate- and prison-level variables. To extend this literature, multilevel modeling techniques were used to analyze self-report data from more than 1,000 inmates and 30 prisons in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio. Results revealed that demographic variables were strong predictors of physical victimization (i.e., race and assaultive behavior). Also, security level had a contextual direct effect on physical victimization. Property victimization was best explained with an integrated model including inmate (i.e., race, assaultive behavior, prior education, prior employment, and time served), contextual (i.e., security level and proportion non-White), and micro-macro interaction variables (i.e., Race x Security Level). Policy implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Challenges to inmate classification in a developing country setting: implications for context-based inmate classification schemes

Inmate classification is a key aspect of prison management and inmate programming. It guides inmate housing assignment, level of supervision and control, and inmate programme placement. The Philippines formally incorporated these principles to modernise its prisons. However, structural, organisational, and cultural challenges posed barriers to successful implementation. Utilising qualitative data gathered through interviews and focus group discussions with prison personnel, inmates, and volunteers in a major prison in the Philippines, this paper investigates the practices that impact on inmate classification and how these affect housing assignment, levels of supervision and control, and inmate programming. Implications towards developing an integrated correctional management in the Philippines, and other similarly situated countries, are discussed.     

A Bi-level Framework for Understanding Prisoner Victimization

Objectives

To present and test an opportunity perspective on prison inmate victimization.

Methods

Stratified random samples of inmates (n ₁ = 5,640) were selected from Ohio and Kentucky prisons (n ₂ = 46). Bi-level models of the prevalence of assaults and thefts were estimated. Predictors included indicators of inmate routines/guardianship, target antagonism, and target vulnerability at the individual level, and several indicators of guardianship at the facility level.

Results

Assaults were more common among inmates with certain routines and characteristics that might have increased their odds of being victimized (e.g., less time spent in recreation; committed violence themselves during incarceration), and higher levels of assaults characterized environments with lower levels of guardianship (e.g., architectural designs with more “blind spots”, larger populations, and less rigorous rule enforcement as perceived by correctional officers). Similar findings emerged for thefts in addition to stronger individual level effects in prisons with weaker guardianship (e.g., ethnic group differences in the risk of theft were greater in facilities with larger populations and less rigorous rule enforcement).

Conclusions

The study produced evidence favoring a bi-level opportunity perspective of inmate victimization, with some unique differences in the relevance of particular concepts between prison and non-prison contexts.     

Causes and correlates of prison inmate misconduct: A systematic review of the evidence

Purpose

Inmate rule violations or “misconducts” reflect offending within a prison, and this study involved a systematic review of studies of the causes/correlates of inmate misconduct published between 1980 and 2013.

Methods

An exhaustive search of relevant high impact journals yielded 98 studies of causes/correlates of inmates misconduct published between 1980 and 2013. The final models from these studies were examined to assess the impact of the predictor variables on misconduct.

Results

Findings revealed that predictor variables reflecting inmates’ background characteristics (e.g., age, prior record), their institutional routines and experiences (e.g., prior misconducts), and prison characteristics (e.g., security level) all impact misconduct.

Conclusions

Researchers should apply general theories of crime and deviance (e.g., control) that can incorporate all of the empirically relevant inmate and prison characteristics to the study of offending in prison (misconduct). Researchers should also examine the sources of variability in the effects of predictor variables across studies.     

Unintended consequences: experimental evidence for the criminogenic effect of prison security level placement on post-release recidivism

Most prison systems use quantitative instruments to classify and assign inmates to prison security levels commensurate to their level of risk. Bench and Allen (The Prison Journal 83(4):367-382, 2003) offer evidence that the assignment to higher security prisons produces elevated levels of misconduct independent of the individual’s propensity to commit misconduct. Chen and Shapiro (American Law and Economics Review, 2007) demonstrate that assignment to higher security level among inmates with the same classification scores increases post-release recidivism. Underlying both of these claims is the idea that the prison social environment is criminogenic. In this paper we examine the theoretical premises for this claim and present data from the only experiment that has been conducted that randomly assigns inmates to prison security levels and evaluates both prison misconduct and post-release recidivism. The experiment’s results show that inmates with a level III security classification who were randomly assigned to a security level III prison in the California prison system had a hazard rate of returning to prison that was 31% higher than that of their randomly selected counterparts who were assigned to a level I prison. Thus, the offenders’ classification assignments at admission determined their likelihood of returning to prison. There were no differences in the institutional serious misconduct rates of these same prisoners. These results are contradictory to a specific deterrence prediction and more consistent with peer influence and environmental strain theories. These results also raise important policy implications that challenge the way correctional administrators will have to think about the costs and benefits of separating inmates into homogeneous pools based on classification scores.

Effects of increased security on prison violence

Stricter security measures were inaugurated in California institutions in an attempt to reduce violence inside the prisons. This study examines the consequences of the altered policies, using stabbing rates of assaults by inmates on staff members to compare violence levels in the institutions before and after tighter security was imposed. A significant decline in the rate of total stabbings was noted, as well as significant changes in stabbing patterns within the institutions. However, despite the tighter security measures, no significant decrease occurred in the rates of either fatal stabbings or assaults by inmates on staff. Population increases, crowding, lack of exercise, changing characteristics of the inmate population, attachment of the violent label, the nature of security housing, and the inability of correctional officials to control inmates are discussed as possible influences on institutional violence.     

Comparing Self-Report to Official Measures of Inmate Misconduct

Studies have revealed systematic measurement errors in self-report data on crime and deviance resulting from poor recall and/or underreporting by certain groups of respondents. Official crime data have also been criticized, but for different reasons (e.g. gross underestimations of less serious offenses). Very similar observations have been made in studies of inmate crime (misconduct committed by prison inmates). Despite these criticisms, official data on inmate misconduct continue to be the most frequently used data in related studies. This study compared self-report and official data on inmate assaults, property thefts, and drug offenses for samples of inmates from 46 correctional institutions for adults in Ohio and Kentucky. Findings revealed that officially recorded misconduct underestimates the total volume of inmate crime. Analyses designed to uncover sources of the divergence between self-reported misconduct and officially recorded misconduct revealed far more consistencies than differences in the magnitude of inmate and facility effects on the different types of offenses. A few important differences did emerge in the magnitude of effects such as amount of time served (at the individual level) and facility population size (at the aggregate level).     

Race group differences in prison victimization experiences

Purpose

To assess differences in victimization risk between African American and white, non-Latino inmates, and to estimate race group differences in the correlates of victimization.

Methods

Random samples totaling 2,403 African Americans and 3,150 whites were drawn from all state prisons in Ohio and Kentucky and all private prisons in Ohio (n = 46). Race-specific bi-level models of physical assaults and property thefts were estimated. Differences between race-specific models in the magnitude of regression coefficients for the same predictors and outcomes were compared.

Results

The odds of victimization by physical assault and by theft were significantly higher among whites compared to African Americans. Race group differences in the magnitude of several inmate level effects (e.g., age, sex, education, family status, officer “legitimacy”, custody score, visitation) were also significant, yet facility effects were similar for both groups.

Conclusions

Assessing differences in the victimization experiences of African American and white inmates is important for developing effective crime prevention strategies in prison. We examined the most comprehensive models of inmate victimization (including inmate socio-demographics, activities during confinement, perceptions of officers, facility characteristics, and officer perceptions of rule enforcement) for one of the largest samples of prisons to date.     

Exploring cynicism toward prison administrations as a mediator of the association between quality of treatment and inmate misconduct

This study explores the ability of inmate cynicism to mediate the relationship between perceptions regarding quality of treatment and inmate misconduct in a prison setting. Using a sample of inmates from prisons in South Korea, the generalizability of the process-based model is tested. Also, the indirect effect of quality of treatment on inmate misconduct through cynicism is estimated using a bias-corrected bootstrapped mediation analysis. The findings show that quality of treatment was negatively and significantly associated with inmate misconduct in South Korean prisons. Additionally, results indicate that the quality of treatment and social support are significant predictors of inmate cynicism. Finally, a regression-based path analysis reveals that cynicism mediates the relationship between quality of treatment and inmate misconduct. While quality of treatment was found to predict inmate misconduct significantly, mediation analyses support the hypothesis that inmate cynicism partially mediates this association. The findings suggest that correctional policies should pay more attention to reducing inmates’ cynicism.

     

Comparing Methods for Examining Relationships Between Prison Crowding and Inmate Violence

Studies of empirical relationships between indicators of prison crowding and inmate violence have uncovered null, negative, and positive relationships. These mixed findings may be due, in part, to cross‐study differences in definitions of crowding, levels of analysis, and sample designs. We compared findings across some of the more popular approaches to study the relationship between facility crowding and the prevalence of inmate assaults in order to determine the implications of different methods for variation in estimates. Multi‐level data from a national sample of 10,022 men confined in 203 state correctional facilities during 1997 were examined. Findings revealed differences across methods in the direction and significance of the crowding/assault relationship. These differences were then considered in order to derive a strategy for more uniform research on the topic. This strategy consists of including both total inmate population and design capacity as separate predictors in the same model, examination of tri‐level data (inmates, facilities, and states) in order to control compositional differences in inmate populations across facilities and to remove confounding state‐level differences in crowding levels and assault rates, and more careful consideration of secondary analyses of complex samples with sample weights.     

Inmate Attitudes Toward Treatment: Mental Health Service Utilization and Treatment Effects

This study examined inmate attitudes toward treatment, mental health treatment utilization, and treatment effects that maximize treatment effectiveness. Participants consisted of 278 incarcerated male adult offenders from the Kansas Department of Corrections. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that inmate attitudes toward treatment were predictive of the number of mental health treatment sessions (dosage) inmates received. Hierarchical linear regression analyses indicated positive help-seeking attitudes were associated with institutional behavior (decreased number and severity of disciplinary infractions) and scores on a measure assessing risk for future criminal behavior; however, the amount of mental health treatment an inmate received (treatment dosage) was associated with problematic institutional behavior (i.e., increased severity and number of disciplinary infractions). These results indicated that treatment dosage and behavioral outcomes were impacted by inmate attitudes toward treatment. As a result, correctional psychologists may be better able to predict which inmates will receive the most benefit from services. Implications of these findings for practitioners and policy makers are discussed.     

“It's Just Black,White, or Hispanic”: An Observational Study of Racializing Moves in California's Segregated Prison Reception Centers

This article takes as its launching point a 2005 U. S. Supreme Court case, Johnson v. California (543 U.S. 499), which ruled that the California Department of Corrections' unwritten practice of racially segregating inmates in prison reception centers is to be reviewed under the highest level of constitutional review, strict scrutiny. Relying on observational data from two California prison reception centers, this research is grounded in an interactionist perspective and influenced by Smith's work on “institutional ethnography.” I examine how racialization occurs in carceral settings, arguing that officers and inmates collaborate to arrive at a “negotiated settlement” regarding housing decisions. They do so working together (but not always in agreement) to shape how an inmate is categorized in terms of ‘race’/ethnicity and gang/group affiliation, within a framework established by official Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation paperwork and related institutional understandings of housing needs. The findings demonstrate that administrators, officers, and inmates alike have influence over the process by which people are categorized and ‘race’ is produced, even as they derive their power from different sources and are both enabled and constrained by the relationship between them. I conclude that California prisons are, as Wacquant has put it, “the main machine for ‘race making’” (2005:128), and that the fuel for that machine—a series of patterned, negotiated settlements—happens in real time, “on the ground,” and with important consequences for inmates, officers, and administrators.     

Too Close for Comfort: Exploring Gender Differences in Inmate Attitudes Toward Homosexuality in Prison

Since the inception of the Prison Rape Elimination Act in 2003, there has been increased interest in not only sexual victimization among incarcerated populations, but all aspects of prison sexuality. Correctional policies have focused on the homosexual population in attempts to protect these individuals from victimization and in attempts to decrease sexual relationships between inmates. While recent research has focused on the prevalence of homosexual behavior and the prevalence of sexual victimization among incarcerated populations, there has been little research on inmate attitudes toward homosexuality and same-sex sexual encounters in prison. The present study adds to the literature base by examining gender differences in attitudes toward inmate homosexuality among a sample of male and female inmates in a large Southern prison system. Findings revealed that male inmates, older inmates, and heterosexual inmates had significantly more negative attitudes toward homosexual inmates. Implications based on these findings are discussed.     

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.     

Administrative determinants of inmate violence: A multilevel analysis

This study examined the effect of remunerative and coercive controls on inmate assault, net of traditional controls. The sample included 4,168 male inmates nested within 185 state correctional facilities. The results suggest a complex relationship between remunerative controls and inmate assault. Remunerative controls were not significant predictors of inmate-on-inmate assault; however, prisoners involved in work programs were significantly less likely to assault staff, net of control variables. A significant relationship was not found between coercive control and inmate assault.     

Race,ethnicity, and prison disciplinary misconduct

It is well known that racial and ethnic minorities (both male and female) have felt the effect of increased incarceration more than Whites, and a large amount of prior research has investigated the factors that influence higher levels of inmate misconduct, including the influence of race/ethnicity. This body of research has produced mixed results. Using recent data from one of the largest state prison systems, this study sought to determine the level of racial and ethnic disparity in the commission of inmate misconduct. Results indicate that Black inmates were significantly more likely than other inmates to commit general rule violations, serious rule violations, and assaultive rule violations. Correlates of inmate misconduct and policy implications stemming from the findings are discussed.     

Deprivation, importation, and prison suicide: Combined effects of institutional conditions and inmate composition

Previous research on suicide in United States prisons focused on the characteristics of inmates who commit suicide while largely ignoring the prison context surrounding these suicides. The following analyses used national data on 1,082 state prisons in the United States to examine how prison conditions (deprivation) and inmate composition (importation) predict prison suicide. Results of a negative binomial regression model showed that the number of suicides was significantly increased in supermaximum and maximum security prisons (relative to minimum), under conditions of overcrowding and violence, and in prisons where a greater proportion of inmates received mental health services. Although deprivation variables were overwhelmingly predictive of suicide, the results pointed to the combined effects of institutional conditions and inmate composition on prison suicide.     

The Correctional Experiences of Youth in Adult and Juvenile Prisons

This article analyzes data from interviews with inmates to examine the correctional experiences of young men incarcerated through criminal (adult) courts in a large Northeastern state. The sample (N = 95) includes respondents from five correctional institutions; some of these inmates have been sentenced to adult department of corrections facilities, and some to juvenile facilities operated by the state's children's services bureau. Relative to the adult facilities, the juvenile facilities are smaller, have much lower inmate‐to‐staff ratios, and they place greater emphasis (in their official guidelines) on treatment, counseling, education, and mentoring of inmates. As a result, one might expect juvenile‐facility inmates to report a relatively more supportive, mentoring‐focused style of staff–inmate interactions than adult‐facility inmates. Yet surprisingly, inmates in adult facilities report better access to education and treatment/counseling services offered in their facilities.     

Therapeutic communities and prison management: an examination of the effects of operating an in-prison therapeutic community on levels of institutional disorder

There is a growing emphasis in corrections on the treatment of inmates with drug problems. The typical method of evaluating drug treatment programs is to examine how the treatment affects the inmate in terms of relapse and recidivism. This study examines the institutional consequences of operating a therapeutic community located in a medium/high-security male institution. The effect on management is examined from a perspective of institutional disorder. Disorders, from less severe inmate rule violations to more serious assaults, and rates of grievance filing are examined within the treatment unit and compared with rates in the general population. The inmate's perception of the environment, whether in treatment or non-treatment, is also examined. Findings indicate that in-prison therapeutic communities have lower levels of disorder than nontreatment housing units and tend to produce more positive perceptions of the living environment among the inmates living there. The impact of these findings for prison management is discussed.     

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.