Showing papers on "Prison published in 1978"

Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison

Abstract: This writer who has warned us of the “ideological” function of both the oeuvre and the author as unquestioned forms of discursive organization has gone quite far in constituting for both these “fictitious unities” the name (with all the problems of such a designation) Michel Foucault. One text under review, La Volonté de Savoir, is the methodological introduction of a projected five-volume history of sexuality. It will apparently circle back over that material which seems to have a special fascination for Foucault: the gradual emergence of medicine as an institution, the birth of political economy, demography and linguistics as “human sciences,” the invention of incarceration and confinement for the control of the “other” in society (the mad, the libertine, the criminal) and that special violence that lurks beneath the power to control discourse.

Stateville: The Penitentiary in Mass Society

Abstract: Stateville penitentiary in Illinois has housed some of Chicago's most infamous criminals and was proclaimed to be "the world's toughest prison" by Joseph Ragen, Stateville's powerful warden from 1936 to 1961. It shares with Attica, San Quentin, and Jackson the notoriety of being one of the maximum security prisons that has shaped the public's conception of imprisonment. In "Stateville" James B. Jacobs, a sociologist and legal scholar, presents the first historical examination of a total prison organization-administrators, guards, prisoners, and special interest groups. Jacobs applies Edward Shils's interpretation of the dynamics of mass society in order to explain the dramatic events of the past quarter century that have permanently altered Stateville's structure. With the extension of civil rights to previously marginal groups such as racial minorities, the poor, and, ultimately, the incarcerated, prisons have moved from society's periphery toward its center. Accordingly Stateville's control mechanisms became less authoritarian and more legalistic and bureaucratic. As prisoners' rights increased, the preogatives of the staff were sharply curtailed. By the early 1970s the administration proved incapable of dealing with politicized gangs, proliferating interest groups, unionized guards, and interventionist courts. In addition to extensive archival research, Jacobs spent many months freely interacting with the prisoners, guards, and administrators at Stateville. His lucid presentation of Stateville's troubled history will provide fascinating reading for a wide audience of concerned readers. ." . . [an] impressive study of a complex social system."-Isidore Silver, "Library Journal"

Homeboys: Gangs, Drugs, and Prison in the Barrios of Los Angeles

Abstract: Joan W. Moore is Professor at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. She is the author of "Mexican Americans" and co-author (with Leo Grebler) of "The Mexican American People."

Extra-Legal Factors in Chicago's Criminal Courts: Testing The Conflict Model of Criminal Justice

Abstract: Recently several researchers using empirical evidence have tested the conflict model of criminal sanctioning In this paper we develop a theoretical model which embodies propositions derived from the conflict perspective The model defines three types of discrimination in the criminal sentencing process They are: (1) labelling processes which define as more serious crimes committed by lower SES persons and blacks; (2) economic discrimination through which lower SES persons and blacks have mediocre attorneys and are less able to make bail, and (3) prejudice, due to which judges and juries assign sentences along racial and occupational lines Data from the Chicago trial courts show gross inequality in sentencing practice between occupations and races due to prejudice and economic discrimination We estimate the “cost” of being of a particular occupation or race in terms of pre-trial incarceration and final disposition With other factors equivalent to those of white proprietors, laborers and non-whites are found to be twice as likely as proprietors to stay incarcerated between arrest and final disposition Further, other factors being equal, laborers and non-whites are given longer prison sentences than the higher SES groups

Undetected Tuberculosis in Prison: Source of Infection for Community at Large

Abstract: Discovery of two cases of infectious tuberculosis in a state prison in 1976 prompted a careful study of the entire population of 1,500. Eight more cases were found, giving a morbidity of 670/100,000 (Arkansas rate, 21.1). The epidemic was aborted by the use of isoniazid and the establishment of a program for screening and periodic retesting. Clear evidence was found for intramural spread of the infection, and eight of 16 persons with clinical tuberculosis from 1975 to 1977 had entered the prison uninfected. Nine percent of 800 men with tuberculosis in Arkansas from 1972 through 1977 had "done time" in this particular prison. In January 1978 a child died of tuberculosis transmitted from a former inmate who had been infected while incarcerated in 1976 but released without therapy. Tuberculosis morbidity was 6.5 times greater in state prisons than in the general population. (JAMA240:2544-2547, 1978)

Integrating The Keepers: A Comparison of Black and White Prison Guards in Illinois

Abstract: This article attempts to verify empirically the popularly held assumption that replacing veteran white rural prison guards with young black urban guards will significantly ameliorate tension, strain and conflict in the prison community. At issue sociologically is whether the attitudes of prison guards can be better accounted for by the exigencies of the role or by such a crucial background variable as race. The authors administered a questionnaire to 231 in-service Illinois guards. While black and white guards show some differences in their attitude toward prisoners, correctional goals, administrators and the guard role, these differences are not consistent and do not permit us to conclude that black guards will perform differently than whites.

What Prison Guards Think: A Profile of the Illinois Force

Abstract: This article examines the results of a survey conducted among 929 in- service Illinois prison guards between July 1974 and October 1975. A demographic profile of the Illinois guards reveals the age, race, education, experience, and cultural background of the force as a whole. Question naire data reveal the prison guards' attitudes toward their career, the nature of the job, superior officers and other personnel, the moral worth of prisoners, the causes of criminality, and the purposes of imprisonment. The final section of the article considers the policy implications of the survey.

Description and Prediction of the Intractable Inmate

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to describe the intractable inmate and to determine the existence of factors predictive of intractability. The intractable inmate is defined as an inmate who presents a chronic disciplinary problem within the prison. To provide data on this type of inmate, fifty intractable and fifty tractable inmates at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF) were selected by correctional and treatment officers at that institution. From the institutional files of both groups, extensive data were collected on person al, family, educational, vocational, military, criminal, confinement, prison ad justment, self-improvement program, and prison medical histories; psycho metric and personality test scores were collected for both groups. The data were analyzed to determine group differences and predictive factors.The important results revealed that, in comparison with the tractable group, the intractable inmates at SOCF were generally nonwhite, single, and not heavy users of alcohol, and the...

Corrections in America: An Introduction

Abstract: I. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES. 1. Early History (2000 B.C. to A.D. 1800). 2. Prisons and Ideologies (1800 to the Present). II. THE JUSTICE PROCESS. 3. From Crime to Conviction. 4. The Court Process: Sentencing and Appeals. III. ALTERNATIVES TO IMPRISONMENT. 5. Jails and Detention. 6. Probation. 7. Intermediate Sanctions. IV. CORRECTIONAL SYSTEMS. 8. Imprisonment. 9. State and Local Prison Systems. 10. The Federal System. 11. Private Sector Systems. V. CORRECTION FUNCTIONS. 12. Custody Functions and Tasks. 13. Management and Treatment. VI. CORRECTIONAL CLIENTS. 14. Female Inmates. 15. Male Offenders. 16. Juvenile Offenders. 17. Special Category Offenders. VII. RIGHTS OF CORRECTIONAL CLIENTS. 18. Inmate and Ex-Offender Rights. 19. The Death Penalty-The Ultimate Right. VIII. REINTEGRATION SYSTEMS. 20. Parole. 21. Community Corrections. IX. A LINK TO THE FUTURE. 22. The Future of Corrections. Appendix. Glossary. Index of Authors. Subject Index.

Should children visit their parents in prison

Abstract: This preliminary note reports clinical interviews at the Oregon State Penitentiary with 22 children, ages 5 through 15, visiting their imprisoned fathers. A majority of these children were found to be socially isolated. All the children placed a high value on the prison visits, but also demonstrated a variety of conflicted feelings about their incarcerated father. These findings highlight the need for more data on children and families of imprisoned parents and for consistent and well-conceptualized policies of family visitation.

Crime Rates, Sanction Levels, and Constraints on Prison Population

Abstract: In recent years there has been an accumulation of analyses showing a negative association between crime rates and various measures of criminal sanctions, which have been widely interpreted as evidence of the deterrent effect of sanctions (see Tullock, 1974; Tittle, 1973; van den Haag, 1975). In this paper, results are presented that are in conflict with such an interpretation. For the sanction of imprisonment (time served in prison and the risk of imprisonment given commission of a crime), the analysis indicates that the negative association is more readily interpreted as a negative effect of crime rates on sanction levels rather than its reverse-a deterrent effect.

Life Events and Prisoners

Abstract: • This study explores retrospectively the relationship of the accumulation of life events as it relates to prison incarceration and extends further the concept that coping with increasing environmental changes results in a variety of overt behaviors. The prison sample comprised 176 male inmates of a federal prison (McNeil Island, Washington) and a state penitentiary (Walla Walla, Washington). Life change scores were derived from the Schedule of Recent Experience (SRE). There was an escalation of annual life change scores of prisoners, indicating the mounting frequency of occurrence of life events prior to incarceration. The SRE may have value in the prediction of socially deviant behavior as with health changes. Variables seen as influencing life change scores were race, age, and education. Analyses of life event frequencies as compared to a normative group indicated that prisoners have evolved a coping life-style that reflects antisocial and criminal behavior.

Is a "Correctional Officer," by any Other Name, a "Screw?"

Abstract: A narrow definition of the correctional officer's role excludes important functions officers can serve in prison, including critical contributions they can make to inmate survival and mental health. Such functions are currently exercised by a significant minority of officers, whose contributions are neither recognized nor rewarded.Interview excerpts are presented in this paper to illustrate ways in which correctional officers exercise discretion to provide support to vulnerable inmates who need support. Such constructive exercise of discretion includes invoking non-custodial prison staff and circumventing resistances to change. Officers also form personal relationships with inmates which de-escalate conflict, ameliorate crises, and provide susceptible inmates with rehabilitative role models.Custodial goals and expanded services can be constructively combined, provided administrators provide a flexible climate. If they do not, sophisticated officers often become discouraged and regress to narrow, tradition...

The imprisonment of mentally disordered offenders.

Abstract: I am glad to have this opportunity to talk about an unfortunate consequence of developments in the Health Service over recent years. My theme will be what is now happening to mentally disordered people who have committed criminal offences. At present, many of them are going to prison. The prison system—already severely overcrowded—contains some hundreds of mentally disordered offenders who in the opinion of prison medical officers need and are capable of gaining benefit from care, management and treatment in psychiatric hospitals. When using the term ‘mental disorder’ I shall, of course, be referring to those states of mind which have been classified and defined in Section 4 of the Mental Health Act 1959: members of the College who work in the National Health Service will be relieved to know that I do not share the view of the citizens of Samuel Butler's Erewhon that crime itself is an illness, whose sufferers should all be placed in the hands of the omniscient psychopathologists. Indeed, when one has the practical responsibility for the provision of health care for prisoners, it is quite irrelevant whether or not they committed their offences as a result of a mental disorder or whether their mental disorder developed before or after the offence or trial. The only thing that matters is their present condition. If a prisoner is suffering from mental disorder of a nature or degree that warrants his detention in hospital for treatment, then the prison medical officer will want to bring about his admission to hospital under the appropriate section of the 1959 Act. This is wholly in accordance with the philosophy of the Act, which does not limit hospital admission to cases in which the criminal offence was causally related to a mental disorder. In this talk I shall want to consider why in so many cases hospital places cannot be found.

Women in Prison: How We Are.

Abstract: (1978). Women in Prison: How we are. The Black Scholar: Vol. 9, Blacks & The Sexual Revolution, pp. 8-15.

Youth in Crisis: Dimensions of Self-Destructive Conduct among Adolescent Prisoners.

Abstract: Self-mutilation and attempted suidcide among adolescent prisoners are explored in relation to concrete coping tests posed in prison and to self-esteem problems posed by failure of external (family) and internal (peer) support systems. Crisis sequences are traced using verbatim excerpts from interviews with self-destructive prisoners and conceptualized in terms of enduring adolescent needs and concerns. Some general observations regarding strategies of intervention with crisisprone prisoners are included. Language: en

Conjugal Visits in Prison: Psychological and Social Consequences.@@@Prison Violence.@@@The Health Risks of Imprisonment.

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Moral Judgment of Residents of a Maximum Security Correctional Facility

Abstract: Summary While much attention has been directed toward the moral development of students and adults, relatively little is known about the moral judgment of prison residents. In this study, the moral reasoning of 30 male residents in a maximum security prison was measured by the Defining Issues Test. Overall, their orientation toward “principled” moral reasoning did not differ from that found in many nonincarcerated samples. They were predominantly oriented toward law and order morality, the morality of “being good,” and the support of relative rules, democracy, and the “social contract.” They were, however, not exceptionally oriented toward any single stage.

Increased Prevalence of Seizure Disorders Among Prisoners

Abstract: In an effort to determine the prevalence of seizure disorders among persons confined to jails and prison, the prescription rates for anticonvulsant medications in ten Illinois correctional institutions were surveyed. The institutions housed 12,030 persons at the time of the survey. Analysis of the results of the survey suggests a point prevalence of seizure disorders of 1.9% among the Illinois prison and jail population. This estimated prevalence of seizure disorders is approximately three times higher than among middleclass nonprisoner populations on which previous epidemiologic studies of epilepsy have been based. Special programs and resources for the detection, treatment, and prevention of seizure disorders among prisoners appear necessary. Provisions to ensure continuity of care after release from incarceration are also needed. ( JAMA 239:2674-2675, 1978)

Group Counseling in a Correctional Setting

Abstract: This article describes a model of group counseling with prison inmates. Members assume responsibility for what transpires and structure is not imposed by the leader. This format contrasts with the high degree of control and rigidity found in the institutional environment. The stages of a typical group are reviewed. The counselor's personality is seen as a crucial variable in the group's success. Those counselor qualities that engender positive group outcomes are explored. The author stresses that highly structured environments, such as prisons, need not be barriers to meaningful counselor intervention.