Showing papers on "Prison published in 1985"
TL;DR: In this paper, the relationship between prison assaults and aggregate measures of crowding, age, and prisonization was examined using data collected from 19 Federal prisons over a 33-month period, resulting in 627 observations for each independent and dependent variable.
Abstract: The relationship between prison assault rates and aggregate measures of crowding, age, and prisonization is examined using data collected from 19 Federal prisons over a 33-month period, resulting in 627 observations for each independent and dependent variable. In the context of a multivariate specification (estimated using the TOBIT procedure), crowding was by far the most influential variable in the predictor stock. Of the four assault types examined, three are positively related to a crowding index, and all crowding-assault relations are nonlinear. When controlling empirically for crowding level, institutional size, staff-inmate ratio, percentage of staff who are correctional officers, rehabilitative program participation rates and program type, inmate turnover rates, inmate demographics, criminal histories, and unique institutional influences, age was implicated in only one of the four types of assault rates. Measures assumed to be indicators of the deprivation and importation models of prisonization i...
201 citations
Book•
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01 Jan 1985
TL;DR: Baunach et al. as discussed by the authors provided a detailed, descriptive analysis of the development and operations of programs to retain mother-child bonds in women's prisons in a variety of states.
Abstract: Several years ago, Terry Moore, a young first offender at the Florida Correctional Institution for Women, gave birth to a baby whose father was a prison guard. Mrs. Moore won the right to have her baby stay with her in prison until she was released a few months later. Although this incarcerated mother was reunited with her child shortly after giving birth, many inmate mothers are not able to be with or see their children on a regular basis during incarceration. Little is known about this significant and emotionally traumatic problem that confronts nearly two-thirds of incarcerated women. Building upon previous work, this extraordinarily insightful volume offers fresh perspective on issues which surround the separation of inmate mothers and their children, using questionnaire, standardized scales, and individual taped interviews. The author examines issues such as the impact of separation by race; the child's whereabouts at the time of the crime; the child's placement and legal custody during the mother's incarceration; inmate mothers' interest in resuming the parental role after release; child-rearing attitudes of inmate mothers; and the effects of the involvement of drugs on the mothers' relationship with their children. Through interviews with administrators, staff, and inmates, Dr. Baunach provides a detailed, descriptive analysis of the development and operations of programs to retain mother-child bonds in women's prisons in a variety of states. Dr. Baunach discusses day-long/overnight/weekend visitations, foster care placements, and similar problems of the sort that mothers in prison uniquely must face. The work also has a strong policy content, providing unique and practical recommendations for policies and programs benefiting inmate mothers and children that at the same time can be implemented within the framework of current penological practices.
178 citations
TL;DR: This article analyzed the impact of individual attributes and organizational influences in the determination of correctional officers' attitudes toward inmates and found that minority officers hold more positive orientations toward inmates, while education and gender exert no impact.
Abstract: This paper analyzes the impact of individual attributes and organizational influences in the determination of correctional officers’attitudes toward inmates. Drawing on survey data from 179 line-level correctional officers, the analysis evaluates the expectations of prison reformers that more highly educated, female, and minority officers will hold more positive attitudes toward their inmate clientele. Contrary expectations drawn from the sociology of work literature suggest that the work-role socialization will overshadow the effect of individual attributes in the determination of officer attitudes. The analysis reveals that minority officers hold more positive orientations toward inmates, while education and gender exert no impact. In addition, organizational-level characteristics are also important in the prediction of officer views of inmates. These findings suggest that correctional reforms that focus primarily on changing the demographic composition of correctional officers are quite unlikely to ameliorate significantly the tension in today's prisons. It is necessary for both reformers and social scientists to develop more sophisticated analyses of the interplay between individual attributes and work organization characteristics and their joint effects on behavior in the prison setting.
170 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the barriers confronting women employed as correctional officers in men's prisons, using interview, questionnaire, and historical data from a state department of corrections in the western United States, and illustrated the interplay between organizational factors and individual attitudes in shaping the opportunities for women in one non-traditional occupational setting.
Abstract: This paper examines the barriers confronting women employed as correctional officers in men's prisons, using interview, questionnaire, and historical data from a state department of corrections in the western United States. The department has extended employment opportunities to women at the same time as it has initiated a variety of other reforms aimed at rationalizing the treatment of both inmates and correctional staff. However, within the present setting, several organizational problems have frustrated administrative attempts at correctional reform and actually increased perceptions of danger in prison facilities. The resulting organizational milieu has accentuated suspicions surrounding the competence of women to work as correctional officers in men's prisons. Combined with the continued presence of informal opportunity structures, these fears and suspicions have inhibited the advancement of women in the department. This analysis illustrates the interplay between organizational factors and individual attitudes in shaping the opportunities for women in one non-traditional occupational setting.
142 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a survey of guards in five American prisons was conducted to determine the extent to which each power base is viewed as a resource to gain prisoner compliance, and the results were discussed in terms of the guards' exercise of control within the increasingly bureaucratic structure of coercive organizations.
Abstract: 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.
117 citations
TL;DR: The Prison Environment Inventory (PEI) as discussed by the authors is a new correctional climate instrument, which can be used to describe what it is like to live and work in a prison environment.
Abstract: Climate, a popular conceptualization used to describe contextual properties of prisons that may have significant influence on individual behavior, is generally considered to be multidimensional and can be used to describe what it is like to live and work in prison. Past efforts to apply the conceptualization to organizations in general and specifically to prisons have been faulted for three reasons: inadequate theoretical specification, lack of attention to psychometric details, and a failure to consider the individual effects arising in aggregate measures. This article describes a new correctional climate instrument, the Prison Environment Inventory (PEI), which was attentive to these three issues. Hans Toch's eight environmental concerns—Privacy, Safety, Structure, Support, Emotional Feedback, Social Stimulation, Activity, and Freedom—were used as the dimensions of the instrument. The 80-item Inventory was created in a series of steps in which versions of the instrument were submitted to rigorous evalua...
115 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the responses long-and short-term inmates make to incarceration and differences in the responses made by distinct subgroups were examined in three large maximum security institution in the US.
Abstract: The responses long-and short-term inmates make to incarceration and differences in the responses made by distinct subgroups were examined. Prison inmates in three large maximum security institution...
112 citations
TL;DR: The gap between the percentage of black individuals in the United States and the number of black people entering state prisons has been growing since the early '30s as mentioned in this paper, when the federal government began keeping annual records of admissions to state prisons.
Abstract: In 1926, the federal government began keeping annual records of the number of admissions to state prisons.' That year, about one in four persons entering state prisons was black while only one in every eleven persons in the United States was black (Table 1). Since then, the gap between the percentage of blacks in the United States and the percentage of blacks entering state prisons has grown. In 1982, the most recent year for which national data on prison admissions is available, nearly one in every two persons entering adult state prisons was black while one in every nine persons in the United States was black.
89 citations
TL;DR: It was concluded that the mentally retarded do not adjust well to prison life, and that supplemental rehabilitation services for them at those sites had not expanded appreciably over the past two decades.
Abstract: This study established a current average national estimate of the prevalence of mental retardation among state prison inmates, and gathered information regarding their adjustment to incarceration and rehabilitative services provided them. It was determined that an average of 2% or about 7,600 inmates are mentally retarded, and that the number presently confined in all types of correctional settings is approximately 12,640. That relatively low figure was attributed to the emergence of various diversion processes and improved psychometric practice, and it was expected that these ongoing trends would reduce this prevalence rate even further in the future. It was also concluded that the mentally retarded do not adjust well to prison life, and that the mentally retarded do not adjust well to prison life, and that supplemental rehabilitation services for them at those sites had not expanded appreciably over the past two decades.
73 citations
TL;DR: Research on prison crowding has not, however, convincingly demonstrated many adverse effects of crowding, and the limited number of research findings that can be asserted with confidence is the product of inherent difficulties confronting efforts to conduct well-controlled research studies in prison.
Abstract: Prison crowding is often identified as the cause of inmate ill health and misconduct and of postrelease recidivism. Crowding can be measured objectively in several ways: in terms of floor space per prisoner, prisoners per living unit, and institutional population relative to stated capacity. Whether an inmate perceives conditions as crowded depends on objective crowding conditions and on the relative differences in crowding within a prison's housing accommodations. Research on prison crowding has not, however, convincingly demonstrated many adverse effects of crowding. The major findings on which most researchers agree are (1) that prisoners housed in large, open bay dormitories are more likely to visit clinics and to have high blood pressure than are prisoners in other housing arrangements (single-bunked cells, double-bunked cells, small dormitories, large partitioned dormitories); (2) that prisons that contain dormitories have somewhat higher assault rates than do other prisons; and (3) that prisons hou...
72 citations
TL;DR: HB seropositivity was most strongly correlated with: 1) a history of IV drug abuse; 2) age; 3) total time in any prison; and 4) race.
Abstract: A study was conducted to determine the incidence of hepatitis B (HB) in a prison population. Forty-seven per cent of 455 male prisoners had evidence of past HB infection. HB seropositivity was most strongly correlated with: 1) a history of IV drug abuse; 2) age; 3) total time in any prison; and 4) race. During a one-year study period there were no clinical cases of HB in the prison and the seroconversion rate was 0.8 per cent among prisoners still incarcerated.
TL;DR: This article examined the impact of court-ordered structural reforms on a Texas penitentiary and found that after the court order was inaugurated, inmate-inmate and inmate-guard violence escalated to new plateaus.
Abstract: This article examines the impact of court-ordered structural reforms on a Texas penitentiary. The staff's prisoner control structure is analyzed before, during, and after the reform measures decreed in the complex and sweeping prison reform case Ruiz v. Estelle (1980). Participant observation and inmate disciplinary report data are utilized to examine how legal intervention affected the prison community. Results show that after the court order was inaugurated, inmate-inmate and inmate-guard violence escalated to new plateaus. The final section compares several aspects of the old and new prisoner control structures and discusses the implications of court reforms for prisoner control.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the gender differences between prisons for men and women and ignore the variable of gender, which has an important influence on the nature and development of penal institutions.
Abstract: Since the publication in 1936 of Blake McKelvey’s American Prisons (1972), social historians have developed a sizeable body of work that traces, and in some cases tries to explain, the evolution of U.S. penal institutions. These studies are important for what they tell us about perceptions of social problems in the past. They also have policy implications, indicating the historical roots of current dilemmas and alternative approaches to penal problems. Nearly all of these studies are limited, however, by their blindness to gender differences between prisons for men and women. Written mainly by men, prison histories have focused nearly exclusively on male prisoners. Perhaps their authors would argue that this bias is natural and insignificant since over time the vast majority of prisoners have been male. But by overlooking the variable of gender, prison historians have ignored an important influence on the nature and development of penal institutions.
TL;DR: Three models of the alcohol-crime link are revealed: Drinking at the time of the offense and alcoholism are deterrents to professional property crime because they lead to the perception of unreliability by crime partners and thus serve as barriers to admission to crime partnerships.
Abstract: The literature on the relationship between alcohol use and property crime is reviewed. Four sources of data (detailed criminal and drinking histories of 32 men prison inmates, interviews with 67 men imprisoned for robbery, biographies of 10 criminals, and case materials found in scholarly works on "causal" and "professional" property crime) reveal three models of the alcohol-crime link: Drinking at the time of the offense and alcoholism are deterrents to professional property crime because they lead to the perception of unreliability by crime partners and thus serve as barriers to admission to crime partnerships. Certain aspects of the professional criminal lifestyle are conducive to heavy drinking--being unmarried, being geographically unstable, having alternating periods of intense activity and leisure, and having large amounts of money to spend. Heavy drinking provides easy companionship and relaxation to criminals who lack the normal family and work restraints. There is a complex relationship between alcohol use and casual property crime committed in groups. Social isolation leads some individuals to drink to form a "primary group atmosphere." Group participation in crime serves to maintain the cohesiveness of the group. Intoxication facilitates participation in unplanned, low-profit, high-risk crime since it causes group members to focus on the immediate reward of group cohesion and not on the longer-term negative consequences.
TL;DR: The impact of congested prisons is not primarily a problem of population density, but of corollaries of crowding such as social instability, lack of programming, and the ascendance of custody goals as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: The impact of congested prisons is not primarily a problem of population density, but of corollaries of crowding such as social instability, lack of programming, and the ascendance of custody goals. Congestion affects staff as well as inmates, and different inmates are differently affected. Some have antisocial tendencies exacerbated; others suffer from mental health problems. Staff subserve custody goals, but subserve them less effectively because social control mechanisms—such as programming and classification—are impaired by crowding. A recent prison riot points to transience and idleness as key preconditions and shows the results of congestion in escalating sequences that prominently include crisis management. The most serious consequence of crowding is warehousing, which creates a prison climate that prevents inmates from serving time in customary ways. It remains to be determined whether this result constitutes disproportionate—hence unlawful—punishment.
TL;DR: In this article, the major findings of a recent Rand study designed to discover whether felony probation presents unacceptable risks for public safety and, if so, what the system could do to overcome those risks.
Abstract: This article summarizes the major findings of a recent Rand study designed to discover whether felony probation presents unacceptable risks for public safety and, if so, what the system could do to overcome those risks. To this end, it sought to establish how effective probation has been for a sample of felony probationers, identify the criteria courts use to decide whether a convicted felon gets a prison or probation sentence, discover whether the prediction of recidivism could be improved, and see if the system could develop a felony sentencing alternative that poses less risk for public safety. The results show that two-thirds of those sentenced to probation in Los Angeles and Alameda, California, were rearrested during a 40-month follow-up period. We conclude that the criminal justice system needs an alternative form of punishment intermediate between prison and probation. We describe such a program that incorporates intensive surveillance with substantial community service and restitution. The articl...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe changes in the traditional guard cultures, which have resulted through Affirmative Action requirements of the State, and give new meanings to traditional competition and divisions among the workers.
Abstract: This article describes changes in the traditional guard cultures, which have resulted through Affirmative Action requirements of the State. These changes have given new meanings to traditional competition and divisions among the workers. Racial conflicts often parallel those within the prisoner culture. Gender conflicts reflect a conservative bias found in other blue collar occupations. These conflicts shape a new culture of the correctional worker and further contribute to the uneasy social order of the prison community.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors suggest that commercial prisons, privately owned and operated under government contract, may offer at least a partial solution to the problem of overcrowding in federal prisons.
Abstract: Prison supply, especially at current prices, is unable to meet demand. The resultant overcrowding, combined with taxpayer reluctance to bear the costs of new construction and added operational expenses, creates a dilemma for penology. Commercial prisons, privately owned and operated under government contract, may offer at least a partial solution.
TL;DR: In the experience of imprisonment, the structure of time in prison is very different from that of everyday life as discussed by the authors, and time is, most importantly, futureless, which makes it difficult for prisoners to adjust to, and even resist, the unique nature of prison time.
Abstract: Social philosophy and sociological theory have determined time to be central to human reality. In particular, phenomenolo‐gists have argued that space and time is essential to human being. Thus, alterations in the nature of experienced time are significant areas for sociological investigation. One such case is present in the experience of imprisonment. The structure of time in prison is very different from that of everyday life. Prison time is, most importantly, futureless. Prisoners have developed several ways of adjusting to, and even resisting, the unique nature of prison time. These include, most consequentially the use of reverie. None, however, completely avoids the dehumanizing affects of the prison life‐world.
TL;DR: The past literature on inmate socialization and social control in prison organizations has focused on the reciprocal relationships between key inmate leaders and members of the custodial st... as mentioned in this paper, where the reciprocal relationship between key inmates leaders and key custodial staff has been explored.
Abstract: Much of the past literature on inmate socialization and social control in prison organizations has focused on the reciprocal relationships between key inmate leaders and members of the custodial st...
TL;DR: The authors conclude that some of these problems could be ameliorated by changing ingredients, preparation, and the role of food in the prisoner's life, although for certain categories of prisoners with specific health conditions (e.g., pregnancy), adequate diets will require major adjustments in jail and prison food management.
Abstract: A study of weight gain and dietary adequacy among female prisoners was conducted by studying inmate weight changes, nutritional values of prison diets and consumption patterns in a jail cafeteria. Inmates were found to incur significant weight gains (Mean = 14 lbs.); their diets were inadequate nutritively, and were consumed in such a way as to exacerbate the inadequacies. The authors conclude that some of these problems could be ameliorated by changing ingredients, preparation, and the role of food in the prisoner's life, although for certain categories of prisoners with specific health conditions (e.g., pregnancy), adequate diets will require major adjustments in jail and prison food management.
TL;DR: The prison population demonstrated a significantly higher number of decayed and missing teeth and fewer filled teeth in comparison to a nonprison population in the same state and in the the same year (1980).
Abstract: This study compares dental disease prevalence in a prison population and a nonprison population in the same state. The prison population in this study consisted of 99 male residents (age 18–30) of a medium-security prison in eastern Iowa. Data were collected during a pretreatment screening using a standard DMFT index. This prison population is compared to a nonprison male population (N = 101, age 18–30) from the Iowa Survey of Oral Health (1980).
Data indicated that there are statistically significant differences (p<.0001) between the two populations in each of the individual components of the DMF. In the prison population, the mean number of decayed teeth (3.0) and the mean number of missing teeth (1.7) are significantly higher in comparison to the nonprison population (0.8 and 0.6, respectively). The prison population demonstrated significantly fewer filled teeth (5.6) in comparison to the nonprison population (9.0). The data indicated, however, that there are no statistically significant differences in the total DMFT between the prison population (x = 10.53) and the nonprison population (x = 10.55).
In summary, the prison population demonstrated a significantly higher number of decayed and missing teeth and fewer filled teeth in comparison to a nonprison population in the same state and in the same year (1980).
TL;DR: This article found that American elementary schools were most often compared to being in a family and secondary schools to being on a team, while Hong Kong students, on the other hand, compared elementary schools to be in a team.
TL;DR: Examination of how the staff in a maximum security penitentiary co-opted the dominant inmates or elites to act as informers reveals that the inmate-snitches in the prison undtr study were not weak but the most aggrmive and feared inmates.
Abstract: This article examines how the staff in a maximum security penitentiary co-opted the dominant inmates or elites to act as informers. Previous research and popular presentations have generally portrayed "rats" as outcasts and weak prisontrs. Participant observation data reveal that the inmate-snitches in the prison undtr study were not weak but wtre the most aggrmive and feared inmates. Infoming was their actual prison work-role and the ordinary inmates lacked the influence and power to impute deviancy to the inmate-snitch role. The last section describes how the staff used inmate-snitch reports to control the inmate population.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors report the findings of an examination of bail decisions in a magistrates' court, which are considered in the light of the major issues of the bail system in recent years.
Abstract: The study reports the findings of an examination of bail decisions in a magistrates' court, which are considered in the light of the major issues of the bail system in recent years. It was found that the role of the police was of less significance than in previous studies and that the basic legal provisions were the dominant factor in many decisions. While it was clear that bail rates have increased over the years it was equally clear that certain features of bail decision-making remain problematic. It is suggested that better system. Not all criminal cases that are brought before a magistrates' court can be disposed of at the first hearing. For example, the prosecution or the defence may require time to prepare their case or the court may require reports on the defendant prior to sentence. These and other matters involve remands and the court has to decide if the remand should be on bail or in custody. The system of bail decision-making has received critical comment1 and some degree of statutory reform (most notably by the Bail Act 1976) in the period since the early 1960s. A major problem has been that the quality of decision-making is suspect. The system does not facilitate informed discretion and consistency in its use. A particular criticism has been that the limited amount of information made available to the courts has mainly been provided by the police and that the courts are too willing to adhere to the police viewpoint. One implication of such a system is that defendants, often unconvicted, may be unnecessarily remanded in custody. Such an injustice can be increased in several ways. First, defendants may be subsequently acquitted or declared unsuitable for a custodial sentence. Secondly, whilst in prison awaiting trial a defendant may find his ability to prepare for trial impaired. Thirdly, defendants remanded in custody are most likely to plead guilty and to receive custodial sentences. Other adverse effects of custody may materalise in relation to a defendant's family, employment and abode. For the penal system unnecessary detentions before trial add to the pressure on prisons. Finally, it is also possible that defendants who would be best remanded in custody are being released on bail to pose a threat to the operation of the criminal justice system and the community generally. In this article the findings of an investigation into the workings of the bail system after the Bail Act 1976 are
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors apply the social cost-benefit framework to alternate uses of scarce prison space and the choice of alternatives to incarceration and find that even discarding the emotional and psychological costs mentioned, the data strongly support the need for more prison capacity.
Abstract: Today's criminal justice system is in a state of crisis over prison crowding. Even though national prison capacity has expanded, it has not kept pace with demands. While capacity in state prisons grew from an estimated 243,500 bed spaces in 1978 to 365,817 bed spaces by 1983, state prison populations had grown from 270,025 to 399,072 inmates.' National attention has focused on prison crowding. But the common cry among corrections professionals is not a need for more prisons but a need for alternatives to incarceration. The search for alternatives to prison is curious inasmuch as public sentiment calls for more punishment. Recent legislative changes to penal codes in the form of mandatory prison terms for drunk drivers and for gun crimes, plus calls for the abolition of parole boards, argue for more prison space. Yet many professionals resist, arguing that prison construction is too expensive and does little for the reduction of crime.2 Do we need more prisons or more alternatives to prison construction? Before such questions can be answered, we need more information on both the costs and benefits of punishment. Since so many elements of the sentencing decision, such as victim harm, justice, and public fear, defy quantification, any picture will be necessarily incomplete. Nonetheless, the data assembled here quantify many of the missing benefits of prison capacity and thereby contribute to debate over prison crowding and alternative sentencing. Significantly, even discarding the emotional and psychological costs mentioned, the data strongly support the need for more prison capacity. Subsequent sections of this paper apply the social cost-benefit framework to alternate uses of scarce prison space and the choice of alternatives to incarceration. These sections are less prescriptive because research findings are less definitive. They are sufficient, however, to offer at least some recommendations for policy makers.
Book•
01 Dec 1985
TL;DR: The first account of the process of imprisionment in England between 1830 and 1914 to be drawn largely from the writings of prisoners themselves is the book "Victorian Prison Lives".
Abstract: Victorian Prison Lives is the first account of the process of imprisionment in England between 1830 and 1914 to be drawn largely from the writings of prisoners themselves. The period was in some ways one of great change, beginning with an astonishing penitentiary experiement when prisons were seen as moral hospitals. But this approach eventually gave way to the idea of penal servitude and created a legacy of harshness and suffering still preserved in the reputations of Portland Chatham and Dartmoor. It was only towards the end of the period that the concept of modern prison administration began to emerge. But while statutary changes where taking place there was an underlying continuity. This is examined in a series of chapters on every aspect of prison life - from admission procedure, fellow prisoners and the nature of hard labour, diet and discipline to the process of release, which for a long-term prisioner could be as daunting as entry into prison.
TL;DR: It is argued that prison psychiatric facilities are inadequate for the range of functions they are being asked to serve and their token placement in the correctional services by-passes many important clinical, social and legal issues.
Abstract: Fifty consecutive admissions to the psychiatric division in a central metropolitan goal were given DSM III diagnoses and their psychiatric, social and criminal histories analysed. Seventy-two per cent suffered from schizophrenic, affective or organic mental illness, 56% had chronic physical disabilities and 84% had had previous in-patient treatment in either hospital or prison or both. Fifty-four per cent exhibited psychopathology that most clinicians would have thought required urgent attention. Of the current offences committed by this group 54% were against the person (murder, assaults, sex offences and robbery). A significant proportion of these were committed by a distinct subgroup composed of socially isolated schizophrenics with no prior convictions, no physical illness, apparently normal premorbid personalities, and a greater current level of psychiatric disturbance. It is argued that the group as a whole, and this subgroup in particular exemplify the problems of the psychiatrically disturbed offender. Prison psychiatric facilities are inadequate for the range of functions they are being asked to serve and their token placement in the correctional services by-passes many important clinical, social and legal issues.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors summarize and interpret the most current data on imprisonment in the United States and conclude that despite a projected national trend of a leveling off of prison admissions, prison populations will continue to rise, reflecting the effects of sentencing reforms aimed at increasing prison terms.
Abstract: The purpose of this article is to summarize and interpret the most current data on imprisonment in the United States. These data will be examined in light of other criminal justice and national trends affecting prison population growth. Of special importance will be analysis of historical and projected trends in the use of American prisons. This will include an examination of the methods used to forecast future incarceration rates in light of changing criminal justice policies and other factors believed to influence prison population growth. The authors conclude that despite a projected national trend of a leveling off of prison admissions, prison populations will continue to rise, reflecting the effects of sentencing reforms aimed at increasing prison terms.