Showing papers on "Prison published in 1991"

Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody

Abstract: Between 1 January 1980 and 31 May 1989, ninety-nine Aboriginal and Tones Strait Islander people died in the custody of prison, police or juvenile detention institutions. They were eighty-eight males and eleven females. Their approximate average age at death was thirty-two years, the median age-the point above and below which half the cases fell--was twenty-nine years and the range was fourteen to sixty-two years. Their deaths were premature. The circumstances of their deaths were extremely varied. One cannot point to a common thread of abuse, neglect or racism that is common to these deaths. However, an examination of the lives of the ninety-nine shows that facts associated in every case with their Aboriginality played a significant and in most cases dominant role in their being in custody and dying in custody. This Royal Commission was established in October 1987 in response to a growing public concern that deaths in custody of Aboriginal people were too common and public explanations were too evasive to discount the possibility that foul play was a factor in many of them. Public agitation for a Royal Commission was led by members of the Aboriginal community. It is a revealing commentary on the life experience of Aboriginal people in 1987 and of their history that it would have been assumed by so many Aboriginal people that many, if not most, of the deaths would have been murder committed if not on behalf of the State at least by officers of the State. But disquiet and disbelief in official explanations was not only expressed by Aboriginal people; many non-Aboriginal people Shared the assumption that police and prison officer misconduct would be disclosed by a Royal Commission. Thus many non-Aboriginal people, whilst not sharing the life of Aboriginal people, had seen and heard sufficient evidence of the mistreatment of Aboriginal people to share their expectation that Aboriginal people would suffer and die from the same discrimination and brutality as they experienced during life. The task given to the Commission by the Letters Patent was to inquire into the deaths found to fall within jurisdiction and to enquire also into 'any subsequent action taken in respect of each of those deaths including. ..the conduct of coronial, police and other inquiries and any other things that were not done but ought to have been done'. At the outset of the Royal Commission, Commissioner J.H. Muirhead, QC, then the sole Commissioner, announced that he saw his job as being not merely to understand how each person died but to know why that person died. Governments confirmed his view by amendments subsequently made to the Letters Patent whereby it was declared 'that, for the purpose of reporting on any underlying issues, associated with those deaths, you are authorised to take account of social and cultural and legal factors which, in your judgment, appear to have a bearing on those deaths '. The reports on the individual deaths have been prepared by the individual Commissioners who conducted the individual inquiries. This report summarises the findings of those individual reports and addresses the underlying issues, for example, social, cultural and legal factors which appear to me to have a bearing on the deaths.

Treatment needs of prisoners with psychiatric disorders

Abstract: OBJECTIVE--To describe the prevalence of psychiatric disorder and the treatment needs of sentenced prisoners in England and Wales. DESIGN--Population survey based on a 5% sample of men serving prison sentences. SETTING--Sixteen prisons for adult males and nine institutions for male young offenders representative of all prisons in prison type, security levels, and length of sentences. SUBJECTS--406 young offenders and 1478 adult men, 404 and 1365 of whom agreed to be interviewed. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--History of psychiatric disorder, clinical diagnosis of psychiatrist, and required treatment. RESULTS--652 (37%) men had psychiatric disorders diagnosed, of whom 15 (0.8%) had organic disorders, 34 (2%) psychosis, 105 (6%) neurosis, 177 (10%) personality disorder, and 407 (23%) substance misuse. 52 (3%) were judged to require transfer to hospital for psychiatric treatment, 96 (5%) required treatment in a therapeutic community setting, and a further 176 (10%) required further psychiatric assessment or treatment within prison. CONCLUSIONS--By extrapolation the sentenced prison population includes over 700 men with psychosis, and around 1100 who would warrant transfer to hospital for psychiatric treatment. Provision of secure treatment facilities, particularly long term medium secure units, needs to be improved. Services for people with personality, sexual, and substance misuse disorders should be developed in both prisons and the health service.

Certainty vs. severity of punishment

Abstract: CERTAINTY VS. SEVERITY OF PUNISHMENT Recent research has generated conflicting findings regarding the role of employment and earnings versus criminal justice sanctions in reducing crime. Further disagreement exists over the relative effectiveness of increased certainty versus increased severity of punishment as deterrents to crime. This paper uses a large data set containing criminal and labor market histories of a broad sample of young male arrestees to estimate an economic model of crime. Deterrence, incapacitation, and criminal human capital effects are measured, and the effects of employment and earnings on criminal activity are estimated. The results largely reconcile the conflicting findings from previous research. I. INTRODUCTION In recent research, analyses of individual-level data have led to conflicting conclusions concerning the economic model of crime. Two points of contention have arisen: first, whether increases in the severity of punishment exert a stronger deterrent effect than comparable increases in the certainty of punishment, and second, whether stronger criminal justice sanctions or better labor market performance more effectively reduces crime. Ann Witte [1980] concluded from her analysis of North Carolina prison releasees that certainty of punishment carried a greater deterrent effect than punishment severity, and that better labor market rewards had relatively little effect on criminal activity. In contrast, Samuel Myers's [1983] analysis of the post-release experience of exprisoners in federal and Maryland institutions led him to conclude that improved labor market measures led to lower levels of criminal activity than increased criminal sanctions. Further, while his results indicated that a decrease in crime was associated with increasing severity of the most recent sanction, he found an apparently perverse positive effect associated with increasing punishment certainty. One is tempted to speculate that these results stem in some way from the characteristics of the released prisoners, who on average had extensive criminal histories prior to the observation period. Individuals with extensive prior imprisonment may simply be unable to find any but the most menial jobs, leading them to prefer criminal activities in spite of apparently high risks of punishment. Further, the use of such specialized samples of individuals brings into question the extent to which even corroborating findings could be generalized to inform policy. Phillips and Votey [1987] have recently analyzed the effect of income and police contact measures on the proportion of income derived from illegitimate means. They look at a broader population, examining data from respondents to the 1980 wave of the National Longitudinal Survey Youth Cohort who admitted some contacts with police. While their results indicated that both police contacts and higher earnings were negatively associated with their outcome measure, the significance of their findings was sensitive to the exclusion of the roughly 15 percent of their sample members who reported the greatest number of police contacts. Taken as a whole, these mixed results are troubling and offer little guidance as to the optimal mix of criminal justice and labor market measures to be used in reducing crime. In this paper, a variant of the economic model of crime is estimated from a sample of male arrestees in California. Their criminal records range from a single misdemeanor arrest to repeated felony convictions and imprisonments.(1) The size of the sample and detailed information contained in the data allow one to examine a broader set of questions than previous authors could. In addition to measuring responses to increased certainty and severity of punishment, I estimate the incapacitative effect of prison, that is, of the amount of crime prevented during the time that the offender is isolated from society. Furthermore, I find evidence of a criminal human capital effect, a finding which has serious implications about the optimal mix of certainty versus severity of punishment as strategies to deter crime. …

The scale of imprisonment

Abstract: Two of the nation's foremost criminal justice scholars present a comprehensive assessment of the factors behind the growth and subsequent overcrowding of American prisons. By critiquing the existing scholarship on prison scale from sociology and history to correctional forecasting and economics, they both reveal that explicit policy changes have had little influence on the increases in imprisonment in recent years and analyze whether it is possible to place limits effectively on prison population. ""The Scale of Imprisonment" has an exceptionally well designed literature review of interest to public policy, criminal justice, and public law scholars. Its careful review, analysis, and critique of research is stimulating and inventive." "American Political Science Review " "The authors fram our thoughts about the soaring use of imprisonment and stimulate our thinking about the best way we as criminologists can conduct rational analysis and provide meaningful advice." Susan Guarino-Ghezzi, "Journal of Quantitative Criminology " "Zimring and Hawkins bring a long tradition of excellent criminological scholarship to the seemingly intractable problems of prisons, prison overcrowding, and the need for alternative forms of punishment." J. C. Watkins, Jr., "Choice ""

A study of individual, environmental, and interactive effects in explaining adjustment to prison

Abstract: The interactionist model of adjustment to prison suggests that inmates have unique characteristics which work as internal determinants of behavior, but do so within the framework of the prison's social environment, which facilitates or impedes satisfaction of needs. Distress occurs at the point of transaction where an individual's adaptive capacity is inadequate to meet internal and/or environmental demands. Past research examined the influence of both individual and environmental characteristics in determining patterns of prison adjustment but failed to investigate the fit between person and environment. Using multiple measures of individual effects, environmental effects, and congruence between person and environment, this study found that all three dimensions are significantly related to how inmates adjust to prison. Implications of these findings for prison administration are discussed.

A comparison of the community adjustment of mentally ill offenders with those from the general prison population: An 18-month followup.

Abstract: In an effort to understand the relationship between crime and mental illness, mentally ill offenders (MIOs) and those from the general prison population (non-MIOs) are compared on their postprison adjustment. MIOs are defined as those individuals who required psychiatric hospitalization during their incarceration. These 547 offenders (147 MIOs and 400 non-MIOs) were then followed for 18 months from date of prison discharge. Information on their adjustment came from several sources, including correctional data, parole reports, incidence of arrests and dispositions, and rates of psychiatric hospitalization. With the exception of drug offenses, no significant differences were found in the rates or types of rearrests between the two groups. Additionally, rearrest among MIOs was found to be associated with the same standard correlates of crime found in nondisturbed offenders: age and prior criminal record. Policy implications derived from these findings are discussed.

The Rule of Law in a Penal Colony: Law and Power in Early New South Wales

Abstract: List of illustrations Abbreviations Preface 1. Great changes 2. Free society, penal colony, slave society, prison? 3. The rule of law 4. The courts 5. The magistracy 6. Policing a penal colony 7. The campaign for trial by jury 8. Conclusion Appendices Notes Bibliography Index.

The prison experience : disciplinary institutions and their inmates in early modern Europe

Abstract: The prison occupies a central position in the penal systems of most countries today. Many historians believe that imprisonment did not become a major judicial sanction until the nineteenth century. Pieter Spierenburg corrects this view. First as a disciplinary institution and later as a penal option, the prison has played an important role in European societies from the late sixteenth century to today. Spierenburg traces the evolution of the prison during the early modern period, with particular emphasis on the prisons of the Netherlands, Germany, and France, but with reference to all of Europe. Spierenburg looks at the daily lives of inmates, a focus that is unusual in historical studies of prisons. He also analyzes the long term nature of change in prisons and the conceptions of prisoners as persons who had broken away from family bonds. His work adds to our understanding of social change and daily life in early modern Europe and will appeal to historians, sociologists, and criminologists.

America's Soaring Prison Population

Abstract: Factors widely reported to explain record prison population increases since 1973 were generally not substantiated in national data. No clear evidence was found that prosecutors were increasingly using mandatory prison sentencing laws, that judges were imposing longer prison sentences than previously, or that parole boards were making prisoners serve longer before their first release. Changes since 1973 in population demographics and in police-recorded crime and arrest rates were found to have only a modest impact on prison population growth. The war on drugs was found to have only a small impact despite increased drug arrest and imprisonment rates. One change found to have a major impact was the increased chance of a prison sentence after arrest for nearly every type of crime. This change has helped to drive incarceration rates to their highest levels ever. Accompanying rising incarceration rates have been gradual reductions in U.S. crime rates after 1973, according to annual crime victimization surveys. The possibility that rising incarceration rates are helping to reduce crime must be weighed in debates about America9s prisons.

Male and female employees' perceptions of prison work: Is there a difference?

Abstract: In the descriptions of what employment is like for women working in male prisons, one discovers a notable dissimilarity between qualitative and quantitative research. Reports based upon interviews portray the work environment for women as hostile, where female officers suffer discrimination and harassment. In contrast, the relatively few surveys of attitudes discovered no difference in job satisfaction between men and women. This study attempts to clarify our understanding of the work experience for women working in men's prisons through a broad-based comparison of the survey-reported experiences of women and men employed in the federal prison system. Comparisons are made between opinions about supervision, job satisfaction, sense of personal efficacy in working with inmates, and job-related stress. The only significant differences are that women report greater job-reported stress and feel relatively less safe. The actual magnitude of stress differences is small, however, and although female respondents r...

Suspended Identity: Identity Transformation in a Maximum Security Prison

Abstract: This article presents an empirically-grounded model of identity transformation that differs both from the gradual transformation processes that characterize most adult identity changes and from such radical transformation processes as brainwashing or conversion. Data for the study are derived from participant observation and focused interviews with first-time, short-term inmates at a maximum security prison. By attempting to suspend their preprison identities and constructing inauthentic prison identities through impression management, these inmates are able to forestall more radical identity change and to maintain a general sense of identity continuity for most of their prison careers.

Self-mutilation in female remanded prisoners: i. an indicator of severe psychopathology

Abstract: A previous history of self-mutilation was found in 7.5% of women on reception to a London prison. Although research has highlighted the additional importance of environmental influences, self-mutilation as a single variable identified a subgroup of female prisoners with severe personality disorder and multiple disorders of impulse. Their early family environment was characterised by disruption and deprivation and by more extensive experience of physical and sexual abuse when compared to controls. In adulthood many showed abnormal psychosexual development and ‘polymorphous perversity’. Their criminal histories were characterised by an early onset of persistent, serious and wide-ranging patterns of offending. Despite multiple and severe forms of psychopathology and frequent psychiatric contact, many of these women currently receive long periods of care and containment within the penal system. They fail to cooperate with and respond poorly to conventional psychiatric treatment, and psychiatric hospitals are unwilling or unable to cope with their behaviour.

The violent and victimized in the male prison

Abstract: A review of the literature on prison violence identifies two types of studies concerning violent and victimized inmates. One, typified by Irwin's Prisons in Turmoil, is rich in descriptive detail but is generally based on one person's observations and assessment of what is taking place in the prison setting. The second set consists of empirically generated profiles of either violent or victimized inmates and tend to be limited in scope. This study seeks to expand existing empirical research by testing some of the propositions posed in the descriptive literature. Specifically, the study examines the differences and similarities of violent and victimized inmates and explores whether environmental factors affect these inmates' behavior. The methodology consists of a cross-sectional analysis of patterns of inmate adjustment in ten prisons. Using several indicators of violence and victimization, the distinctiveness of these two groups is explored, and profiles using background variables, personality types, and...

Women, Crime, and Penal Responses: A Historical Account

Abstract: In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, women were more commonly convicted of crimes than they are today. Their crimes appear to have been determined more by their socioeconomic situation than by any innate sex differences. Contemporaries reacted very differently to female offenders. Male prison regimes emphasized discipline and deterrence; female prisons developed individualized programs of "moral regeneration." In the latter years of the nineteenth century, biological explanations of crime grew increasingly popular. They were found particularly plausible in explaining female crime long after they had been discredited in relation to men. In the early years of the twentieth century the growing influence of psychiatry focused attention on mental inadequacy as a cause of crime. Many female offenders were reassessed as "mad" rather than "bad." For mainly historical reasons, penal policy continues to be dominated by the belief that women prisoners are likely to be mentally disturbed or inadequate.

Prisons under protest

Abstract: Long-term imprisonment in Scotland - the case of Peterhead inside the machine the violent institution discipline, punishment and the maintenance of order discipline, freedom and outside contact media construction of prison protest the future of long-term imprisonment in the United Kingdom.

Decision Making in Sexual Assault Cases:: Do Black and Female Judges Make a Difference?

Abstract: Those who champion the recruitment of minorities and women to the bench argue that black and female judges could bring about important policy changes. This study compared decision making by black and white and by male and female judges in sexual assault cases disposed of in Detroit Recorder's Court from 1976 to 1985. We found no racial differences and very few gender differences. The only exception was that female judges imposed longer prison sentences than did male judges. Considered together, the findings are indicative of the powerful influence of socialization on the legal profession and on the judicial role.

The Clerkenwell scheme: assessing efficacy and cost of a psychiatric liaison service to a magistrates' court.

Abstract: OBJECTIVE--To determine the efficacy of psychiatric liaison schemes to magistrates9 courts in shortening the period that mentally ill accused people spend in custody between arrest, the provision of psychiatric reports, and admission to hospital under the Mental Health Act 1983 and to establish the direct costs of setting up such schemes. DESIGN--A nine month prospective study of court referrals and concurrent analysis of prison records. SETTING--An inner London magistrates9 court (Clerkenwell) and a large remand prison (Brixton). PATIENTS--Consecutive series of 80 remand prisoners receiving psychiatric assessment through a liaison scheme; 50 remand prisoners placed on hospital orders by magistrates9 courts after being remanded to prison for reports; 364 psychiatric prisoners undergoing second opinion assessments at a remand prison; 520 offenders in a remand prison placed on hospital orders. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Comparison of lengths of time spent in custody for different stages of the assessment and disposal process. RESULTS--For the 50 remand prisoners assessed in prison the mean time from arrest to appearance in court with a psychiatric report was 33.7 days and from arrest to admission to hospital 50.8 days. For those examined in court under the liaison scheme the equivalent figures were 5.4 days (t = 12.63, p less than 0.0001) and 8.7 days (t = 13.04, p less than 0.0001). The number of hospital orders made at the court increased fourfold after the liaison scheme began. The additional direct costs of the scheme were negligible. CONCLUSION--Psychiatric liaison services to magistrates9 courts can greatly reduce the length of time that offenders with mental disorders spend in custody. Such schemes may increase recognition of offenders suitable for admission to hospital. A scheme could be established in some areas within existing service provision.

Prisoners in Prison Societies

Abstract: Prisoners in "Prison Societies "is a study of criminal career patterns over time, demonstrating specifically how and in what ways imprisonment has a positive correlation with later recidivism. The book combines original research and a ten-year follow-up study of Swedish inmates, surveying their attitudes on everything from political ideology to prison reform. The work is much more than a survey of prisoner attitudes, however; it also includes official statements and administrative staff assessments at the institutions examined. As a result, the text avoids the usual special pleading of criminological writings. "Prisoners in Prison" "Societies "analyzes thirteen correctional institutions, ranging from training schools to youth and adult prisons as well as a preventive detention facility. These four types cover representative samples of male and female, young and old offenders. In individual and group interviews, conducted with a time interval, the author finds that the form of incarceration is less significant in determining prisoner behavior than the fact of incarceration as such. Whether one looks at the data across variables or in longitudinal terms, the fact of criminalization rather than the goal of rehabilitation creates conditions of permanent incarceration. A leitmotif of the book is comparison of penal institutions and policies in the U.S. and Sweden, with an encyclopedic presentation of the sociological and criminological literature. From the American tradition, Bondeson distinguishes between program research and sanction research. Her notion of prisonization, as a special form of socialization, derives from the work of scholars from Clemmer to Goffman. Her work utilizes notions of informal social systems within formal systems, especially how the former preempt the latter. The interplay of original research at the prison level, coupled with a sweeping command of the basic literature, makes this book unique.

Does prison pay? : the stormy national debate over the cost-effectiveness of imprisonment. by John Dilulio and Anne Morrison Piehl

Abstract: tag=1 data=Does prison pay? : the stormy national debate over the cost-effectiveness of imprisonment. by John Dilulio and Anne Morrison Piehl tag=2 data=Dilulio, John J.%Piehl, Anne Morrison tag=3 data=The Brookings Review, tag=4 data=9 tag=5 data=4 tag=6 data=Fall 1991 tag=7 data=28-35. tag=8 data=PRISONS tag=10 data=We cannot currently claim that prison either pays or does not pay at the margin. The evidence is not overwhelming on either side. Provided by MICAH, Canberra. tag=11 data=1992/4/3 tag=12 data=92/0165 tag=13 data=CAB

Does Prison Pay? The Stormy National Debate over the Cost-Effectiveness of Imprisonment

Abstract: tag=1 data=Does prison pay? : the stormy national debate over the cost-effectiveness of imprisonment. by John Dilulio and Anne Morrison Piehl tag=2 data=Dilulio, John J.%Piehl, Anne Morrison tag=3 data=The Brookings Review, tag=4 data=9 tag=5 data=4 tag=6 data=Fall 1991 tag=7 data=28-35. tag=8 data=PRISONS tag=10 data=We cannot currently claim that prison either pays or does not pay at the margin. The evidence is not overwhelming on either side. Provided by MICAH, Canberra. tag=11 data=1992/4/3 tag=12 data=92/0165 tag=13 data=CAB

The use and effects of financial penalties in municipal courts

Abstract: With prison, jail, and probation caseloads overloaded, financial penalties appeal as alternative sanctions. Using probation data for cases sentenced in municipal courts, this paper presents regression analyses suggesting that judges tended to employ rational discretion in imposing economic sanctions, for monetary assessments without jail were most likely to be given to low-risk offenders and assignment of probation alone and jail terms was most strongly influenced by offense. The amount of the financial sanction was also significantly related to the type of crime. Controlling for individual attributes and offense, the odds of subsequent arrest and incarceration were significantly less for those given a financial penalty than for those receiving a jail sentence.

Prison Commitments, Crime, and Unemployment: À Theoretical and Empirical Specification for the United States, 1933-1985

Abstract: This paper examines sources for the changing commitment rates to U.S. state prisons (PCR) from 1933 to 1985 using a variety of time-series techniques. Theoretically, it resolves ambiguous interpretations of how crime, unemployment, and imprisonment are related. Hypotheses that crime and punishment are in equilibrium are rejected. Our final specification supports theories integrating institutionally endogenous and socially exogenous causes of prison use and includes feedback effects between crime and punishment. We reached several general conclusions. (1) Changes in PCR are due partly to changes in the levels of unemployment, age composition of the population, and military active-duty rates. (2) Effects of the criminal justice system, captured as autoregressive institutional drift, account for approximately half of the year-to-year fluctuations in the PCR. The contemporaneous prison discharge rate also influences the rate of prison commitments. (3) Neither the specified nor the unspecified institutional effects mediate the effects of other exogenous variables. (4) Under most simultaneous-equation specifications, the crime rate is moderately influenced by the contemporaneous unemployment rate and strongly influenced by prior levels of prison commitments. The preferred simultaneous causal model estimates a modest positive coefficient for the unemployment-crime causal path and a substantial positive coefficient for the unemployment-prison commitment causal path.

Alternatives to prison : punishment, custody and the community

Abstract: The prison crisis and alternatives to custody - a brief history the prison crisis in the 1980s alternatives v custody - the debates rage on alternatives as a trojan horse - the case re-examined community service as a process of tolerance probation day centres as an alternative to custody punishment in the community - policy and prospects.

Prisoners' Children: What are the Issues?

Abstract: Justice, it is said, is about acquitting the innocent and punishing the guilty. Why then, asks Roger Shaw, are the children of imprisoned parents often penalized the most? This study examines the situation of these hidden victims of crime and explores ways in which the harm can be reduced. The contributors address such issues as the added problem of racism facing black children and their families and the particular needs of mothers and babies in prison.

HIV prevalence and risk behaviours for HIV transmission in South Australian prisons.

Abstract: During the latter half of 1989, HIV prevalence in South Australian prisoners was 1.4%. The prevalence of HIV infection across the prison system did not change significantly during 1989 but there was clustering of HIV-infected prisoners in some prisons. Almost half the prisoners from all of the South Australian prisons agreed to participate in our studies, from which we estimate that about 42% of prisoners engage in risk behaviours at least once while incarcerated. Prisoners estimated that 36% of all prisoners inject drugs intravenously at some stage during their stay and that 12% engage in anal intercourse at least once. Interviews with former prisoners who had a history of intravenous drug use revealed that about half had injected themselves while in prison, 60% shared needles and most did not clean shared needles adequately. Most of these prisoners injected themselves once a month or less frequently. The conditions for spread of HIV within the prison system exist but at the current prevalence of infection, transmission can be expected to be infrequent. The opportunity exists now to improve and expand preventive measures.