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Showing papers on "Prison published in 2006"


DatasetDOI
01 Sep 2006
TL;DR: This paper found that more than half of all inmates in state and local jails had a mental health problem, including 56% of State prisoners, 45% of Federal prisoners, and 64% of jail inmates.
Abstract: At midyear 2005 more than half of all prison and jail inmates had a mental health problem, including 705,600 inmates in State prisons, 70,200 in Federal prisons, and 479,900 in local jails. These estimates represented 56% of State prisoners, 45% of Federal prisoners, and 64% of jail inmates. The findings in this report were based on data from personal interviews with State and Federal prisoners in 2004 and local jail inmates in 2002.

1,043 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The prevalence of substance abuse and dependence is typically many orders of magnitude higher in prisoners than the general population, particularly for women with drug problems, which highlights the need for screening for substance Abuse and dependence at reception into prison, effective treatment while in custody, and follow-up on release.
Abstract: Aims To review studies of the prevalence of substance abuse and dependence in prisoners on reception into custody. Design and method A systematic review of studies measuring the prevalence of drug and alcohol abuse and dependence in male and female prisoners on reception into prison was conducted. Only studies using standardized diagnostic criteria were included. Relevant information, such as mean age, gender and type of prisoner, was recorded for eligible studies. The prevalence estimates were compared with those from large cross-sectional studies of prevalence in prison populations. Findings Thirteen studies with a total of 7563 prisoners met the review criteria. There was substantial heterogeneity among the studies. The estimates of prevalence for alcohol abuse and dependence in male prisoners ranged from 18 to 30% and 10 to 24% in female prisoners. The prevalence estimates of drug abuse and dependence varied from 10 to 48% in male prisoners and 30 to 60% in female prisoners. Conclusions The prevalence of substance abuse and dependence, although highly variable, is typically many orders of magnitude higher in prisoners than the general population, particularly for women with drug problems. This highlights the need for screening for substance abuse and dependence at reception into prison, effective treatment while in custody, and follow-up on release. Specialist addiction services for prisoners have the potential to make a considerable impact.

795 citations


Book
01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: The early origins of the carceral state, 1920s-60s, 1970s-1990s, and the power to punish: the political development of capital punishment, 1972 to today as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: 1. The prison and the gallows: the construction of the carceral state in America 2. Law, order, and alternative explanations 3. Unlocking the past: the nationalization and politicization of law and order 4. The carceral state and the welfare state: the comparative politics of victims 5. Not the usual suspects: feminists, women's groups, and the anti-rape movement 6. The battered women's movement and the development of penal policy 7. From rights to revolution: prison activism and penal policy 8. Capital punishment, the courts, and the early origins of the carceral state, 1920s-60s 9. The power to punish: the political development of capital punishment, 1972 to today 10. Conclusion: whither the carceral state.

377 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors explored ties between social support mechanisms and reported rules infractions of a nationally representative sample of male and female state prison inmates, and found that female inmates experienced more social support than did their male counterparts.
Abstract: Although living in prison is difficult for all inmates, anecdotal evidence and a small number of qualitative studies on women's prisons suggest that females have greater social support needs while incarcerated. This claim is important for a more complete understanding of adjustment to prisons. In particular, extra and intrainstitutional social support mechanisms may reduce the inmate-perceived stresses associated with imprisonment and yield fewer official rule infractions. Using a multilevel analysis, the authors explore ties between social support mechanisms and reported rules infractions of a nationally representative sample of male and female state prison inmates. Findings suggest that female inmates experienced more social support than did their male counterparts. Some of the included social support mechanisms seem to affect inmates'adjustment to prison, and the effect of marital status on misconduct varies by gender. The implications of these findings for understanding prison life and for prison admi...

318 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is suggested that it is powerlessness and the failure of groups that makes tyranny psychologically acceptable, and a new framework for understanding tyranny is outlined.
Abstract: This paper presents findings from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) prison study - an experimental case study that examined the consequences of randomly dividing men into groups of prisoners and guards within a specially constructed institution over a period of 8 days. Unlike the prisoners, the guards failed to identify with their role. This made the guards reluctant to impose their authority and they were eventually overcome by the prisoners. Participants then established an egalitarian social system. When this proved unsustainable, moves to impose a tyrannical regime met with weakening resistance. Empirical and theoretical analysis addresses the conditions under which people identify with the groups to which they are assigned and the social, organizational, and clinical consequences of either doing so or failing to do so. On the basis of these findings, a new framework for understanding tyranny is outlined. This suggests that it is powerlessness and the failure of groups that makes tyranny psychologically acceptable.

277 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A shared responsibility lies with the prison, probation, health, and social services to develop more collaborative practices in providing services for this high-risk group of recently released prisoners.

249 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The effects of solitary confinement on prisoners have been extensively studied in the literature as mentioned in this paper and it has been shown that for many prisoners, the adverse effects are substantial, depending on duration and circumstances and mediated by prisoners individual characteristics.
Abstract: The effects of solitary confinement have been debated since at least the middle of the nineteenth century when both Americans and Europeans began to question the then‐widespread use of solitary confinement of convicted offenders. A sizable and impressively sophisticated literature, now largely forgotten, accumulated for more than a half century and documented significant damage to prisoners. More recently the development of supermax prisons in the United States and human rights objections to pretrial solitary confinement in Scandinavia revived interest in the topic and controversy over the findings. The weight of the modern evidence concurs with the findings of earlier research: whether and how isolation damages people depends on duration and circumstances and is mediated by prisoners’ individual characteristics; but for many prisoners, the adverse effects are substantial.

234 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A meta-analysis was conducted to assess the effectiveness of correctional treatment for reducing institutional misconducts and the magnitudes of various indices of treatment effect size with respect to misconducts were remarkably similar to results in the correctional treatment literature.
Abstract: A meta-analysis was conducted to assess the effectiveness of correctional treatment for reducing institutional misconducts. Sixty-eight studies generated 104 effect sizes involving 21,467 offenders. Behavioral treatment programs produced the strongest effects (r = .26, CI = .18to .34). The numbers of criminogenic needs targeted and program therapeutic integrity were found to be important moderators of effect size. Prison programs producing the greatest reductions in misconduct were also associated with larger reductions in recidivism. The magnitudes of various indices of treatment effect size with respect to misconducts were remarkably similar to results in the correctional treatment literature where community recidivism is the criterion. Recommendations are made that will assist prison authorities to manage prisons in a safe and humane manner.

221 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a study of 2,158 male inmates who were confined for at least 3 years in a southwestern state prison system found that gang affiliation has an effect on violent misconduct among inmates beyond the individual risk factors generally attributed to youth and prior criminal history.
Abstract: The pattern of inmate involvement in violent misconduct is established in the early years of imprisonment, yet few studies have looked at the predictors of violent misconduct during the first months or years of imprisonment, and none have studied the effects of gang affiliation during this time period. This study of 2,158 male inmates who were confined for at least 3 years in a southwestern state prison system finds that gang affiliation has an effect on violent misconduct among inmates beyond the individual risk factors generally attributed to youth and prior criminal history. These findings suggest the need for additional research to clarify the linkage between gang affiliation and inmate violence, with implications for current efforts to supervise gang-affiliated inmates.

220 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An overrepresentation of psychiatric morbidity in the prisoner population is found, and the causes of this excess requires further investigation.
Abstract: Background: The plight of those with mental health problems and the possible role of prisons in "warehousing" these individuals has received considerable media and political attention. Prisoners are generally excluded from community-based surveys and to date no studies have compared prisoners to the community.Objective: The objective was to examine whether excess psychiatric morbidity exists in prisoners compared to the general community after adjusting for demographics.Method: Prison data were obtained from a consecutive sample of reception prisoners admitted into the state's correctional system in 2001 (n=916). Community data were obtained from the 1997 Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing (n=8168). Mental health diagnoses were obtained using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview and a number of other screening measures. Weighting was used in calculating the 12-month prevalence estimates to control for demographic differences between the two samples. Logistic regression a...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a large sample of convicted offenders in Texas drawn from a statewide project on sentencing practices mandated by the 73rd Texas Legislature, logistic regression and OLS regression analyses of likelihood of imprisonment and prison length illustrate the importance of looking at sentencing outcomes both in terms of gender and crime type.
Abstract: Objective. Many studies find that females benefit from their gender in sentencing decisions. Few researchers, however, address whether the gender-sentencing association might be stronger for some crimes, such as minor nonviolent offending, and weaker for other offenses, such as serious violent crime. Method. Using a large random sample of convicted offenders in Texas drawn from a statewide project on sentencing practices mandated by the 73rd Texas Legislature, logistic regression and OLS regression analyses of likelihood of imprisonment and prison length illustrate the importance of looking at sentencing outcomes not only in terms of gender but also in terms of crime type. Results. Specifically, we find that the effect of gender on sentencing does vary by crime type, but not in a consistent or predicted fashion. For both property and drug offending, females are less likely to be sentenced to prison and also receive shorter sentences if they are sentenced to prison. For violent offending, however, females are no less likely than males to receive prison time, but for those who do, females receive substantially shorter sentences than males. Conclusions. We conclude that such variation in the gender-sentencing association across crime type is largely due to features of Texas’ legal code that channel the level of discretion available to judges depending on crime type and whether incarceration likelihood or sentence length is examined. The sentencing of criminals has been the subject of repeated exploratory inquiry by social scientists, particularly sociologists. Since the work of Nagel and Weitzman (1971) and Pope (1975), who found that women appear to receive preferential treatment in sentencing over males, efforts to explain this disparity have centered around two theories: chivalry and the more recent focal concerns. As our literature review highlights, efforts to decipher how the sentencing process may benefit females are, at times, inconsistent. We view our study as additional fuel to the sentencing dialogue and, in par

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Project Greenlight program as mentioned in this paper was an innovative, short-term, prison-based reentry program that drew extensively from the literature on what works and showed that programs incorporating multimodal or cognitive-behavioral skills training consistently show moderate results in reducing offender recidivism.
Abstract: Research Summary: The literature on correctional interventions (“What Works”) suggests that programs incorporating multimodal or cognitive-behavioral skills training consistently show moderate results in reducing offender recidivism. Project Greenlight was an innovative, short-term, prison-based reentry program that drew extensively from that literature. Survival analyses show that intervention participants performed significantly worse on multiple measures of recidivism after one year, and multivariate analyses indicate that covariates fail to mediate the observed relationships. The authors offer several potential explanations for their findings, but they speculate that the answer lies somewhere in a combination of implementation difficulties, program design, and a mismatch between the targeted offender population and the program. Policy Implications: Although there is extensive empirical support for multimodal programs in correctional interventions, especially those that involve or rest on cognitive skills foundations, little is actually known about the efficacy or limitations of different program models. The authors' analysis suggests that some short-term, prison-based programs, especially attractive to states and criminal justice agencies because of the low cost and capability to handle large numbers of offenders, may be poorly situated to address the multiple needs of offenders as they return to the community, and may in fact, increase the probability of criminal behavior. These findings also suggest that correctional interventions need to pay attention to the treatment principles underlying successful interventions and not simply the components of programs known to work.


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a participatory action research project nested inside a college-in-prison program for women in a maximum security prison is described, which was conceived out of a conversati...
Abstract: This article enters the ‘intimate details’ of a participatory action research project nested inside a college-in-prison program for women in a maximum security prison. Conceived out of a conversati...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Results showed that women were at a substantial disadvantage compared with their male counterparts with regard to histories of employment, substance abuse, psychological functioning, and sexual and physical abuse prior to incarceration, and psychological impairment was the strongest predictor of recidivism.
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine differences between men and women entering prison-based therapeutic community (TC) treatment and to explore the relationship of those differences to posttreatment outcomes (i.e., aftercare participation and reincarceration rates). Extensive treatment-intake interview data for 4,386 women and 4,164 men from 16 prison-based TCs in California were compared using chi-square analyses and t-tests. Logistic regression analyses were then conducted separately for men and women to identify gender-specific factors associated with post-treatment outcomes. Prison intake data and treatment participation data come from a 5-year process and outcome evaluation of the California Department of Corrections' (CDC) Prison Treatment Expansion Initiative. The return-to-custody data came from the CDC's Offender Based Information System. Bivariate results showed that women were at a substantial disadvantage compared with their male counterparts with regard to histories of employment, substance abuse, psychological functioning, and sexual and physical abuse prior to incarceration. In contrast, men had more serious criminal justice involvement than women prior to incarceration. After controlling for these and other factors related to outcomes, regression findings showed that there were both similarities and differences with regard to gender-specific predictors of posttreatment outcomes. Time in treatment and motivation for treatment were similar predictors of aftercare participation for men and women. Psychological impairment was the strongest predictor of recidivism for both men and women. Substantial differences in background characteristics and the limited number of predictors related to posttreatment outcomes for women suggests the plausibility of gender-specific paths in the recovery process.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the effectiveness of electronic monitoring (EM) for serious offenders supervised in the community was investigated. But, the results indicated that such concerns may be overblown and that EM may prove an effective public safety alternative to prison, which casts doubt on the anticipated netwidening effect of this particular intermediate sanction.
Abstract: Research Summary: This study addresses the effectiveness of electronic monitoring (EM) for serious offenders supervised in the community. Using data on 75,661 offenders placed on home confinement in Florida from 1998 to 2002, we find that both radio-frequency and global positioning system monitoring significantly reduce the likelihood of technical violations, reoffending, and absconding for this population of offenders. Additionally, we find that offenders placed on home confinement with EM are significantly more serious than those placed on home confinement without EM, which casts doubt on the anticipated net-widening effect of this particular intermediate sanction. Policy Implications: Given the anticipated increase in the use of EM in the immediate future, policy makers will surely be faced with questions about its effectiveness in preventing or deterring further criminal activity among offenders in the community, as well as concerns about the intensity of surveillance it affords and a subsequent increase in the likelihood of a prison sentence or return to prison for technical violations. The results presented here suggest that such concerns may be overblown and that EM of offenders in the community may prove an effective public safety alternative to prison. Additional implications of this research include decision making regarding which offenders should be placed on EM, which type of monitoring device will be the most cost-effective and efficient, and the potential for front-end net-widening if states adopt the practice of “Got ‘em?’ Use ‘em.’”

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper showed that the negative relationship between prison and crime becomes less strongly negative as the scale of imprisonment increases. But they did not consider the effect of increasing the number of prisoners on crime.
Abstract: Research Summary: Several prominent empirical studies estimate models of a constant proportional effect of prison on crime, finding that effect is substantial and negative. A separate literature argues against the crime-reducing effect of prison but mainly on theoretical grounds. This second literature suggests that the elasticity of the prison/crime relationship is not constant. We provide a model that nests these two literatures. Using data from the United States over 30 years, we find strong evidence that the negative relationship between prison and crime becomes less strongly negative as the scale of imprisonment increases. This revisionist model indicates that (1) at low levels of incarceration, a constant elasticity model underestimates the negative relationship between incarceration and crime, and (2) at higher levels of incarceration, the constant elasticity model overstates the negative effect. Policy Implications: These results go beyond the claim of declining marginal returns, instead finding accelerating declining marginal returns. As the prison population continues to increase, albeit at a slower rate, after three decades of phenomenal growth, these findings provide an important caution that for many jurisdictions, the point of accelerating declining marginal returns may have set in. Any policy discussion of the appropriate scale of punishment should be concerned with the empirical impact of this expensive and intrusive government intervention.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Methamphetamine use was significantly predictive of self-reported violent criminal behavior and general recidivism, but was not significant predictive of being returned to custody for a violent offense.
Abstract: This study uses data from 641 state prison parolees in California to examine the associations between methamphetamine use and three measures of criminal behavior: (a) self-reported violent criminal behavior, (b) return to prison for a violent offense, and (c) return to prison for any reason during the first 12 months of parole. Methamphetamine use was significantly predictive of self-reported violent criminal behavior and general recidivism (i.e., a return to custody for any reason). However, methamphetamine use was not significantly predictive of being returned to custody for a violent offense. These trends remained even after controlling for involvement in the drug trade (i.e., sales, distribution, or manufacturing).

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article investigated whether and to what extent ex-prisoner housing and associated social factors are important to integration in Australia, specifically New South Wales and Victoria, where no reliable prior research on this matter had been done.
Abstract: Australia, with other OECD countries, has experienced a rapid rise in numbers of prison releasees. With this, there is heightened interest in the social impact of more prisoners returning to the community. International research has consistently indicated that suitable housing is a vital factor in ex-prisoners’ social integration. This project investigated whether and to what extent ex-prisoner housing and associated social factors are important to integration in Australia, specifically New South Wales and Victoria, where no reliable prior research on this matter had been done. Analyses indicated significant differences between states; chronic homelessness, poverty and lack of support in the participants’ lives; and that accommodation instability is a predictor of return to prison. Justice system policy implications are discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Most courts (92%) reported using jail as a sanction for noncompliance, if only rarely, and jail sanction use was significantly predicted by increased judicial supervision and number of felons in the court.
Abstract: Mental health courts (MHCs) represent an important new development at the interface of the criminal justice and mental health systems. MHCs are criminal courts for persons with mental illness that were in part created to divert this population from jail/prison into community treatment. MHCs are proliferating rapidly despite limited knowledge regarding their characteristics or their efficacy. We surveyed the entire population of adult MHCs in the United States, n = 90. In the past 8 years, MHCs have been created in 34 states, with an aggregate current caseload of 7,560 clients in MHCs nationally. Most courts (92%) reported using jail as a sanction for noncompliance, if only rarely. Further, jail sanction use was significantly predicted by increased judicial supervision and number of felons in the court. Implications for MHCs and social monitoring are discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the effectiveness of Megan's law in reducing recidivism among convicted sex offenders was investigated by examining rates of return to prison for conditionally free offenders under correctional control.
Abstract: This study investigated the effectiveness of Megan’s law in reducing recidivism among convicted sex offenders. The policy of making such offenders more visible to the public through officially notifying communities when they are returned to society is based on the premise that warning potential victims increases the public’s ability to protect itself against future victimization. The community would be better protected because those undergoing extensive notification will know that they are being watched and thus will be deterred from reoffending. Effectiveness was assessed by examining rates of return to prison for conditionally free offenders under correctional control. The study used a four‐and‐a‐half‐year follow‐up period and covered all those in one state who had undergone high level notification from September 1997 to July 1999. Their recidivism patterns were matched with a similar sample in the same state who, while meeting the state’s criteria for public notification, were not dealt with in this wa...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Using a sample of 1,005 inmates from the southwestern U.S., this article explored racial, ethnic, and citizenship correlates among male and female prisoners and found that Hispanics and Native Americans were the most violent male prisoners, while African Americans and Native American were the more violent female inmates.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined incarceration histories and shelter use patterns of 7,022 persons staying in public shelters in New York City and found that different dynamics predominate and that different interventions are called for in preventinghomelessness amongpersons released from jail and from prison.
Abstract: This study examined incarceration histories and shelter use patterns of 7,022 persons staying in public shelters in New York City. Through matching administrative shelter records with data on releases from New York State prisons and New York City jails, 23.1% of a point-prevalent shelter populationwas identified as having had an incarceration within the previous 2-year period. Persons entering shelter following a jail episode (17.0%) exhibited different shelter stay patterns than did those having exited a prison episode (7.7%), leading to the conclusion that different dynamics predominate and that different interventionsare called for in preventinghomelessness amongpersons released from jail and from prison.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: There is little evidence that TCs offer significant benefits in comparison with other residential treatment, or that one type of TC is better than another, and methodological limitations of the studies may have introduced bias.
Abstract: Therapeutic communities (TCs) are a popular treatment for the rehabilitation of drug users. The results of this review show that there is little evidence that TCs offer significant benefits in comparison with other residential treatment, or that one type of TC is better than another. Prison TC may be better than prison on it's own or Mental Health Treatment Programmes to prevent re-offending post-release for in-mates.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Sexual violence inside prison is an urgent public health issue needing targeted interventions to prevent and ameliorate its health and social consequences, which spatially concentrate in poor inner-city areas where these individuals ultimately return.
Abstract: People in prison are exposed to and experience sexual violence inside prisons, further exposing them to communicable diseases and trauma. The consequences of sexual violence follow the individual into the community upon release. This paper estimates the prevalence of sexual victimization within a state prison system. A total of 6,964 men and 564 women participated in a survey administered using audio-CASI. Weighted estimates of prevalence were constructed by gender and facility size. Rates of sexual victimization varied significantly by gender, age, perpetrator, question wording, and facility. Rates of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization in the previous 6 months were highest for female inmates (212 per 1,000), more than four times higher than male rates (43 per 1,000). Abusive sexual conduct was more likely between inmates and between staff and inmates than nonconsensual sexual acts. Sexual violence inside prison is an urgent public health issue needing targeted interventions to prevent and ameliorate its health and social consequences, which spatially concentrate in poor inner-city areas where these individuals ultimately return.

01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: Using a Prais-Winsten regression model that corrects for autocorrelation in time-series data, and holding constant three leading structural covariates of homicide, this paper found a large, statistically significant, and robust relationship between aggregated institutionalization and homicide.
Abstract: The incarceration explosion of the late twentieth century set off a storm of longitudinal research on the relationship between rates of imprisonment and crime, unemployment, education, and other social indicators. Those studies, however, are flawed because they fail to measure confinement properly. They rely on imprisonment data only, and ignore historical rates of mental hospitalization. With the exception of a discrete literature on the interdependence of the mental hospital and prison populations and some studies on explanations for the prison expansion, none of the empirical work related to the incarceration explosion—or for that matter, older research on the prison-crime and prison-unemployment relationships in the 1960s—takes proper account of mental hospitalization rates. When the data on mental hospitalization are combined with the data on imprisonment for the period 1928 through 2000, the incarceration revolution of the late twentieth century barely reaches the level of institutionalization that the United States experienced at mid-century. The highest rate of aggregated institutionalization during the entire century occurred in 1955 when almost 640 persons per 100,000 adults over the age 15 were institutionalized in asylums, mental hospitals, and state and federal prisons. In addition, the trend line for aggregated institutionalization reflects a mirror image of the national homicide rate during the same period. Using a Prais-Winsten regression model that corrects for autocorrelation in time-series data, and holding constant three leading structural covariates of homicide, this paper finds a large, statistically significant, and robust relationship between aggregated institutionalization and homicide. These findings underscore, more than anything, how much institutionalization there was at mid-century. The implications are both practical and theoretical. As a practical matter, empirical research that uses confinement as a value of interest should use an aggregated institutionalization rate that incorporates mental hospitalization. At a theoretical level, these findings suggest that it may be the continuity of confinement—and not just the incarceration explosion—that needs to be explored and explained. 1/28/2006 Confinement in the United States 2 On the Continuity of Spatial Exclusion and Confinement In Twentieth Century United States

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The extent to which these types of programs are being administered in U.S. prisons through a national survey of state correctional systems is captured, and livestock care/prison farms emerge as a unique type of PAP.
Abstract: Although animals appear to be increasingly incorporated into correctional programming, the field has failed to systematically study the phenomenon. The present research is an initial attempt to capture the extent to which these types of programs are being administered in U.S. prisons through a national survey of state correctional systems. The research regarding the potential therapeutic effects of animals and what we know about prison-based animal programs (PAPs) are reviewed. Among the results: The programs are in most states, are most commonly of a community service design that uses dogs, are more likely to involve male than female participants, and most were established after 2000. Livestock care/prison farms emerge as a unique type of PAP.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A structured programme in which the criminogenic personality and behavioural factors, substance misuse and social dislocation are managed together with the active symptoms of the disorder could prevent the progress to violence.
Abstract: People with schizophrenia make a significant contribution to violence in our communities and, in so doing, often lay waste to their own lives. The 10% or so from which will emerge the perpetrators of most of the serious violence are identifiable in advance. A structured programme in which the criminogenic personality and behavioural factors, substance misuse and social dislocation are managed together with the active symptoms of the disorder could prevent the progress to violence. Such systems of care could significantly reduce serious criminal violence and homicide, reduce the number of people with schizophrenia who end up in prison, stop the rising number of forensic psychiatric beds and, most importantly, improve the lives of many of the most disturbed and disadvantaged of those with the disorder.

Journal Article
TL;DR: This article found a large, statistically significant, and robust relationship between aggregated institutionalization and homicide rates, using a Prais-Winsten regression model that corrects for autocorrelation in time-series data, and holding constant three leading structural covariates of homicide.
Abstract: The incarceration revolution of the late twentieth century fueled ongoing research on the relationship between rates of incarceration and crime, unemployment, education, and other social indicators. In this research, the variable intended to capture the level of confinement in society was conceptualized and measured as the rate of incarceration in state and federal prisons and county jails. This, however, fails to take account of other equally important forms of confinement, especially commitment to mental hospitals and asylums. When the data on mental hospitalization rates are combined with the data on imprisonment rates for the period 1928 through 2000, the incarceration revolution of the late twentieth century barely reaches the level of aggregated institutionalization that the United States experienced at mid-century. The highest rate of aggregated institutionalization during the entire period occurred in 1955 when almost 640 persons per 100,000 adults over age 15 were institutionalized in asylums, mental hospitals, and state and federal prisons. Equally surprising, the trend for aggregated institutionalization reflects a mirror image of the national homicide rate during the period 1928 through 2000. Using a Prais-Winsten regression model that corrects for autocorrelation in time-series data, and holding constant three leading structural covariates of homicide, this Article finds a large, statistically significant, and robust relationship between aggregated institutionalization and homicide rates. These findings underscore, more than anything, how much institutionalization there was at mid-century. The implications are both practical and theoretical. As a practical matter, empirical research that uses confinement as a value of interest should use an aggregated institutionalization rate that incorporates mental hospitalization rates. At a theoretical level, these findings suggest that it may be the continuity of confinement-and not just the incarceration explosion-that needs to be explored and explained. I. Introduction The classic texts of social theory from the 1960s tell a consistent story not only about the rise and (in some cases) fall of discrete carceral institutions, but also of the remarkable continuity of confinement and social exclusion. This pattern is reflected in the writings of Erving Goffman on Asylums,1 Gerald Grob on The State and the Mentally Ill,2 David Rothman on The Discovery of the Asylum,3 and Michel Foucault.4 In Madness and Civilization, for instance, Foucault traces the continuity of confinement through different stages of Western European history, from the lazar houses for lepers on the outskirts of Medieval cities, to the Ships of Fools navigating down rivers of Renaissance Europe, to the establishment in the seventeenth century of the Hopital General in Paris-that enormous house of confinement for the poor, the unemployed, the homeless, the vagabond, the criminal, and the insane.5 Surprisingly, this literature never made its way into the empirical social science research on the incarceration revolution of the late twentieth century. With the marked exception of a few longitudinal studies on the interdependence of mental hospital and prison populations,6 as well as a small subset of the empirical research on the causes of the late-twentieth century prison explosion,7 no published empirical research conceptualizes the level of confinement in society through the lens of institutionalization writ large. Uniformly, the research limits the prism to rates of imprisonment only. None of the research that uses confinement as an independent variable-in other words, that studies the effect of confinement (and possibly other social indicators) on crime, unemployment, education, or other dependent variables-includes mental hospitalization in its measure of confinement.8 Moreover, none of the binary studies of confinement-in other words, research that explores the specific relationship between confinement and unemployment, or confinement and crime, or confinement and any other non-mental-health-related indicator-uses a measure of coercive social control that includes rates of mental hospitalization. …