Showing papers on "Prison published in 2011"
TL;DR: Research has highlighted that women, prisoners aged 55 years and older, and juveniles present with higher rates of many disorders than do other prisoners, and initiatives to improve the health of prisoners by reducing the burden of infectious and chronic diseases, suicide, and other causes of premature mortality and violence should be further examined.
751 citations
TL;DR: The "pains of imprisonment" have been a longstanding concern within prison sociology and as discussed by the authors revisited the topic, suggesting that modern penal practices have created some new burdens and frust...
Abstract: The ‘pains of imprisonment’ have been a longstanding concern within prison sociology. This article revisits the topic, suggesting that modern penal practices have created some new burdens and frust...
431 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that it is a realistic possibility that crime, prison costs, and imprisonment numbers can be simultaneously reduced by sanction policies that reduce both crime and punishment with the desirable feature of avoiding both costs of crime and the costs of administering punishment.
Abstract: Since 1972, the rate of incarceration in U.S. state and federal prisons has increased every year without exception from a rate of 96 prisoners per 100,000 population in 1972 to 504 prisoners per 100,000 in 2008 (BJS, 2008).1 Counting those housed in jails, the nation’s total incarceration rate has surpassed 750 per 100,000 (Liptak, 2008). Accompanying the 40-year increase in imprisonment has been a companion growth in corrections budgets from $9 billion in 1982 to $69 billion in 2006, which is a 660% increase (BJS, 2008). Much research has been done on the effect of this increase in incarceration on crime rates as well as on the social and economic costs of the ensuing fivefold increase in the nation’s imprisonment rate. The point of departure for this article is the recognition that sanction policies that reduce both crime and punishment have the desirable feature of avoiding not only the costs of crime but also the costs of administering punishment. As a theoretical matter, this observation is certainly not new and was recognized at least as long ago as Becker (1968). Of course, the policy question is whether, relative to the status quo, alternative policies exist that can achieve these simultaneous effects. In this article, we argue that it is a realistic possibility that crime, prison costs, and imprisonment numbers can be
341 citations
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04 Aug 2011TL;DR: Garrett as mentioned in this paper examines what went wrong in the cases of the first 250 wrongfully convicted people to be exonerated by DNA testing, and proposes practical reforms that rely more on documented, recorded, and audited evidence, and less on fallible human memory.
Abstract: On January 20, 1984, Earl Washington--defended for all of forty minutes by a lawyer who had never tried a death penalty case--was found guilty of rape and murder in the state of Virginia and sentenced to death. After nine years on death row, DNA testing cast doubt on his conviction and saved his life. However, he spent another eight years in prison before more sophisticated DNA technology proved his innocence and convicted the guilty man. DNA exonerations have shattered confidence in the criminal justice system by exposing how often we have convicted the innocent and let the guilty walk free. In this unsettling in-depth analysis, Brandon Garrett examines what went wrong in the cases of the first 250 wrongfully convicted people to be exonerated by DNA testing. Based on trial transcripts, Garrett's investigation into the causes of wrongful convictions reveals larger patterns of incompetence, abuse, and error. Evidence corrupted by suggestive eyewitness procedures, coercive interrogations, unsound and unreliable forensics, shoddy investigative practices, cognitive bias, and poor lawyering illustrates the weaknesses built into our current criminal justice system. Garrett proposes practical reforms that rely more on documented, recorded, and audited evidence, and less on fallible human memory. Very few crimes committed in the United States involve biological evidence that can be tested using DNA. How many unjust convictions are there that we will never discover? Convicting the Innocent makes a powerful case for systemic reforms to improve the accuracy of all criminal cases.
293 citations
TL;DR: Rates of prison suicide do not reflect general population suicide rates, suggesting that variations in prison suicide rates reflect differences in criminal justice systems including, possibly, the provision of psychiatric care in prison.
Abstract: Background
Although suicide rates among prisoners are high and vary between countries, it is uncertain whether this reflects the importation of risk from the general population or is associated with incarceration rates.
254 citations
TL;DR: This article examined the employment experiences of a multi-state sample of former prisoners, and identified the individual factors influencing the likelihood of employment after release from prison, using data gathered from interviews with prisoners before and at multiple times after release.
Abstract: Finding sustained employment is an important component of the transition from prison to the community for exiting prisoners. Anecdotal reports from former prisoners indicate that most individuals experience great difficulties finding jobs after their release. However, little systematic information is available about the employment experiences of individuals released from prison or the characteristics of former prisoners who are successful in locating employment. Using a causal framework, this paper examines the employment experiences of a multi-state sample of former prisoners, and identifies the individual factors influencing the likelihood of employment after release from prison, using data gathered from interviews with prisoners before and at multiple times after release. Findings indicate that consistent work experience before incarceration, connection to employers before release, and conventional family relationships improve employment outcomes after release. Individuals who relapse to drug use quick...
238 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss how these relationships are forged by the terms of "neo-paternalism", focusing in particular on what is labelled "soft power" and describe some of the impediments that hinder the development of closer relationships between prisoners and uniformed staff.
Abstract: As penal power has been transformed in recent years, so too have relationships between prisoners and staff. This article discusses how these relationships are forged by the terms of ‘neo-paternalism’, focusing in particular on what is labelled ‘soft power’. It describes some of the impediments that hinder the development of closer relationships between prisoners and uniformed staff. It explores the implications of soft power for the prison’s interior legitimacy, and discusses soft power in relation to the culture of uniformed staff.
236 citations
TL;DR: The Mexican Mafia gang as mentioned in this paper can extort drug dealers on the street because they wield substantial control over inmates in the county jail system and because drug dealers anticipate future incarceration, which creates incentives for them to provide governance institutions that mitigate market failures among Hispanic drug-dealing street gangs, including enforcing deals, protecting property rights, and adjudicating disputes.
Abstract: How can people who lack access to effective government institutions establish property rights and facilitate exchange? The illegal narcotics trade in Los Angeles has flourished despite its inability to rely on state-based formal institutions of governance. An alternative system of governance has emerged from an unexpected source—behind bars. The Mexican Mafia prison gang can extort drug dealers on the street because they wield substantial control over inmates in the county jail system and because drug dealers anticipate future incarceration. The gang's ability to extract resources creates incentives for them to provide governance institutions that mitigate market failures among Hispanic drug-dealing street gangs, including enforcing deals, protecting property rights, and adjudicating disputes. Evidence collected from federal indictments and other legal documents related to the Mexican Mafia prison gang and numerous street gangs supports this claim.
220 citations
TL;DR: It is found that health-related behavior occurred in the context of a complex life experience, with logistical problems exacerbated by emotional distress, and improved release planning, coordination between the medical, mental health and criminal justice systems may reduce the risk of poor health outcomes for this population.
211 citations
TL;DR: Nelson, Deess, and Allen as mentioned in this paper found that the first month is not only a period of difficulties but also a time of opportunities to get people started on the path to employment, abstinence from drugs, good family relations, and crime-free living.
Abstract: This article is excerpted from Marta Nelson, Perry Deess, and Charlotte Allen9s longer article of the same name published by the Vera Institute of Justice in 1999. The report is an account, issue by issue, of what the authors learned from participants about life in the first thirty days after getting out of prison or jail. Those first days and weeks appear to be critical, with arrest rates for released prisoners highest soon after release and declining over time. The study showed that the first month is not only a period of difficulties but also a period of opportunities to get people started on the path to employment, abstinence from drugs, good family relations, and crime-free living.
208 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe stark differences in the moral and emotional climates of different prisons and report that some prisons are more survivable than others, while others are less survivable.
Abstract: Empirical research on the moral quality of life in prison suggests that some prisons are more survivable than others. Prisoners describe stark differences in the moral and emotional climates of pri...
01 Jan 2011
TL;DR: A recent, compelling and cost-effective treatment program that has shown a significant reduction in violent recidivism in youth on a putative trajectory to psychopathic personality is highlighted.
Abstract: Psychopaths consume an astonishingly disproportionate amount of criminal justice resources. The label psychopath is often used loosely by a variety of participants in the system—police, victims, prosecutors, judges, probation officers, parole and prison officials, even defense lawyers—as a kind of lay synonym for incorrigible. Law and psychiatry, even at the zenith of their rehabilitative optimism, both viewed psychopaths as a kind of exception that proved the rehabilitative rule. Psychopaths composed that small but embarrassing cohort whose very resistance to all manner of treatment seemed to be its defining characteristic.
Psychopathy is a constellation of psychological symptoms that typically emerges early in childhood and affects all aspects of a sufferer’s life including relationships with family, friends, work, and school. The symptoms of psychopathy include shallow affect, lack of empathy, guilt and remorse, irresponsibility, and impulsivity (see Table 1 for a complete list of psychopathic symptoms). The best current estimate is that just less than 1% of all noninstitutionalized males age 18 and over are psychopaths.1 This translates to approximately 1,150,000 adult males who would meet the criteria for psychopathy in the United States today.2 And of the approximately 6,720,000 adult males that are in prison, jail, parole, or probation,3 16%, or 1,075,000, are psychopaths.4 Thus, approximately 93% of adult male psychopaths in the United States are in prison, jail, parole, or probation.
Table 1
The 20 Items Listed on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (Hare 1991; 2003)
Psychopathy is astonishingly common as mental disorders go. It is twice as common as schizophrenia, anorexia, bipolar disorder, and paranoia,5 and roughly as common as bulimia, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, and narcissism.6 Indeed, the only mental disorders significantly more common than psychopathy are those related to drug and alcohol abuse or dependence, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.
No matter where one stands on the long-debated question of whether “nothing works” when it comes to criminal rehabilitation,7 there is no doubt that the psychopath has grossly distorted the inquiry. Psychopaths are not only much more likely than non-psychopaths to be imprisoned for committing violent crimes,8 they are also more likely to finagle an early release using the deceptive skills that are part of their pathologic toolbox,9 and then, once released, are much more likely to recidivate, and to recidivate violently.10
But this exasperating picture of the hidden and incorrigible psychopath may be changing. Neuroscience is beginning to open the hood on psychopathy. The scientist-author of this article has spent the last 15 years imaging the brains of psychopaths in prison, and has accumulated the world’s largest forensic database on the psychopathic brain. The findings from this data and others,11 summarized in Part IV, strongly suggest that all psychopaths share common neurological traits that are becoming relatively easy to diagnose using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).12 Additionally, researchers are beginning to report significant progress in treatment, especially, and most excitingly, in the treatment of juveniles with early indications of psychopathy.13
This paper will not attempt to answer the complex and controversial policy question of whether psychopathy should be an excusing condition under the criminal law, or even whether, the extent to which, and the direction in which a diagnosis of psychopathy should drive a criminal sentence.14 As science pushes the chain of behavioral causation back in time and deeper into the brain, it is all too tempting to label the latest cause as an excuse. But of course not every cause is an excuse. Whether “you” pulled the trigger on the gun, or your motor neurons did, or your sensory neurons, or neurons deeper in your cortical or subcortical systems, is not only a nonsensical question, it is a tautological inquiry that will never be able to answer the only pertinent moral and public policy question: should you be held responsible for your actions? That is, are you sufficiently rational to be blameworthy?15 Addressing difficult policy questions of how these new instruments to detect psychopathy and the new treatments for it might best be integrated into the criminal justice system are questions beyond the scope of this paper and should be the focus of future scholarly work.16
But even if a cause does not sufficiently disable an actor’s reason, and therefore does not rise to the level of excuse, that does not mean the system should not care about causes, especially at the punishment end. On the contrary, those involved in the criminal justice system have a moral obligation, not just to the people incarcerated but also to those on whom the temporarily incarcerated will be released, to do everything they can, within the constraints of the punitive purposes of imprisonment, to reduce recidivism. Given the facts that psychopaths make up such a disproportionate segment of people in prison and that they recidivate at substantially higher rates than non-psychopaths, the recent advances in the diagnosis and treatment of psychopathy discussed in this paper are developments anyone concerned with the criminal justice system simply cannot ignore. Even a modest reduction in the criminal recidivism of psychopaths would significantly decrease the exploding public resources we devote to prisons, not to mention reduce the risks all of us face as potential victims of psychopaths.
This paper will survey the history of psychopathy (Part I), the impact psychopaths have on the criminal justice system (Part II), the traditional clinical assessments for psychopathy (Part III), the emerging neuroimaging findings (Part IV), and will finish with a discussion of recent treatment studies and their potential economic impacts (Part V).
TL;DR: There was no major changes in investments in specialized facilities, funding for inmate services-related staff, or program participation rates throughout the late 1970s and the 1980s, and not until the 1990s do patterns of inmate services change, as investments in programming switch from academic to reentry-related programs.
Abstract: Scholars of mass incarceration point to the 1970s as a pivotal turning point in U.S. penal history, marked by a shift towards more punitive policies and a consensus that "nothing works" in rehabilitating inmates. However, while there has been extensive research on changes in policy-makers' rhetoric, sentencing policy, and incarceration rates, we know very little about changes in the actual practices of punishment and prisoner rehabilitation. Using nationally representative data for U.S. state prisons, this article demonstrates that there were no major changes in investments in specialized facilities, funding for inmate services-related staff, or program participation rates throughout the late 1970s and the 1980s. Not until the 1990s, more than a decade after the start of the punitive era, do we see patterns of inmate services change, as investments in programming switch from academic to reentry-related programs. These findings suggest that there is a large gap between rhetoric and reality in the case of inmate services and that since the 1990s, inmate "rehabilitation" has increasingly become equated with reentry-related life skills programs.
TL;DR: With record-high incarceration rates, unprecedented extension of state supervision over individuals leaving prison, and a complex maze of legal barriers to reintegration, more people than ever befo...
Abstract: With record-high incarceration rates, unprecedented extension of state supervision over individuals leaving prison, and a complex maze of legal barriers to reintegration, more people than ever befo...
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15 Jan 2011
TL;DR: Harcourt as discussed by the authors argues that our faith in "free markets" has severely distorted American politics and punishment practices, and that government has a legitimate and competent role in policing and the punishment arena.
Abstract: It is widely believed today that the free market is the best mechanism ever invented to efficiently allocate resources in society. Just as fundamental as faith in the free market is the belief that government has a legitimate and competent role in policing and the punishment arena. This curious incendiary combination of free market efficiency and the Big Brother state has become seemingly obvious, but it hinges on the illusion of a supposedly natural order in the economic realm. "The Illusion of Free Markets" argues that our faith in "free markets" has severely distorted American politics and punishment practices. Bernard Harcourt traces the birth of the idea of natural order to eighteenth-century economic thought and reveals its gradual evolution through the Chicago School of economics and ultimately into today's myth of the free market. The modern category of "liberty" emerged in reaction to an earlier, integrated vision of punishment and public economy, known in the eighteenth century as "police." This development shaped the dominant belief today that competitive markets are inherently efficient and should be sharply demarcated from a government-run penal sphere. This modern vision rests on a simple but devastating illusion. Superimposing the political categories of "freedom" or "discipline" on forms of market organization has the unfortunate effect of obscuring rather than enlightening. It obscures by making both the free market and the prison system seem natural and necessary. In the process, it facilitated the birth of the penitentiary system in the nineteenth century and its ultimate culmination into mass incarceration today.
TL;DR: It was concluded that bringing together experts in adult ADHD and the Criminal Justice System (CJS) will be vital to raising awareness of the needs of ADHD offenders at every stage of the offender pathway.
Abstract: The UK Adult ADHD Network (UKAAN) was founded by a group of mental health specialists who have experience delivering clinical services for adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) within the National Health Service (NHS). UKAAN aims to support mental health professionals in the development of services for adults with ADHD by the promotion of assessment and treatment protocols. One method of achieving these aims has been to sponsor conferences and workshops on adult ADHD. This consensus statement is the result of a Forensic Meeting held in November 2009, attended by senior representatives of the Department of Health (DoH), Forensic Mental Health, Prison, Probation, Courts and Metropolitan Police services. The objectives of the meeting were to discuss ways of raising awareness about adult ADHD, and its recognition, assessment, treatment and management within these respective services. Whilst the document draws on the UK experience, with some adaptations it can be used as a template for similar local actions in other countries. It was concluded that bringing together experts in adult ADHD and the Criminal Justice System (CJS) will be vital to raising awareness of the needs of ADHD offenders at every stage of the offender pathway. Joint working and commissioning within the CJS is needed to improve awareness and understanding of ADHD offenders to ensure that individuals are directed to appropriate care and rehabilitation. General Practitioners (GPs), whilst ideally placed for early intervention, should not be relied upon to provide this service as vulnerable offenders often have difficulty accessing primary care services. Moreover once this hurdle has been overcome and ADHD in offenders has been identified, a second challenge will be to provide treatment and ensure continuity of care. Future research must focus on proof of principle studies to demonstrate that identification and treatment confers health gain, safeguards individual's rights, improves engagement in offender rehabilitation programmes, reduces institutional behavioural disturbance and, ultimately, leads to crime reduction. In time this will provide better justice for both offenders and society.
TL;DR: The findings of this research may provide insights into factors leading to suicidal behaviour in other forensic and institutional settings, such as detention centres and psychiatric hospitals, and may assist in developing suicide prevention policies for prisoners and other at-risk populations.
TL;DR: The authors argue that the moral quality of prison life is embodied by the attitudes and conduct of prison officers, and that there are important distinctions to be made in their work: between "good" and "right" relationships; "tragic" and ''cynical" perspectives; "reassurance" and'relational safety; and "good' and "bad" confidence.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework for thinking about the work of prison officers. It is a well-known maxim that relationships are ‘at the heart’ of prison life (Home Office, 1984). In this paper, I develop and illustrate this proposition, arguing that the moral quality of prison life is enacted and embodied by the attitudes and conduct of prison officers. There are important distinctions to be made in their work: between ‘good’ and ‘right’ relationships; ‘tragic’ and ‘cynical’ perspectives; ‘reassurance’ and ‘relational’ safety; and ‘good’ and ‘bad’ confidence. These distinctions are largely unseen but are decisive in shaping the prison’s moral and social climate. The best prison officer work can be described using these kinds of distinctions.
TL;DR: There is a long history of social science research on the importance of race for determining life outcomes as mentioned in this paper, however, there are relatively few social science studies on importance of skin tone w...
Abstract: There is a long history of social science research on the importance of race for determining life outcomes. However, there are relatively few social science studies on the importance of skin tone w...
TL;DR: It is concluded that merely increasing access to state psychiatric hospital beds would likely not reduce the number of people with SMI in jails and prisons and why developing effective strategies to divert them out of jails and jails and into community-based treatment is needed to improve both their mental health and criminal justice outcomes.
Abstract: Although there is broad consensus that people with serious mental illnesses (SMI) are overrepresented in correctional settings, there is less agreement about the policy trends that may have created this situation. Some researchers and policymakers posit a direct link between deinstitutionalization and increased rates of SMI in jails and prisons, a phenomenon described as transinstitutionalization. Others offer evidence that challenges this hypothesis and suggest that it may be a reductionist explanation. This paper reviews claims from both sides of the debate, and concludes that merely increasing access to state psychiatric hospital beds would likely not reduce the number of people with SMI in jails and prisons. A more nuanced approach is recommended for explaining why people with SMI become involved in the criminal justice system and why developing effective strategies to divert them out of jails and prisons and into community-based treatment is needed to improve both their mental health and criminal justice outcomes.
TL;DR: The authors examined the construct validity and reliability of the Prison Group Climate Instrument (PGCI) in a sample of 77 adolescents placed in a Dutch youth prison and 49 adults prisoners living in a psychiatric prison with a therapeutic living group structure.
Abstract: The present study examines the construct validity and reliability of the Prison Group Climate Instrument (PGCI) in a sample of 77 adolescents placed in a Dutch youth prison and 49 adult prisoners living in a Dutch psychiatric prison with a therapeutic living group structure. Confirmatory factor analysis of a four-factor model—with “repression,” “support,” “growth,” and “group atmosphere” as first-order factors—and “overall group climate” as a second-order factor shows an adequate fit to the data, indicating construct validity of the PGCI. Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients are good for all factors. The PGCI is a parsimonious instrument, enabling future research on group climate in youth prisons and secure forensic psychiatric institutions. The instrument can be used as an assessment tool for judicial interventions that use group climate to improve outcomes in delinquent youth and adult delinquents receiving treatment for psychiatric problems.
TL;DR: The authors examined how spending time in prison affects wage trajectories for a cohort of men over a 14-year period and found no evidence of racial divergence in wages in quarters leading up to incarceration, but after release, wages grow at a 21 percent slower rate for black compared to white ex-inmates.
Abstract: Spending time in prison has become an increasingly common life event for low-skill minority men in the United States. The Bureau of Justice Statistics now estimates that one in three black men can expect to spend time in prison during his lifetime. A growing body of work implicates the prison system in contemporary accounts of racial inequality across a host of social, health, economic, and political domains. However, comparatively little work has examined the impact of the massive increase in the prison system—and growing inequality in exposure to the prison system—on racial inequality over the life course. Using a unique data set drawn from state administrative records, this project examines how spending time in prison affects wage trajectories for a cohort of men over a 14-year period. Multilevel growth curve models show no evidence of racial divergence in wages in quarters leading up to incarceration. However, after release, wages grow at a 21 percent slower rate for black compared to white ex-inmates. Blacks also enjoy fewer wage returns to work history compared to their white counterparts. This research broadens our understanding of the sources of racial stratification over the life course and underscores the relevance of recent policy interventions in the lives of low-skilled minority men.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored the link between attitudes of prison staff and their behaviour, particularly in terms of their use of authority, and sought to explain the somewhat paradoxical finding that those prisons rated most positively by prisoners were those in which staff were least positive about their own working lives and most negative in their views of prisoners.
Abstract: Drawing on data collected in five private sector and two public sector prisons, this article highlights the complex relationship between prison staff culture and prisoner quality of life. Specifically, it explores the link between the attitudes of prison staff and their behaviour, particularly in terms of their use of authority, and seeks to explain the somewhat paradoxical finding that those prisons rated most positively by prisoners were those in which staff were least positive about their own working lives and most negative in their views of prisoners. The article highlights the importance of experience and competence, as well as attitudes, in determining how authority is exercised and experienced in prison. It also draws attention to the different kinds of staff cultures that exist both between and within the public and private sectors.
TL;DR: In this paper, a typology of prison officer approaches to care for prisoners is presented, based on qualitative fieldwork in one men's and one women's prison and five distinct approaches were identified.
Abstract: This article presents a typology of prison officer approaches to caring for prisoners, based on qualitative fieldwork in one men’s and one women’s prison. Five distinct approaches were identified: ...
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16 Mar 2011
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the history of the "Toughest Beat" and the "Three Strikes and Anchor of Punitive Segregation" as well as the fight against Prison Privatization.
Abstract: Preface Key Dates 1. Welcome to the "Toughest Beat" 2. The Birth of the "Correctional Officer" and His Union 3. A Politically Realistic Union 4. Power by Proxy: The Strategic Alliance Between Prison Officers and Crime Victims 5. Three Strikes and the Anchor of Punitive Segregation 6. Monopolizing the Beat: The Fight against Prison Privatization 7. Who Rules the Beat? The Battle over Managerial Rights 8. Changing of the Guard: A New Direction for the CCPOA and California? Methodological Appendix
TL;DR: In this article, the authors address some of the prison's adaptation schemes to shed light on three contradictory logics of risk-based management: (1) high-risk aboriginal offenders have little access to risk-reducing programmes; (2) aboriginality undergoes an ontological mutation that occurs during the process of risk assessment; and (3) aboriginal correctional staff play a contradictory role in the (re)production of 'aboriginal risk'.
Abstract: In the last two decades, Indigenous lobbies have pointed a harsh finger at the endemic overrepresentation of Indigenous individuals in prisons in Canada and abroad. In reaction to such a condemnatory critique, correctional authorities in Canada have sought to 'aboriginalize' prisons. This paper addresses some of the prison's adaptation schemes to shed light on three contradictory logics of risk-based management: (1) high-risk aboriginal offenders have little access to risk-reducing programmes; (2) aboriginality undergoes an ontological mutation that occurs during the process of risk assessment; and (3) aboriginal correctional staff play a contradictory role in the (re)production of 'aboriginal risk'. To what extent, then, does the aboriginalization of prisons constitute a valuable transformation?
TL;DR: A brief state of the field of research and advocacy surrounding school-to-prison work can be found in this paper, where the authors identify four ongoing tensions within this field that are, by definition, theoretically explicitly linked to advocacy for justice.
Abstract: Placing prison abolition on the horizon for scholars committed to interrupting the flow of young people toward prisons and jails, this article offers movement analysis, frameworks and associated questions surrounding advocacy and engagement. First, I offer a brief state of the field of research and advocacy surrounding school-to-prison work. Building from this assessment, I identify four ongoing tensions within this field that is, by definition, theoretically explicitly linked to advocacy for justice. Our challenges include exceptionality, specifically our desires to center children and youth in our analysis and organizing, and concurrently how carceral practices continue to change the face of the state and require us to track how alternatives to incarceration are defined and organized. We also struggle to build sustainable and viable decarceration initiatives and to develop ways to make schools and communities safer, without augmenting a carceral state, and to address state and interpersonal violence, while integrating an intersectional analysis that includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and queer lives and feminist standpoints. Finally, I close with a push for scholars to continually evaluate professional investments, and invite readers to consider how our scholarly locations augment or constrain our ability to participate in building transformative schools and communities.
TL;DR: The findings indicate that prisoners with an intellectual disability are a group with complex histories and needs, who present considerable challenges to the correctional system and the broader forensic disability and disability service systems in their management and rehabilitation.
Abstract: This research seeks to examine both the prevalence of intellectual disability among the prison population in the State of Victoria, Australia and how prisoners with an intellectual disability diffe...
TL;DR: The authors examine the role that changes to legal policies and practice have played in the rise of mass incarceration and argue that the law and legal change in these varied forms is the engine that has driven prison growth and therefore must be addressed in explanations of this phenomenon.
Abstract: Research Summary
In this article, I have three major aims. First, I examine in detail the role that changes to legal policies and practice have played in the rise of mass incarceration. I look at four distinct aspects of legal change and argue that the law (and legal change) in these varied forms is the engine that has driven prison growth and, therefore, must be addressed in explanations of this phenomenon. This discussion leads to my second major goal, which is to move beyond national-level explanations of American mass incarceration and call for a more unified empirically based understanding that highlights the localized social, cultural, and political factors that have contributed to the imprisonment explosion. I conclude by exploring how this kind of theorization provides a road map to a more localized policy reform strategy that aims to reduce our reliance on incarceration.
TL;DR: The author empirically characterizes the increases in incarceration occurring since 1970 and assesses the degree to which these changes result from changes in policy as opposed to changes in criminal behavior.
Abstract: This article addresses the reentry challenges faced by low-skilled men released from U.S. prisons. The author empirically characterizes the increases in incarceration occurring since 1970 and assesses the degree to which these changes result from changes in policy as opposed to changes in criminal behavior. The author discusses what is known about the children of inmates and the likelihood that a child in the United States has an incarcerated parent. The article then addresses the employment barriers that former prison inmates face, with a particular emphasis on how employers view criminal records in screening job applicants. Finally, the author discusses a number of alternative models for aiding the reentry of former inmates. Transitional cash assistance, the use of reentry plans, traditional workforce development efforts, and transitional jobs for former inmates all are among the tools used across the United States. The author reviews the existing evaluation literature on the effectiveness of these prog...