Prison

About: Prison is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 25120 publications have been published within this topic receiving 470474 citations. The topic is also known as: jail & gaol.

Offender Types and Public Policy

Abstract: Analysis of self-report and official record data obtained from nearly 2200 male prison and jail inmates in California, Michigan, and Texas shows that offenders can be usefully classified according to the combinations of crimes they commit. The most serious inmates, those who concurrently commit robbery, assault, and drug dealing, disproportiontely commit these defining crimes at high rates. They often commit burglaries, thefts, and other crimes at high rates too—frequently at higher rates than other types of criminals, including those who specialize in those crimes. Unfortunately, information currently available from such sources as official arrest and conviction records do not permit criminal justice officials to distinguish meaningfully between these high-rate, serious offenders and other types. Low-rate offenders can be more accurately identified using potentially available information on key characteristics: multiple drug use, unstable employment, juvenile use of hard drugs, and violence before the ag...

Distinctions and distinctiveness in the work of prison officers: Legitimacy and authority revisited

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.

Revisiting the Stanford Prison Experiment: Could Participant Self-Selection Have Led to the Cruelty?:

Abstract: The authors investigated whether students who selectively volunteer for a study of prison life possess dispositions associated with behaving abusively. Students were recruited for a psychological study of prison life using a virtually identical newspaper ad as used in the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE; Haney, Banks & Zimbardo, 1973) or for a psychological study, an identical ad minus the words of prison life. Volunteers for the prison study scored significantly higher on measures of the abuse-related dispositions of aggressiveness, authoritarianism, Machiavellianism, narcissism, and social dominance and lower on empathy and altruism, two qualities inversely related to aggressive abuse. Although implications for the SPE remain a matter of conjecture, an interpretation in terms of person-situation interactionism rather than a strict situationist account is indicated by these findings. Implications for interpreting the abusiveness of American military guards at Abu Ghraib Prison also 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.