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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.


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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors estimate the "incapacitation effect" on crime using variation in Italian prison population driven by eight collective pardons passed between 1962 and 1995 and show that the elasticity of total crime with respect to incapacitation is between -20 and -35 percent.
Abstract: We estimate the "incapacitation effect" on crime using variation in Italian prison population driven by eight collective pardons passed between 1962 and 1995. The prison releases are sudden – within one day –, very large – up to 35 percent of the entire prison population – and happen nationwide. Exploiting this quasi-natural experiment we break the simultaneity of crime and prisoners as in Levitt (1996) and, in addition, use the national character of the pardons to separately identify incapacitation from changes in deterrence. The elasticity of total crime with respect to incapacitation is between -20 and -35 percent. A cost-benefit analysis suggests that Italy's prison population is below its optimal level.

113 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify and analyze the political and economic functions of the state penal systems in the southern United States after the American Civil War, and identify the convict lease system as a mechanism of race control used to prevent ex slaves from obtaining the status and rights enjoyed by wage workers.
Abstract: This paper identifies and analyzes the political and economic functions of the state penal systems in the southern United States after the Civil War. The system of prison administration, discipline, and labor which emerged after 1865—known as the convict lease system—was a functional replacement for slavery. Like the Black Codes, vagrancy laws, and sharecropping arrangements, the convict lease system was a mechanism of race control used to prevent ex-slaves from obtaining the status and rights enjoyed by wage workers. The organization and philosophy of crime control both before and after the Civil War reflected the fact that both slaves and ex-slaves were problem populations. As such, they were a threat to the existing system of class rule but also a useful resource—economically as a pool of cheap labor for southern industrialization, and politically or symbolically as a means to consolidate white supremacy.

113 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a meta-analysis was conducted of 33 cost-effectiveness evaluations of private and public prisons from 24 independent studies, and the results revealed that private prisons were no more cost-effective than public prisons, and that other institutional characteristics such as the facility's economy of scale, age, and security level were the strongest predictors of a prison's daily per diem cost.
Abstract: The need to reduce the costs of incarceration to state and federal correctional agencies has allowed the movement to privatize correctional institutions to gain considerable momentum. The empirical evidence regarding whether private prisons are more costeffective than public institutions, however, is inconclusive. To address this question, a meta-analysis was conducted of 33 cost-effectiveness evaluations of private and public prisons from 24 independent studies. The results revealed that private prisons were no more cost-effective than public prisons, and that other institutional characteristics—such as the facility's economy of scale, age, and security level—were the strongest predictors of a prison's daily per diem cost.

113 citations

Book
01 Jan 2002
TL;DR: In this paper, the impact of the media on prisoners' identities and power relations in the context of prisons is explored, focusing on the role of media in everyday life, power relations between prisoners and other prisoners, and in helping prisoners 'get through' a sentence.
Abstract: This book is concerned with the media's role in everyday life, power relations and the construction of masculine identities in the context of prisons. It is based upon unique research into the nature, impact and consequences of a situation where most prisoners in English prisons have access to some media resource, whether radio or television, or with communal or individual access to it. Captive Audience charts for the first time the way in which prisons use media in coping -- or failing to cope -- with the pressures of prison life, exploring the impact of the media in terms of prisoner' identities, shaping power relations between prisoners and other prisoners, and in helping prisoners 'get through' a prison sentence. At the same time this book raises a range of broader issues of theory and practice on the nature of the relationship between prisons, criminal justice systems and society more generally, and on the ways in which the media are conceived in everyday life. It will be of interest to all those concerned with prisons, criminology and the criminal justice system, the social role of the media, and the construction of identity.

113 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Harold G. Koenig1
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the religious characteristics and background of inmates age 50 or over confined to a federal correctional institution and found that religious background, belief, activities, experience and intrinsic religiosity are important factors to the adjustment and behavior of older prisoners.
Abstract: The objective of the study was to examine the religious characteristics and background of inmates age 50 or over confined to a federal correctional institution. Ninety-six of 106 eligible inmates (91%) consented and received complete evaluations. Forensic, demographic and health data were collected on all inmates, including detailed information on religious affiliation, background, belief, public and private activities, experience, intrinsic religiosity and religious coping. Over 80% of inmates were currently affiliated with a denomination different from the one in which they were raised, with a net movement from conservative Protestant to mainline traditions. Contrary to expectation, religious characteristics of older inmates were not greatly different from those of non-incarcerated older adults. There was weak support for a relationship between religiousness and positive forensic factors (first prison term, fewer disciplinary actions). Religion was reported by 32% of inmates to be the most important factor that enabled them to cope. Inmates' intrinsic religiosity and perceived importance of religion to their primary caretaker (person who raised them) were both inversely related to depressive symptoms. This study suggests that religious background, belief, activities, experience and intrinsic religiosity are important factors to the adjustment and behavior of older prisoners.

112 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
20242
20231,347
20222,993
20211,071
20201,271
20191,247