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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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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A significant level of need for specialist mental health services in prison is identified and the need for specific treatments for substance misuse and improved assessment/treatment of common psychiatric disorders is identified.

84 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the role of group climate in establishing and maintaining treatment effects was examined with a sample of 49 adolescents residing in a Dutch youth prison, with an open group climate, with group workers paying more attention to the psychological needs of the adolescents and giving them "space" to experiment, led to inmates feeling that they were "being understood by the group workers".
Abstract: The Dutch juvenile justice system locks up an increasing number of adolescent boys and girls at a cost of approximately €250,000 for each inmate annually (Boone & Moerings, 2007; Tonry, 2005). Questions have been raised, however, about the cost‐effectiveness of treatment in closed institutions. This study, with a sample of 49 adolescents residing in a Dutch youth prison, examined the role of group climate in establishing and maintaining treatment effects. Results show that an open group climate, with group workers paying more attention to the psychological needs of the adolescents and giving them ‘space’ to experiment, led to inmates feeling that they were ‘being understood by the group workers’. This perception of being understood was associated with greater treatment motivation and higher internal locus of control. Positive prison workers in the living group turned out to be a key factor in building an open group climate and subsequently higher internal locus of control and greater treatment motivation.

83 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Jared M. Hanneman1
TL;DR: The Social Order of the Underworld: How Prison Gangs Govern the American Penal System as mentioned in this paper explores the inner workings of prison gangs and sheds light on the origins and functions of gangs in the U.S. prison system and illustrates the significant role that gangs play in the prison system.
Abstract: From the first chapter of The Social Order of the Underworld: How Prison Gangs Govern the American Penal System, readers are drawn into David Skarbek’s exploration of the mystery-shrouded inner workings of prison gangs. Skarbek sheds light on the origins and functions of gangs in the U.S. prison system and illustrates the significant role that gangs play in the prison system, explaining that, far from being pale, less-potent shades of their non-incarcerated counterparts, gangs behind bars often have even greater influence. In Skarbek’s words, ‘‘the primary focus of this book is to understand how criminal institutions form, function, and evolve and to determine their effectiveness and robustness’’ (p. 8). Skarbek analyzes prison gang formation through a rational choice theoretical lens, with gangs as the pinnacle of extralegal governance organizations that criminals create, however unconsciously, in order to meet their needs. In his examination, he either critiques or avoids the two traditional theoretical perspectives underlying prison life, namely deprivation theory, in which it is the structural conditions of the prison itself as opposed to the specific characteristics of the inmates that determine prisoner misconduct, and importation theory, in which prison life may be organized through the pre-existing mechanisms of socialization that prisoners carry with themselves in their incarceration. There are two important ways in which Skarbek diverges from the usual theoretical underpinnings. The first is that he discusses norms as emergent in society, rather than pre-existing as eternal, immutable social laws. Norms are fluid and are created as a means to an end through the coordination of social actors. The second divergence is his position that prison gangs are created in order to foster a measure of extralegal governance, a demand that arises when prison institutions and administrators fail to provide adequately for the needs of inmates. A great number of scholastic examinations of gangs and their formation and functions exist, but most focus on street gangs rather than prison gangs. While many of these gangs share the same names and the same rules, leadership, and activities, the reasons for their inception and reproduction can be different. Prison gangs have been described as the final frontier of gang research (Fleisher and Decker 2001). Much excellent research studying prison social order exists (Trammell 2011, Kuttschnitt and Gartner 2008, Crewe 2009, Fleisher and Kreinert 2009, and Dolovich 2012), but no such work has yet addressed the role of extralegal governance in prison gang formation. Prison gang research may be the final frontier, but it’s not from lack of pioneer interest. The rise in popular media portrayals of prison life depicted in such programs as ‘‘Oz,’’ ‘‘Prison Break,’’ and, most recently, ‘‘Orange is the New Black’’ serves as a sign that interest in prisons is high but that the usual limiting factor is access. Prison gangs operate behind tall walls that cast long shadows. Researchers (Trulson, Marquert, and Kawucha 2006) lament that ‘‘data on gangaffiliated inmates remain some of the most elusive figures in corrections’’ (p. 10). Obstacles to qualitative data include the prison gangs’ codes of silence, potential loss of a prisoner’s privileges if gang affiliation becomes known, the fact that respondents’ claims may be exaggerated or false, and the fact that field studies are, by any measure of practicality, impossible. In an effort to clear these very high hurdles, Skarbek utilizes a dizzyingly wide range of data sources, the synthesis of which, he writes, ‘‘provides an accurate and convincing picture of the criminal underworld’’ (p. 12). He underpins his arguments with data drawn from academic research, over 150 years of California inmate population records, state prison histories, legal documents detailing California street and prison gangs, FBI declassified files, personal memoirs and biographies of former law enforcement officials who investigated prison gangs in California, 352 Reviews

83 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The principle of equivalence is cost-effective in general, but has to be overstepped to ensure the humane management of certain special cases.
Abstract: The principle of "equivalence of care" in prison medicine is a principle by which prison health services are obliged to provide prisoners with care of a quality equivalent to that provided for the general public in the same country. It is cited in numerous national and international directives and recommendations. The principle of equivalence is extremely relevant from the point of view of normative ethics but requires adaptation from the point of view of applied ethics. From a clinical point of view, the principle of equivalence is often insufficient to take account of the adaptations necessary for the organization of care in a correctional setting. The principle of equivalence is cost-effective in general, but has to be overstepped to ensure the humane management of certain special cases.

83 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examined how race, gender, and age interact to affect defendants' sentences using a trichotomized dependent variable and found that the racial and gender disparity found in sentencing decisions was largely due to Black men's increased likelihood of receiving jail as opposed to probation.
Abstract: This study examined how race, gender, and age interact to affect defendants’ sentences using a trichotomized dependent variable. The findings indicate that the racial and gender disparity found in sentencing decisions was largely due to Black men’s increased likelihood of receiving jail as opposed to probation. The results also show that being young resulted in increased odds of receiving probation over jail for White men and for women but resulted in decreased odds for Black men. Separate analysis of incarceration terms to jail and prison further reveal that legal factors had a greater impact on prison than on jail sentence length. Overall, the results strongly support the argument that sentencing research needs to consider sentences to jail and prison separately.

83 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