Chapter 7

1. Chapter 7 Prisons Today: Change Stations or Warehouses?

2. History of Prisons in America • Penitentiary – The earliest form of large-scale incarceration; punished criminals by isolating them so they could reflect on their misdeeds, repent and reform • Created by the Pennsylvania Quakers • The Pennsylvania system – The first historical phase of prison discipline; it involved solitary confinement in silence instead of corporal punishment • Conceived by the American Quakers in 1790 and implemented at the Walnut Street Jail

3. History of Prisons in America - Continued • The Auburn system - The second historical phase of prison discipline; it followed the Pennsylvania system and allowed inmates to work silently together during the day while being isolated at night • Implemented at New York’s Auburn prison in 1815, where, eventually, sleeping cells became congregate and restrictions against talking were removed

4. Stages of Development • Penitentiary Era (1790-1825) • Mass Prison Era (1825-1876) • Prison is a place for punishment • Reformatory Era (1876-1890) • Focus on education • Industrial Era (1890-1935) • Inmates worked in prison industries

5. Industrial Era • Public accounts system – the warden purchased materials and equipment and oversaw the manufacture, marketing, and sale of prison-made items • Contract system – the prison advertised for bids for the employment of prisoners, whose labor was sold to the highest bidder • Convict lease system – a prison temporarily relinquished supervision of its prisoners to a lessee, who either employed the prisoners within the institution or transported them to work elsewhere in the state

6. Industrial Era - Continued • State use system – prisoners manufactured products consumed by state governments and their agencies, departments, and institutions • Public works system – prisoners were employed in the construction of public buildings, roads, and parks

7. Prison Industries Legislation • Hawes-Cooper Act (1929) – banned the interstate shipment of prison-made goods • Ashurst-Sumners Act (1925) – prohibited carriers from accepting prison-made goods for transportation • Also mandated the labeling of prison-made goods • Sumners-Ashurst Act (1940) – forbids the interstate transportation of prison-made goods for private use

8. Stages of Development – Continued • Punitive Era (1935-1945) • Emphasized strict punishment and custody • Alcatraz • Treatment Era (1945-1967) • Medical model - A philosophy of prisoner reform in which criminal behavior is regarded as a disease to be treated with appropriate therapy

9. Stages of Development – Continued • Community-Based Era (1967-1980) • Zebulon Brockway opened the Detroit House of Corrections in 1861 for released women • Offenders can be rehabilitated by using community resources • Warehousing Era (1980-1995) • Indeterminate sentencing is replaced by determinate sentencing • Incapacitation • Just-Deserts Era (1995-present) • Focus on punishment

10. Prison Population • On January 1, 2008 there were 1,598,316 adults under the jurisdiction of state and federal prison authorities • The nation’s prison population grew 1.8% between January 1, 2007 and January 1, 2008 • The average annual growth since 2000 is 2.0% • The rate of incarceration on January 1, 2008 was 506 sentenced inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents

11. Inmates By Sex • Women represent the fastest growing population in correctional facilities • Over the past decade, the number of women in prison has grown from 68,468 to 114,420 • This represents an increase of 67% • The rate of incarceration for women was 69 per 100,000 women, compared with 955 per 100,000 for men • The majority of women in prison are from a racial minority, young, poor, uneducated, and have a history of past physical or sexual abuse

12. Inmates By Race • Minorities comprise about 20 percent of the U.S. population, but make up 65 percent of all incarcerated offenders • Overall by race, 41% of the U.S. prison population is Black, 37% is White, and 20% is Hispanic

13. Additional Factors • The nation’s prison population is aging • On January 1, 2008, 53% of state prisoners were held for violent offenses • Among federal inmates, 53% of inmates were sentenced for drug offenses

14. Classification • The process of subdividing the prisoner population into meaningful categories to match offender needs with correctional resources • External classification - Interinstitutional placement of an inmate that determines an inmate’s security level • Internal classification - Intrainstitutional placement that determines, through review of an inmate’s background, assignment to housing units or cellblocks, work, and programming based on the inmate’s risk, needs, and time to serve

15. AIMS Personality Checklist • Alpha I and Alpha II inmates – most likely to be a threat to the safety and security of the facility • Predators • Sigma I and Sigma II inmates – unlikely to be assaultive, but pose other management problems such as disregarding direct orders and disrupting the orderly operation of the institution • High risk of being victimized • Kappa inmates – least likely to present management problems

16. Advantages Of Classification • Separating inmates by risk level and program needs puts extremely aggressive inmates in high security • Minimizes misclassification, thus promoting a safe environment for inmates and staff • More accurately places inmates and more effectively deploys staff • Enhances prison security by reducing tension in prison

17. Unit Management and Faith-Based Honor Dorms and Prison • Unit Management System: A method of controlling prisoners in self-contained living areas and making inmates and staff accessible to each other • Faith-based initiatives range from prisons and jails offering religious services, one or more housing units within a prison that are faith-based, entire prisons built around the faith-based concept, to faith-based parole and reentry initiatives

18. Work Assignments • Meaningful work programs are the most powerful tool prison administrators have for managing crowding and idleness, two factors which can lead to disorder and violence. • Three types: • Operational assignments within the institution • Community projects • Prison industry

19. Justifications For Prison Industries • It generates a safer prison management and better prison discipline through the reduction of idleness • It is cost-efficient • It contributes to job training and rehabilitation • It increases an inmate’s financial responsibility

20. Federal Prison Industries • Established in 1934 • Meaningfully employs inmates • Provides job skills training • Operates under the trade name UNICOR • Starting pay: 23¢ per hour • Maximum pay: $1.15 per hour • Inmates require high school diploma or GED to earn maximum wage rate • Statistically, parolees with UNICOR background are 24% likelier to succeed outside of prison

21. Education Programs • A significant number of prisoners cannot read or write well enough to function in society • An estimated 40% of state prison inmates, 27% of federal inmates, 47% of inmates in local jails, and 31% of probationers have not completed high school or a GED • CEA’s Three-State Recidivism Study compared 1,373 participants and 1,797 nonparticipants and found an overall significant correlation between participation in education and lower rates of recidivism

22. Health Care • Estelle v. Gamble – deliberate indifference to serious medical needs constitutes cruel and unusual punishment • Did not mandate unqualified access to health care

23. Principle of Least Eligibility • The requirement that prison conditions—including the delivery of health care—must be a step below those of the working class and people on welfare • This was held constitutional

24. Prison Organization • All 50 states and the Bureau of Prisons operate prisons • So do four local jurisdictions in the U.S.: • Cook County (Chicago) • Philadelphia • New York City • Washington, D.C. • Institutional managers use either rated, operational, or design capacity data to set population accommodation limits

25. Capacity • Rated Capacity - The number of beds or inmates a rating official assigns to an institution • Operational Capacity - The number of inmates that a facility’s staff, existing programs, and services can accommodate • Design Capacity - The number of inmates that planners or architects intend for the facility

26. Operation Costs • On average, states spend $22,650 a year to incarcerate one offender. • Maine has the highest reported annual operating cost per inmate, whereas Alabama has the lowest. • Differences in the cost of living, variation in employees salaries, climate, and inmate to staff ratios are the reasons for the variation among the states. • More than 40 states have passed legislation that allows their jails to charge fees.

27. Security Levels • Maximum – or close/high security prison - A prison designed, organized, and staffed to confine the most dangerous offenders for long periods • It has a highly secure perimeter, barred cells, and a high staff-to-inmate ratio • It imposes strict controls on the movement of inmates and visitors, and it offers few programs, amenities, and privileges

28. Security Levels - Continued • Medium security prison - A prison that confines offenders considered less dangerous than those in maximum security, for both short and long periods • It places fewer controls on inmates’ and visitors’ freedom of movement than does a maximum-security facility • Has barred cells and a fortified perimeter • The staff-to-inmate ratio is generally lower than in a maximum-security facility, and the level of amenities and privileges is slightly higher

29. Security Levels - Continued • Minimum security prison - A prison that confines the least dangerous offenders for both short and long periods • It allows as much freedom of movement and as many privileges and amenities as are consistent with the goals of the facility • It may have dormitory housing, and the staff-to-inmate ratio is relatively low • Open institution - A minimum-security facility that has no fences or walls surrounding it

30. Federal Bureau Of Prisons • Established in 1930 with 13,000 inmates • Operates 106 confinement and community-based correctional institutions • Employs more than 35,000 people • The BOP budget for 2007 was $5 billion • Institutional security classifications include: • Minimum-security federal prison camps • Low-security federal correctional institutions • Medium-security federal correctional institutions • High-security U.S. penitentiaries • Administrative institutions

31. Does Incarceration Work? • There is no strong or consistent relationship between the incarceration rate and the crime rate. • A study on inmates released in 1994 found that 68 percent were rearrested within three years. More than two-thirds of the recidivism occurred within the first year after incarceration.