CHAPTER 12
INCARCERATION AND PRISON SOCIETY

Course Outline

I. Introduction: The modern prison • Maximum security prisons prior to the 1950s was a massive wall institution • In the South the massive wall were less common as prisoners worked outside on large farms • The 1960s saw a move toward rehabilitation and “correctional institutions” • Since the 1970s minority representation has increased and gangs have raised the level of violence in prisons
II. Goals of incarceration A. Three models of incarceration have predominated since the early 1940s 1. Custodial model • Emphasizes security, discipline, and order 2. Rehabilitation model • Developed during 1950s and emphasizes treatment programs to reform the offender 3. Reintegration model • Emphasizes maintaining the offender’s ties to family and community as a method of reform
II. Prison organization A. Prison managers have some unique characteristics: • They cannot select their clients • Have no control over release of clients who are there against their will • Must rely on unpaid clients to do most of the daily work • Prison maintenance depends on satisfactory relationship between clients and staff • Custodial staff in the prison are the most numerous • Organized along military lines • Structured pay differentials according to rank • Professional personnel such as teachers, clinicians, industry supervisors B. Rewards and punishments • Used to gain cooperation by officers • The greater the reward, such as work release, the greater the incentive to obey C. Gain cooperation through exchange relationships • Officers may tolerate minor rule violations in exchange for compliance with major aspects of the custodial regime • Officers must find a balance and take care not to pay too high a price for cooperation from prisoners D. Inmate leadership • In large prisons with high prisoner to staff ratios, custodial staff may use trusted prisoners to serve as an essential link in communications
III. Correctional officers: The linchpin of management A. Officer’s role • Officers are expected to counsel, supervise and protect inmates while keeping an impersonal relationship B. Recruitment of officers • Salaries vary considerably between states and jurisdictions • Thirty percent of correctional officers are minorities and 23 percent are women • Formal officer basic training varies greatly between states C. Use of force • Five situations in which the use of force is legally acceptable: 1. Self-defense 2. Defense of third persons 3. Upholding prison rules 4. Prevention of a crime 5. Prevention of escape
IV. Who is in prison? A. Elderly prisoners • In the past decade populations of inmates over the age of 55 increased sharply • Elderly prisoners have medical and security needs that differ from average inmates B. Prisoners with HIV/AIDS • The true percentage of infected inmates is not known • AIDS is the third largest single cause of inmate deaths C. Mentally ill prisoners • More mentally ill live in prisons than in state hospitals • Incarceration rate of mentally ill is four times that of general population D. Long-term prisoners • Of all inmates, 10 percent are serving life without parole
V. The convict world • Prisoners form society with its own traditions, norms, and leadership structure • Inmate code is the value and norms of the inmates’ social system A. Adaptive roles • Most male inmates use one