Mainstream and Crosscurrents, Second Edition Chapter 12 Contemporary Prison Life

Mainstream and Crosscurrents, Second Edition

Chapter 12Chapter 12

Contemporary Prison LifeContemporary Prison Life

Criminal Justice: Mainstream and Crosscurrents, 2/eJohn Randolph Fuller

© 2010 Pearson Higher Education,Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. • All Rights Reserved.2

Prison life

The prison is a total institution, in which everything is tightly controlled and structured.



Prison life



Prison life

Sykes' five pains of imprisonment …

Deprivation of liberty Deprivation of goods and

services Deprivation of heterosexual

relationships Deprivation of autonomy Deprivation of security



Prison life

Inmate subculture Prison gangs Supermax prisons Prison riots and violence



Prison life

argot roles–Specific patterns of behavior that inmates develop in prison to adjust to the environment.



Prison life

Inmate subculture

Rats and center men

Gorillas and merchants

Wolves, punks, and fags

Ball-busters and real men

Toughs and hipsters



Prison life

Prison gangs

Mexican Mafia

La Nuestra Familia

Black Guerrilla Family

Aryan Brotherhood



Prison life

Supermax prisons

The modern supermax prison is based on the federal penitentiary at Marion, Illinois which the Bureau of Prisons opened in 1969.

Marion became the first standalone supermax prison in the United States in 1983.



Prison life

Supermax prisons

Pelican Bay recalls the separate-and-silent systems in the first prisons in Pennsylvania and Auburn, NY.



CrossCurrents Prison life

What’s wrong with supermax prisons?

The effects of incarceration are severe.

Supermax prisons are expensive and labor-intensive.



Prison life

Prison riots and violence

On rare occasions, the inmate's frustrations are shared by others, and the institution’s authority is seriously challenged.



Attica prison riot

New Mexico State Penitentiary riot

Prison life

Prison riots and violence



Landmark experiment

Was the experiment ethical?

Shed light on human behavior

CrossCurrents Prison life

Stanford prison experiment



Working in the prison

The most prevalent job in the prison is the correctional officer or guard.

Lombardo's seven variations of correctional officer job assignments are…




Block officers Work-detail supervisors Industrial shop and school officers Yard officers Administrative building assignments Wall posts Relief officers




Correctional guard functions …

Human services

Order maintenance

Security

Supervision



Courts and the prison

Some opinions...

Inmates are protected by the Constitution.

Inmate legal rights are not totally restricted.

The rights lost by inmates should be only those consistent with confinement and maintaining institutional safety.




Before the 1960s, the courts cultivated a hands-off doctrine toward inmates' rights.

Cooper v. Pate (1964) began a new era in prison litigation.




Eighth Amendment Fourteenth Amendment: due process Fourteenth Amendment: equal protection



CrossCurrents Courts and the prison

Incarceration and the Mentally Ill

As of 2005, more than half of all prison and jail inmates reported a mental health problem.

Many communities lack the resources or the organization to treat the mentally ill.




Eighth Amendment

"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted."




Fourteenth Amendment

"No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."




Fourteenth Amendment: Due Process

The courts determined in Wolff v. McDonnell (1974) that inmates are allowed some due process.




Fourteenth Amendment: Equal Protection

The Fourteenth Amendment addresses racial and gender-based

discrimination in the prison.

Discrimination prohibited in society is also prohibited in correctional institutions.




Fourteenth Amendment: Equal Protection

Constitutional expectations of privacy are only partially available to inmates.

The inmate's body is a point of contention.



Private prisons

Interest in privatizing prisons began around the mid-1970s, and the first modern private prisons opened in the early 1980s.

With growing inmate populations, many believe that private firms

can handle inmates more inexpensively and efficiently.



Private prisons

The Increasing Imprisonment Rate



Private prisons

Arguments for private prisons

Money: Private organizations can run prisons more cheaply.

Better employee control: More control over hiring and firing

Flexibility and accountability



Private prisons

Arguments against private prisons

Money: Profit is more important than inmates.

Better employee control: Staff have less incentive to do a good job.

Control: Private prisons may refuse difficult offenders.



Private prisons

State and local facilities still take in most inmates. As of 2006, 2.26 million inmates were in state and federal prisons and local jails, an incarceration rate of 751 inmates per 100,000 US residents.



QuestionsQuestions

What difficulties do prison staff and officials face in dealing with prison gangs?

How are supermax prisons successful? In what areas do they fall short?

To which constitutional amendments did inmates turn to draw the courts’ attention?

Documents

Mainstream and Crosscurrents, Second Edition Chapter 12 Contemporary Prison Life