Inmate Victimization in State Prisons in the United States, 1979

1984 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan E. Schreiber
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Prisons ◽  
Inmate Victimization

Prison Education in the United States of America

2021 ◽  
pp. 1108-1118
Author(s):  
Uju C. Ukwuoma
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
Prison Population ◽  
The United States ◽  
Prison Education ◽  
Complete Evaluation ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Federal Prisons ◽  
The Us ◽  
State Prisons

The United States of America ranks third among the most populous countries in the world behind India and China. However, the US ranks first among countries with the most prison population. Recent statistics from the Office of Justice program in the US Department of Justice show that about 2.5 million people are locked up in prisons or the so-called correctional facilities across the United States. These facilities are made up of nearly 2000 state prisons scattered among the 50 states, 102 federal prisons, about 2300 and 3300 juvenile prisons and local jails respectively, including 79 Indian Country jails (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2016; Wagner & Rabuy, 2015). This chapter looks at the state of prison education in the US through the prism of racism. However, the chapter does not claim to have a complete evaluation of the situation of learning and teaching in penitentiaries in the US.

Shakers

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Nicoletta
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
New Hampshire ◽  
New York State ◽  
The United States ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Economic Success ◽  
Linear Arrangement ◽  
State Prisons

Arriving in the colony of New York in 1774 from England, Ann Lee and her eight followers set about creating a model communal society in what would become the United States. Officially known as the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, the Shakers believed in Christ’s imminent return. Their support of pacifism, near equality between the sexes that allowed women to take on leadership roles, and perfectionism set them apart from most Americans. Within a decade, they had begun creating a Kingdom of Heaven on Earth through their worship, work ethic, and construction of orderly villages with buildings and furniture meant to reinforce religious belief and shape and control behavior. From humble beginnings, the sect created a total of twenty-two communities beginning in the 1780s, spreading from Maine to Indiana and as far south as Georgia and Florida, though these latter two sites and the one in Indiana were short lived. During periods of religious revivalism in the United States in the late 18th and early19th centuries, the Shakers attracted hundreds of converts who gave up their worldly possessions to live celibate, communal lives. After a peak population of over three thousand in the1840s, the Shakers have dwindled to just three members inhabiting the only surviving living community of Sabbathday Lake, near New Gloucester, Maine. The Shakers’ demographic and economic success over several decades left a legacy of buildings at numerous locations throughout the eastern United States. Some of these villages have become museum sites, most notably Hancock, Massachusetts; Mount Lebanon, New York; Canterbury, New Hampshire; and Pleasant Hill and South Union, both in Kentucky. Other Shaker buildings remain as private residences and parts of retirement communities and state prisons. In many ways, Shaker architecture reflects contemporary regional vernacular building practices, such as the closely spaced anchor bents in the framing of the earliest meetinghouses in Connecticut, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, and eastern New York State, and the rather grand masonry structures of the dwelling houses and trustees’ offices in Kentucky. The linear arrangement of buildings, their large size, and separate entrances for men and women distinguished Shaker buildings from those of the outside world, though stylistically they appeared much like non-Shaker buildings. The Shakers organized building interiors to use space efficiently with many built-in cabinets and drawers, installed pegboards on walls for storage and to help keep floors clear for cleaning, and included separate staircases to demarcate men’s and women’s areas. The buildings, especially the meetinghouses and dwelling houses, reminded Shakers of their commitment to their faith and to their distinctive way of living and encouraged them to “put their hands to work and their hearts to God,” a saying attributed to Ann Lee. Nevertheless, the Shakers were not immune from influences from the outside world. They needed to interact with outsiders to encourage the economic success of their villages and to attract converts. As their population shrank in the latter half of the 19th century, they turned increasingly to hired help to assist with building construction and other aspects of daily life. The Shakers also embraced stylistic changes in architecture and furniture; their buildings of the late 19th and early 20th centuries reflect these influences with added ornamentation inside and out, as well as embellished furnishings either made by the Shakers or purchased from non-Shaker furniture makers. Rather than undercut any appreciation of the simple style for which the Shakers are best known, these changes show the group as always practical and responsive to changes in mainstream society.

Confronting Problems Faced by Pregnant Inmates in State Prisons

1993 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Wooldredge ◽  
Kimberly Masters
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Psychological Problems ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
Care And Support ◽  
State Prisons

Very little is known about the types of services currently available in state prisons to combat the physical and psychological problems faced by pregnant inmates. Such services are extremely important for the physical and psychological well-being of these women as well as their subsequently born children. This article presents results from a study of the prevalence and types of policies being implemented voluntarily for the care and support of pregnant inmates in state prisons throughout the United States. The implications of these results for policies designed to reduce the problems faced by pregnant inmates are also presented.

Prison Education in the United States of America

2018 ◽  
pp. 121-135
Author(s):  
Uju C. Ukwuoma
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United States Of America ◽  
Prison Population ◽  
The United States ◽  
Prison Education ◽  
Complete Evaluation ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Federal Prisons ◽  
The Us ◽  
State Prisons

The United States of America ranks third among the most populous countries in the world behind India and China. However, the US ranks first among countries with the most prison population. Recent statistics from the Office of Justice program in the US Department of Justice show that about 2.5 million people are locked up in prisons or the so-called correctional facilities across the United States. These facilities are made up of nearly 2000 state prisons scattered among the 50 states, 102 federal prisons, about 2300 and 3300 juvenile prisons and local jails respectively, including 79 Indian Country jails (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2016; Wagner & Rabuy, 2015). This chapter looks at the state of prison education in the US through the prism of racism. However, the chapter does not claim to have a complete evaluation of the situation of learning and teaching in penitentiaries in the US.

Virtual Life Sentences: An Exploratory Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 98 (3) ◽  
pp. 294-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica S. Henry ◽  
Christopher Salvatore ◽  
Bai-Eyse Pugh
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Initial Data ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Future Research ◽  
State Prisons ◽  
Natural Life ◽  
Life Sentences

Virtual life sentences are sentences with a term of years that exceed an individual’s natural life expectancy. This exploratory study is one of the first to collect data that establish the existence, prevalence, and scope of virtual life sentences in state prisons in the United States. Initial data reveal that more than 31,000 people in 26 states are serving virtual life sentences for violent and nonviolent offenses, and suggest racial disparities in the distribution of these sentences. This study also presents potential policy implications and suggestions for future research.

Conditions of Confinement in American Prisons and Jails

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Wildeman ◽  
Maria D. Fitzpatrick ◽  
Alyssa W. Goldman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Correctional Facilities ◽  
Federal Prisons ◽  
Road Map ◽  
State Prisons

Research on the consequences of incarceration for inmates and ex-inmates, their families, and their communities has proliferated in just the last 20 years. Yet little of this research has documented variation across facilities in conditions of confinement or how these variations in conditions of confinement shape the consequences of incarceration for inmates and ex-inmates, their families, and their communities. Also, the conditions of confinement that have to this point been considered represent a very incomplete portrait of the range of conditions of confinement inmates could face. In this review, we fill this gap in four ways. First, we provide a partial overview of possible variations in conditions of confinement. Second, we use data from multiple years of the Survey of Inmates in Local Jails and the Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities to provide an assessment of how much conditions of confinement vary across American jails, state prisons, and federal prisons, with an emphasis on variation within as well as between facility types. Third, we briefly review research on conditions of confinement in the United States and, as appropriate, other developed democracies. Finally, we conclude by providing a road map for future research to further enliven this research area.

Prisons and COVID-19 Spread in the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. e1-e8
Author(s):  
Kaitlyn M. Sims ◽  
Jeremy Foltz ◽  
Elisabeth Skidmore
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federal Prison ◽  
The Public ◽  
Case Count ◽  
State Prisons ◽  
County Jails ◽  
Response Policy ◽  
The Relationship

Objectives. To empirically evaluate the relationship between presence of a state or federal prison and COVID-19 case and death counts. Methods. We merged data on locations of federal and state prisons and of local and county jails with daily case and death counts in the United States. We used a selection-on-observables design to estimate the correlation between prisons and COVID-19 spread, controlling for known correlates of COVID-19. Results. We found empirical evidence that the presence and capacities of prisons are strong correlates of county-level COVID-19 case counts. The presence of a state or federal prison in a county corresponded with a 9% increase in the COVID-19 case count during the first wave of the pandemic, ending July 1, 2020. Conclusions. Our results suggest that the public health implications of these facilities extend beyond the health of employees and incarcerated individuals, and policymakers should explicitly consider the public health concerns posed by these facilities when developing pandemic-response policy. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print July 14, 2021: e1–e8. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306352 )

Race, Staff, and Punishment: Representative Bureaucracy in American State Prisons

2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (9) ◽  
pp. 1397-1424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremiah Wade-Olson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Solitary Confinement ◽  
Representative Bureaucracy ◽  
Correctional Staff ◽  
Prison Staff ◽  
State Prisons ◽  
High Level ◽  
Black Inmates ◽  
American State

A total of 1.5 million people are incarcerated in the United States’ prisons. Tens of thousands are placed in restrictive, solitary confinement units. Building on theories of representative bureaucracy, this article considers both the race of the inmates and the race of correctional staff. The article has three main findings: that minority prison staff have higher preferences for rehabilitation and lower preferences for punishment, that prisons with a high percentage of Black inmates utilize punishment at higher rates, and that representation, in the form of Black staff, helps ameliorate the high level of punishment associated with a high percentage of Black inmates.

Exploring Associations Between Interpersonal Violence and Prison Size in Spanish Prisons

2018 ◽  
Vol 65 (14) ◽  
pp. 2019-2043
Author(s):  
Francisco Caravaca-Sánchez ◽  
Nancy Wolff ◽  
Brent Teasdale
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Interpersonal Violence ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
The United States ◽  
Institutional Characteristics ◽  
Qualitative Investigation ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Male Inmates ◽  
Size Data ◽  
Inmate Victimization

The majority of research based on prisons in the United States has found a positive association between prison size and inmate victimization. This study estimates rates and identifies inmate and institutional characteristics associated with victimization in the Spanish prisons, with special attention on the prison size. Data were collected from a sample of male inmates aged 18 years or older ( n = 2,484) located in eight prisons in the southeast of Spain. Holding inmate characteristics constant, rates of victimization were significantly and substantively higher in larger prisons. Understanding the prison size–victimization association requires further qualitative investigation to identify whether size creates more spaces for victimization (structural opportunities) and/or lapses in supervision due to depersonalization or impersonalization (social distancing).

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