The Origins of LWOP in California

Chapter 1 turns to the Californian Congress where opponents of the death penalty first lobbied for LWOP before legislators. It critically examines the period during which the idea of sentencing offenders to life imprisonment with no possibility of release first emerged, starting in the early 1900s and culminating with the introduction of LWOP for capital murder in 1978 in the Californian Penal Code. What emerges from this archival research is that different experts—prison wardens, police officials, academics, spiritual leaders, and criminologists—offered LWOP as a strategic way for legislators to argue against the death penalty. This novel approach was however diverted from its progressive endeavours to serve more punitive agendas. Legislators concerned with preserving capital punishment in contexts of sensationalized crimes and early forms of populist demands drove the reforms that introduced LWOP. This historical investigation reveals that the punishment’s particular severity can serve agendas which are seemingly in tension with one another.

Administrative Leadership Mindset and Philosophical Approaches

Corrections is a multi-layered business containing all aspects of life for the employees, clients/inmates, and the general public. Therefore, the findings of the study are transferable to many types of administrators. The chapter uses a case study approach and qualitative research methods. The study findings focuses on corrections administrative leadership mindset, philosophical approaches, and practice policies.. The conceptual and theoretical approaches included effective corrections administrators are promoting the growth of social capital (e.g., social skills and relationships), human capital (employable skills), and cultural capital (e.g., community and public safety). Four state prison wardens/administrators participated in this study. Data was collected via Creswell's in-depth portrait of cases: three-part series of semi-structured interviews. Four themes emerged during data analysis. This chapter focuses on the fourth theme and the conceptual framework.

Amazing Penal Institutions and the Dwelling Circumstances of Inmates

Interestingly enough, there are many types of penal institutions all over the world. Most of them are overcrowded, and harsh, humiliating conditions and mandatory rules surround the inmates. Other prisons swim on the sea, or located in picturesque environment over the sea or in one of the Tuscan archipelagos, or located in a dukedom. The rest could represent “five star” penal institutions with all amenities, conveniences, and facilities of tennis court, horse riding or swimming in the sea. Eco prisons also exist with solar panels, bio diesel, recycling, and cultivations. Inmates may live in communities, without the supervision of prison wardens and the lack of window-grates, moreover, they move free. They buy their “own cells”, and playing children, stalls, restaurants, hairdresser’s, and even a hotel are in the vicinity of their “cells”. Other penal institutions accommodate the family members as well, which help children bound their convicted parents, and “disguise” the penal institution in order not to face real prison conditions. Even in the middle of the desert, in military tents inmates are located, and dressed in pink clothes to avoid T-shirt theft. Others are locked in a stone desert or far away in Siberia. Whereas one penal institution can locate only two convicts, others may accommodate ten thousand ones. There is a wide spectrum, which can range from the most lenient penal institutions, to the strictest ones.

The Impact of Job Expectations, Workload, and Autonomy on Work-Related Stress Among Prison Wardens in the United States

Prison wardens manage both external pressures and internal challenges that affect work-related stress. Using data from a national survey of prison wardens, we examined the impact of conflicting job expectations, workload, and job autonomy on work-related stress among prison wardens. The ordered logistic regression results showed a significant and positive relationship between conflicting job expectations and work-related stress. The results also showed a significant and positive relationship between unmanageable workloads and stress on the job. We found a negative and significant relationship between job autonomy and work-related stress, though the relationship was relatively weak. The importance of this study lies in its ability to help isolate factors that affect job stress among prison wardens, which in turn may produce better organizational support, management, and human resources policy to improve conditions for prison wardens, staff, and inmates.

A Warden or a Ballerina: Examining the Relationship between Gender Socialization, and Occupational Choice among Prison Wardens and Superintendents

This study explores the career experiences of women who hold leadership positions within the field of corrections as Wardens and Superintendents. Specifically the research seeks to examine the personal biographies of these women in an effort to document life experiences shaping their occupational choices. Twenty nine interviews were conducted with wardens and superintendents from 13 states. Subjects were questioned about family, education, perceptions of occupational choice, and career aspirations. Generational differences exist between female wardens in relation to boarder social trends in gender and occupation. The more support women receive from parents and family to pursue education and careers, the more likely they were to have clearly established goals toward that end. The more educational and career opportunities women perceive and being available, the more likely they will pursue those goals. The role of women in the field of corrections has changed dramatically over the past fifty years and women working in corrections are redefining femininity in a masculine organizational culture.

Job Satisfaction and Work-Related Stress

The job of prison warden encompasses numerous external pressures and internal challenges, along with commensurately high performance expectations, the cumulative impact of which may be reflected in the job satisfaction and work-related stress of incumbents. Using data gathered from a national survey of prison wardens, we examine the impact of work-related stress, depersonalization, and the authority to carry out responsibilities on job satisfaction levels of prison wardens across the nation.

Confounding borders and walls: documents, letters and the governance of relationships in São Paulo and Barcelona prisons

Spanish women arrested in São Paulo, and Brazilian women arrested in Barcelona, often carry letters and documents in folders, plastic bags and envelopes, well protected in pockets, purses or knapsacks. The papers tell of events in the lives of these women, and provide clues and legibility to relationships maintained with people and places outside prison. In this paper, I analyze how letters and documents are products of family and transnational relationships that they can also produce. The paper looks at how they are used as evidence of families and loving relationships that each day are evaluated, and recognized or rejected, by public safety authorities, prison wardens, prosecutors, public defenders, consulates and immigration police. The letters and documents tell stories that are used to substantiate the deportation or immigration of Spanish women imprisoned in São Paulo and Brazilian women imprisoned in Barcelona.