NCJ Number
73436
Date Published
1976
Length
21 pages
Annotation
Results are reported from the Vinter inmate questionnaire survey conducted at the Chicago Men's Correctional Center (MCC) in July, 1976, and comparison is made with a similar survey conducted in June 1975 involving Federal inmates housed at the Cook County Jail in Illinois.
Abstract
A total of 116 usable Vinter inmate questionnaires were received (less than a 57 percent response rate), so results should be cautiously interpreted. Results of the survey suggest that compared to the previous arrangement of housing Federal offenders at the Cook County Jail, the use of the MCC to house such offenders has resulted in a substantially improved physical environment for offenders and a positive increase in the amount and nature of contact between inmates and key staff. Changes are less evident in the programs offered, although shifts occurred in inmates' ratings of school, counseling, and recreation from negative to neutral and, to a lesser extent, positive ratings. MCC residents were far more likely to feel they had been treated justly than were the jail respondents. An anomalous finding was that MCC respondents consider themselves less in need of staff help and less likely to have a chance to 'make good' than was true at the jail. There is no ready explanation for this finding. Tabular data are provided. (Author abstract modified)