NCJ Number
106891
Date Published
1985
Length
173 pages
Annotation
This analysis uses the case study approach to examine the influences of interest groups and political activities on the decisionmaking process related to correctional policy in New York State during the 1959-1973 administration of Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller and up to 1984.
Abstract
The activities of the correctional bureaucracy, religious and social reformers, business and labor interests, and prison inmates themselves are examined to assess their effectiveness in achieving their goals. Data came from participant observations, interviews, and a review of official documents and publications. From 1959 until the mid-1960's, correctional administrators had virtual autonomy. State government branches did not interfere with this autonomy. The press and the public were almost completely excluded from contact with inmates. In the late 1960's, civil liberties groups, those demanding stricter law enforcement, and other interest groups widened the correctional arena, although the bureaucracy retained much of its previous power. The demands of some of the other groups actually benefited the correctional bureaucracy. However, study commissions such as the Governor's Special Committee on Criminal Offenders introduced the views of groups with interests different from those of corrections officials. Increasing pressure for social change and court decisions in the 1970's further widened the sources of influence. Prison inmates benefited from these efforts in that their conditions improved. However, their gains were merely symbolic or token, whereas those with established political power gained from tangible allocations of resources. Chapter notes, discussions of theoretical implications of the study's results, index, appended tables, and 148 references.