NCJ Number
168698
Date Published
1997
Length
262 pages
Annotation
This book examines the current state of prisons in the United States and discusses prison reform, inmate rehabilitation, work with mentally ill inmates, countering prison violence, and research and reform in corrections.
Abstract
Four chapters focus on the current state of prisons. The trend toward the punitive rather than the rehabilitative functions of prisons is noted, and support is provided for the use of functional units. This involves dividing a prison into enclaves of inmates and staff members. Each group of inmates would have its own staff team, and inmates would stay with their units and be individually programmed. Six chapters address prison reform. After discussing a revisionist view of prison reform, reform suggestions focus on rewarding convicted offenders, enhancing the quality of survival in prisons, democratizing prisons, and inmate involvement in prison governance. Five chapters on inmate rehabilitation discuss general concepts of correctional rehabilitation, mental health services, educational services, inmate classification, and how to deal with long-term and elderly inmates. Five chapters discuss ways of working with mentally ill inmates, and five chapters analyze the factors in prison violence and how to foster a social climate that can mitigate inmate violence. The concluding three chapters discuss prison research and prison reform, the convict as researcher, and the impermanence of planned change in corrections. 269 references and a subject index