NCJ Number
152363
Journal
American Jails Dated: (September/October 1992) Pages: 14-23
Date Published
1992
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This study examined inmate rule violators in traditional and podular/direct supervision jails for two 6-month intervals within one county jail system.
Abstract
Particularly, this study examined two groups of inmate rule violators for a local correctional department that moved from a traditional linear jail to a podular/direct supervision facility. Only official rule violations are examined, given the lack of consistent or readily available information about informal processing. Two samples of all formal incident reports were taken. The findings show that for the traditional jail, a full range of inmate rule violations and responses are evident. The inmate rule violations and the official responses were, more or less, equally balanced for major, minor, and informational incidents; however, in the podular facility the majority of rule violations that were formally processed were major rule violations. In addition, the percentage reduction in the number of rule violations that were processed formally across the two jails was 36 percent. This analysis also shows a reduction in every type of inmate rule violation except threats, property theft, and inmate order problems. In addition, the study also shows that correctional officers were less likely to give warnings or reduce privileges for those incidents they believed important enough to write up formally. This study shows that correctional officers in the podular/direct supervision jail are writing up only the most serious rule violations. The study also concludes that presumptions about increased safety and reduced inmate problems in the podular/direct supervision facilities may be premature for some types of inmate behaviors. 8 references and 5 tables