NCJ Number
100743
Date Published
1986
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This study guide for the ''Crime File' videotape entitled ''Inside Prisons' reviews prison conditions, alternatives to prison, and prison reforms.
Abstract
Prisons are characterized by crowding, lack of privacy, noise, racial tension, boredom, lack of heterosexual relations, and hopelessness. They continue to be popular in sentencing because many believe they achieve deterrence and incapacitation, although these impacts are debatable. Alternatives to prison have been widely discussed, but little progress has been made in designing and administering such programs. Probation has become overloaded, and the quality of supervision and services has decreased due to funding shortages. Inmate litigation in the 1970's challenged prison conditions as cruel and unusual punishment, and some Federal courts have declared whole prison systems to be unconstitutional, e.g., the Texas prison system under Ruiz v. Estelle. The Federal Butner Correctional Center in North Carolina demonstrates that prisons for serious offenders can be operated safely and effectively. Other promising reforms are improved training for corrections personnel, more minimum-security facilities, better systems of inmate classification, the elimination of brutal punishments, improvements in inmate health care, and the increased employment of women and minorities in corrections. 6 references.