NCJ Number
209420
Date Published
2004
Length
240 pages
Annotation
This book provides a comprehensive analysis of public versus private management of prisons and an exposé of prison performance.
Abstract
Intended as a valuable resource for public administrators and policy analysts, criminal justice professionals, and corrections managers, this book is designed to better inform penal policy and improve prison performance and accountability. The book is divided into 12 chapters, and begins by reviewing the conceptual and theoretical basis for evaluating prison performance. Then, focus is placed on the methods and indicators used by analysts in search of prison performance measurement and a review of several approaches in measuring and comparing prisons, such as prison audits, qualitative approaches to understanding the context, behavioral prison performance indictors, survey instruments that measure the attitudes of inmates and staff, and cost measures. Chapter 7 continues with a discussion on the relationship between cost and performance and the role of prison labor, as well as how to relate cost and quality. Chapter 8 discusses comparisons across systems or jurisdictions. In chapter 9, the issue of measuring prison performance with recidivism is revisited and framing the issue in a larger context based upon the life course of criminality literature. Chapter 10 provides a template for the measurement of prison performance. Nearing the end, chapter 11 discusses some of the unintended consequence of prison performance. Chapter 12 summarizes the essential themes and provides future directions for the next generation of prison performance research. Appendix and references