NCJ Number
78545
Journal
International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice Volume: 5 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1981) Pages: 119-124
Date Published
1981
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This paper contends that the prisoners' perspective must become a prerequisite consideration in decisionmaking efforts toward the improvement of correctional policy. Criminological thought has relied too much on public opinion polls and simulation studies to the exclusion of the inmates' viewpoint -- a valuable information source on the criminal justice system.
Abstract
The relationship between attitudes and behavior, the sense of participation, the implementation of sound business practices, and the adherence to democratic principles are offered as possible rationales for the acceptance of the prisoners' perspective. Prisoner attitude studies are a necessity for any behavioral change attempts of the corrections system. Furthermore, if inmates can perceive themselves as a contributing part of the criminal justice system, they may be less resentful of the impositions and directives the system makes upon them. The relationship between inmates and the penal system may also be improved if inmates are made to feel that they have retained their citizenship rights while imprisoned. Prison democracies should be furthered despite past failures at such attempts. Furthermore, from the viewpoint of business practices, prisoners should be viewed as important consumers of the product law, whose needs and expectations are important to the profit motive in a free enterprise society. The intent is not to shape prison policies according to inmates' whims, but to use their perspective to assess inadequacies of the existing conditions. In conducting research with prisoners, researchers must take care to ensure inmates' rights and dignity and the occurrence of normal institutional functions and activities. Twenty-six references are given.