NCJ Number
104943
Journal
Journal of Offender Counseling, Services and Rehabilitation Volume: 11 Issue: 2 Dated: (Spring-Summer 1987) Pages: 5-19
Date Published
1987
Length
15 pages
Annotation
A questionnaire was administered to 348 Federal prison inmates to examine their attitudes toward 2 dimensions of correctional policy: program determination and program participation.
Abstract
Subjects were told that their responses would be used to improve rehabilitative programs and better meet client needs. Results, taken as a whole, indicate that inmates viewed rehabilitation and reform as the major purpose of punishment or prison sentence. This conception determined their preferred criteria for program determination and participation: need was most frequently endorsed as the fairest criterion for offering or receiving program benefits. The most substantive area of need was viewed by the majority of inmates as related to employability and ability to get and hold a satisfying occupation. Only a third viewed their problems as related to psychological or medical problems. Finally, although almost 90 percent of inmates expressed interest in some program only 54 percent felt they were in need of any program or treatment. 17 references.