Telephone Rings: Long-Term Imprisonment (From Problems of Long-Term Imprisonment, P 142-157, 1987, Anthony E Bottoms and Roy Light, eds. -- See NCJ-108254)

• NCJ Number: 108259
• Author(s): M Fitzgerald
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 16 pages
• Sale Source: Avebury Publishing Co
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

This paper reviews recommendations on long-term imprisonment made by the British Control Review Committee and sets forth major principles of an alternative model for long-term imprisonment.

Abstract

It is suggested that the top-down management approach recommended by the Committee is unrealistic, failing to recognize the importance of the relationships with those to be managed, and that management is a cooperative venture requiring a multidimensional flow of communication. It is suggested that strategies for managing the long-term inmate population must be based on the staff-inmate relationship and a commitment to minimizing rather than compounding the effects of the long-term sentence. This requires the availability of channels of communication between staff and inmates, trust and confidence, mechanisms for ensuring inmates' rights, and a career planning approach to inmate programs and services. A new generation approach to prison management requires a bottom-up pattern of relationships based on multilevel decisionmaking and multidirectional communication, coupled with both internal and external accountability. 1 note and 17 references.