The document discusses several issues facing prisons including overcrowding, security threats from gangs, riots, and privatization. It notes that prison populations have increased six-fold in the past 25 years leading to severe overcrowding. Security threat groups like gangs make up around 15% of the prison population. The document also discusses accreditation, privatization of prisons, and new technologies being used in corrections.

1. Chapter 13
Prison Issues and Concerns:
Overcrowding, Security, Accreditation,
Privatization, and Technology
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2013 McGraw-Hill Companies. All Rights Reserved.

2. Overcrowding
 Over the past 25 years, prison population has
increased six fold—from 240,000 to more than
1.6 million.
 On January 1, 2010, state prisons were
operating between full capacity and 40 percent
above capacity, while federal prisons were
operating at 36 percent above capacity.
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3. Overcrowding
 That would suggest that as many as 562,249 (40
percent) of the 1,405,622 persons held in state
prison and 74,922 (36 percent) of the 208,118
persons held in federal prison were housed in
overcrowded centers.
 Eliminating the present overcrowding would
require building 425 new prisons, each at a cost
of $75 million dollars
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4. Reasons for Overcrowding
 A continuous increase in the number of people
sent to prison
 Offenders now serve larger portions of their
sentences
 Many incoming prisoners are drug users, not the
dealers the tougher laws were designed to
capture
 The “prison industrial complex” trend
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5. Controlling Overcrowding
 Reduce the number of people sent to prison
 Release the less dangerous to make room for
the more dangerous
 Change confinement sentences to community-
related sentences
 Increase the number of releases
 Expand existing prison capacity or build new
prisons
 Implement structured sentencing
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6. Key Terms
 Structured Sentencing : a set of guidelines
for determining an offender’s sentence
 Exchange Rates: an approach to sentencing
that emphasizes interchangeability of
punishments; for example, three days under
house arrest might be considered equal to one
day of incarceration
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7. Consequences of Overcrowding
 idleness  staff turnover
 drug trafficking  stress
 predatory sexual behavior  decreases in program
 safety risks opportunities
 gang confrontations  judicial intervention in
prison management
 arguments
 fines for operating above
 fights capacity
 murders  excessive wear and tear
 suicides on facilities and
 riots equipment
 medical and mental  negative publicity
health problems  higher rates of recidivism
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8. Prisons Under Court Order
 In 2005, fewer federal, state and private prisons
were under a court order to correct one or more
conditions of confinement than in 2000.
 Prisons under court order or consent decree for
specific conditions declined from 320 (in 2000)
to 218 (in 2005).
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9. Prison Gangs
 The current term for prison gangs is security
threat groups (STGs)
 Some estimates put them at 15% of the
overall jail and prison population
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10. Security Threat Group
 An inmate group, gang, organization, or
association that has a name or identifying
signs, colors, or symbols and whose
members or associates engage in a
pattern of gang activity or departmental
rule violation so as to pose a threat to the
staff, to the public safety, to the secure
and orderly operation of a correctional
institution, or to other inmates
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11. The Six Major STGs
 The Aryan Brotherhood
 The Black Guerilla Family
 The Mexican Mafia
 La Nuestra Familia
 Neta
 The Texas Syndicate
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12. Prison Riots and Disturbances
 Disturbance – an altercation involving three or
more inmates, resulting in official action beyond
summary sanctions and for which there is an
institutional record
 Riot – any action by a group of inmates that
constitutes a forcible attempt to gain control of a
facility or area within a facility
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13. Notorious Riots
 1971 Attica Correctional Facility
 43 lives lost
 1980 Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe
 33 inmates were tortured, dismembered, decapitated,
burned alive, and killed by fellow inmates
 1993 Southern Ohio Correctional Facility
 Longest prison riot in U.S. history (11 days)
 9 inmates and 1 correctional officer killed
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14. Reasons For Riots
 Random chance
 Bad conditions
 Rebellious inmates and racial antagonism
 Institutional structure and readiness
 Administrative factors such as prison
management and administration
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15. Preventing Riots
 Formal inmate grievance procedures
 Ombudsmen to mediate disputes
 Improved classification system
 Smaller institutions
 Meaningful prison school and work programs
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16. Preventing Riots - Continued
 Alternatives to incarceration
 Professional, well-trained, and well-paid
correctional staff
 Administrators who are visible and available to
staff and inmates
 Clearly written and understood policies on the
use of force when necessary
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17. Continued
 The American Correctional Association
(ACA) recorded a decrease in prison
disturbances from 2,674 in 2000 to 405 in
2006 and reported a similar decrease in
riots from 2000 to 2006.
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18. Supermax Housing
 A free-standing facility, or a distinct unit within a
facility, that provides for management and
secure control of inmates who have been
officially designated as exhibiting violent or
serious and disruptive behavior while
incarcerated
 Supermax prisons house the most violent,
disruptive, and recalcitrant offenders whose
behavior in prison makes them ineligible for
confinement in the general prison population
 First supermax housing facility opened by the
BOP was Florence, Colorado in 1994
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19. Administrative Maximum
 Officially known as Administrative
Maximum—ADX, the prison houses the
450 most dangerous, violent, escape
prone, and STG federal inmate leaders.
More than 25 percent will never be
released from federal custody and will
remain in confinement for the rest of their
lives.
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20. Alcatraz
 Opened in 1939; the first federal specialized
housing unit for management and control of
troublesome inmates
 Housed the most violent and disruptive inmates in
indefinite solitary confinement
 Did not offer any treatment programs
 Its sole purpose was to incarcerate and punish
the federal prison system’s most desperate
criminals and worst troublemakers
 “America’s Devil’s Island”
 Closed in the early 1960s by U.S. Attorney
General Robert Kennedy
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21. Supermax Prisons - Continued
 Supervision in Supermax units is personnel-intensive
and very costly
 Supermax inmates typically spend all but 90 minutes per
day in their cells
 Physical restraints are used for all movements, which
normally are only to the exercise area and showers
 Debate rages as to the effectiveness of Supermax
facilities
 Critics denounce the adverse effect of giving and
receiving such harsh treatment on both staff and inmates
 Proponents cite enhanced safety and the provision of
much-needed control over the “worst of the worst”
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22. “No Frills” Prisons and Jails
 Correctional institutions that take away prisoner
amenities and privileges
 Evolved in response to erroneous public
perceptions that inmates live in relative comfort
while incarcerated
 A 1995 NBC television poll found that 82% of
Americans felt that prison life was too easy
 Proponents claim reduced amenities and
privileges make the prison experience more
punitive and less tolerable, which is merely what
the convicted offenders deserve
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23. “No Frills” Prisons and Jails
- Continued
 Federal No-Frills Prison Act of 1996
 Citizens’ support for prisoner amenities
 From 1998 to 2002 more states decreased
inmate privileges and amenities
 Legislators’, wardens’, corrections experts’,
and attorneys’ views on “no-frills” prisons and
jails
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24. Accreditation
 Improves staff training and development
 Assesses program strengths and weaknesses
 Is a defense against lawsuits
 Establishes measurable criteria for upgrading
operations
 Improves staff morale and professionalism
 Offers a safer environment for staff and
offenders
 Reduces liability insurance costs
 Offers performance-based benefits
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25. Accreditation - Continued
More than 500 of the 2,236 state, federal, and
private prisons and 129 of the 3,365 local jails
have been awarded ACA accreditation. States
also offer accreditation. As of February 2, 2011,
622 of the 2,236 state, federal, and private
adult correctional institutions and 131 of the
3,365 local adult detention facilities have been
awarded ACA accreditation.
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26. Accreditation - Continued
 Traditionally, correctional agencies have
sought accreditation for one of three
reasons: first, to ensure that the
organization is in compliance with national
standards; second, to demonstrate to
interested parties that the organization is
operating at acceptable professional
levels; and third, o comply with court
orders.
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27. Privatization
 A contract process that shifts public functions,
responsibilities, and capital assets, in whole or in
part, from the public sector to the private sector
 First U.S. prison to be constructed and operated
by a private provider was San Quentin in the
1850s
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28. Types of Privatization
 Contracting out specific services such as
educational and vocational programming,
medical and mental health services, food
preparation, maintenance, and others
 Full-scale private management of jails and
prisons
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29. Privatization - Continued
 The Debate:
 Proponents for privatization argue in
favor of competition
 Opponents argue against privatization
on philosophical grounds
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30. Privatization - Continued
 Future Trends:
 An increase in private prisons.
 The number of companies operating
privatized prisons is likely to decrease
as competition and the costs of doing
business increase.
 Important inroads can be expected
for the geriatric inmate population.
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31. Technocorrections
 Technologies as electronic mail and messaging,
electronic bulletin boards, and web-based
organizational home pages that have improved
internal communications within correctional
institutions, and institutional communications with
supporting agencies
 Videoconferencing and telemedicine facilitate
tremendous savings by reducing travel expenses
 Further, they reduce absences of key personnel
from the institution, thereby maintaining
supervisory presence and availability in the event
a crisis develops
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32. Problems for Corrections
 In 2010, the number of cell phones confiscated
by officials was 9,000 in California and about
1,200 in Texas.
 In December 2010, Georgia prisoners used cell
phones to coordinate work stoppages with
inmates at other prisons.
 In August 2010, President Obama signed a bill
making inmate possession of a cell phone or a
wireless device in federal prison a felony
punishable by up to a year of additional
sentence.
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33. Enhancements Due to
Technocorrections
 Tracking of inmates and staff through remote-
location monitoring
 Detection of escape attempts by means of
ground-penetrating radar and heartbeat
monitoring
 Internal security through the use of biometric
scan technology
 Physical security searches through the use of
magnetic resonance scanning and x-rays
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