Prisons can be considered "total institutions" that develop their own social structures and values. Inmates form prison subcultures to cope with deprivation. Two social structures exist - the official rules and the more powerful inmate social world. Over time, inmates may become "prisonized" and accept criminal values. Female prisons form "pseudofamilies" to replace lost relationships. Issues facing prisons today include aging inmates, inmates with mental illnesses, and preventing terrorism in corrections facilities.

1. Criminal JusticeCriminal Justice
A Brief IntroductionA Brief Introduction
CHAPTER
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Criminal Justice: A Brief Introduction, 11e
Frank Schmalleger
ELEVENTH EDITION
Prison Life
12

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Frank Schmalleger
Research on Prison Life:Research on Prison Life:
Total InstitutionsTotal Institutions
• Total Institution
 An enclosed facility separated from
society, both socially and physically,
where the inhabitants share all aspects
of their daily lives
continued on next slide

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Criminal Justice: A Brief Introduction, 11e
Frank Schmalleger
Research on Prison Life:Research on Prison Life:
Total InstitutionsTotal Institutions
• Total institutions include prisons,
concentration camps, mental hospitals,
seminaries, and other facilities in which
residents are cut off from the larger
society, either forcibly or willingly.
• They develop their own distinctive
values and styles of life and pressure
residents to fulfill rigidly prescribed
behavioral roles.

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Frank Schmalleger
The Male Inmate's WorldThe Male Inmate's World
• Prison Subculture
 The values and behavioral patterns
characteristic of prison inmates
continued on next slide

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Criminal Justice: A Brief Introduction, 11e
Frank Schmalleger
The Male Inmate's WorldThe Male Inmate's World
• Two social realities coexist in prison
settings.
 The official structure of rules and
procedures put in place by the wider
society and enforced by the prison staff
 The more informal (but decidedly more
powerful) inmate world
continued on next slide

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Frank Schmalleger
The Male Inmate's WorldThe Male Inmate's World
• Prisonization
 The process whereby newly
institutionalized offenders come to
accept prison lifestyles and criminal
values

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Criminal Justice: A Brief Introduction, 11e
Frank Schmalleger
The Functions of PrisonThe Functions of Prison
SubculturesSubcultures
• According to some, prison subcultures
are fundamentally an adaptation to
deprivation and confinement.
• Prisoners are deprived of:
 Liberty
 Goods and services
 Heterosexual relationships
 Autonomy
 Personal security
continued on next slide

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Frank Schmalleger
The Functions of PrisonThe Functions of Prison
SubculturesSubcultures
• Importation model
 Inmates bring with them values, roles,
and behavior patterns from the outside
world.
• The social structure of the prison is
another element that shapes prison
subculture.

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Frank Schmalleger
Homosexuality and SexualHomosexuality and Sexual
Victimization in PrisonVictimization in Prison
• Most sexual aggressors do not consider
themselves homosexuals.
• Sexual release is not the primary
motivation for sexual attack.
continued on next slide

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Frank Schmalleger
Homosexuality and SexualHomosexuality and Sexual
Victimization in PrisonVictimization in Prison
• Many aggressors must continue to
participate in gang rapes to avoid
becoming victims themselves.
• The aggressors have themselves
suffered damage to their masculinity in
the past.

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Frank Schmalleger
The Female Inmate's WorldThe Female Inmate's World
• Women account for 7% of all prison
inmates.
• More than half of the children of female
prisoners never visit their mothers in
prison, primarily due to remote
locations.
continued on next slide

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The Female Inmate's WorldThe Female Inmate's World
• Profile based on national data for
female offenders:
 Disproportionately women of color
 In their early to middle 30s
 Most likely to have been convicted of a
drug-related offense
 Survivors of physical and/or sexual
abuse as children and adults
continued on next slide

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Frank Schmalleger
The Female Inmate's WorldThe Female Inmate's World
• Women's most common pathways to
crime involve survival strategies that
result from physical and sexual abuse,
poverty, and substance abuse.
• 80% of women entering prison are
mothers.
continued on next slide

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Frank Schmalleger
The Female Inmate's WorldThe Female Inmate's World
• 85% of those women had custody of
their children.
• 2/3 of incarcerated women had minor
children.

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Frank Schmalleger
Gender ResponsivenessGender Responsiveness
• NIC report recommendations
 The creation of an effective system for
female offenders that is structured
differently from a system for male
offenders
 The development of gender-responsive
policies and practices
continued on next slide

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Frank Schmalleger
Gender ResponsivenessGender Responsiveness
• NIC report recommendations
 The modification of the criminal justice
sanctions to recognize the low risk to
public safety represented by the typical
female offender

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Social Structure in Women'sSocial Structure in Women's
PrisonsPrisons
• Female prisoners are likely to be black
or Hispanic, poor, uneducated, abuse
survivors, single parents, and in poor
health.
• Female inmates construct organized
pseudofamilies.
continued on next slide

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Frank Schmalleger
Social Structure in Women'sSocial Structure in Women's
PrisonsPrisons
• Suffer intensely from the loss of
affectional relationships
• Sexual misconduct between staff and
inmates
continued on next slide

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Frank Schmalleger
Social Structure in Women'sSocial Structure in Women's
PrisonsPrisons
• Recently, the social structure has been
altered by "crack kids".
 Streetwise young women with little
respect for traditional prison values, for
their elders, or even their own children

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Frank Schmalleger
Types of Female InmatesTypes of Female Inmates
• Square
 Had few early experiences with criminal
lifestyles
 Tended to sympathize with the values
and attitudes of conventional society
continued on next slide

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Frank Schmalleger
Types of Female InmatesTypes of Female Inmates
• Cool
 More likely to be career offenders
 Tended to keep to themselves and
supported inmate values
• Life
 Familiar with lives of crime

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Frank Schmalleger
Violence in Women's PrisonsViolence in Women's Prisons
• Task Force on the Female Offender
recommendations
 Substance abuse programs
 Need to acquire greater literacy skills
 Develop programs for keeping children
in the facility

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Frank Schmalleger
The Staff WorldThe Staff World
• Approximately 748,000 people are
employed in corrections.
• Women account for 20% of all
corrections officers.
• Corrections officers undergo a
socialization process.
• Formative influence on staff culture is
the potential threat that inmates pose.

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Frank Schmalleger
Prison RiotsPrison Riots
• Causes of riots
 Insensitive prison administration and
neglect of inmates' demands
 Dehumanizing prison conditions
 Regulation of inmate society and
redistribution of power balances among
inmate groups
continued on next slide

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Frank Schmalleger
Prison RiotsPrison Riots
• Security Threat Groups (STG)
 An inmate group, gang, or organization
whose members act together to pose a
threat to the safety of corrections staff
or the public, who prey on other
inmates, or who threaten the secure
and orderly operation of a correctional
institution
continued on next slide

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Frank Schmalleger
Prison RiotsPrison Riots
• Real reasons for riots are probably
specific to the institution.
• May not allow for generalizations
• The growth of a revolutionary prisoner
subculture

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Frank Schmalleger
Prisoners' RightsPrisoners' Rights
• Hands-off Doctrine
 A policy of nonintervention with regard
to prison management that U. S. courts
tended to follow until the late 1960s
• Civil Death
 The legal status of prisoners in some
jurisdictions who are denied the
opportunity to vote, hold public office,
marry, or enter into contracts

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Frank Schmalleger
The Legal Basis of Prisoners'The Legal Basis of Prisoners'
RightsRights
• Balancing Test
 A principle that attempts to weigh the
rights of an individual against the
authority of states to make laws or to
otherwise restrict a person's freedom in
order to protect the state's interest and
its citizens
• Conditional rights rather than absolute
rights

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Frank Schmalleger
Grievance ProceduresGrievance Procedures
• Grievance Procedure
 A formalized arrangement, usually
involving a neutral hearing board,
whereby institutionalized individuals
have the opportunity to register
complaints about the conditions of their
confinement

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Frank Schmalleger
A Return to the Hands-OffA Return to the Hands-Off
Doctrine?Doctrine?
• Deliberate Indifference
 A wanton disregard by corrections
personnel for the well-being of inmates

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Issues Facing Prisons TodayIssues Facing Prisons Today
• Geriatric Offenders
 Crimes that are committed by the
elderly, especially violent crimes, are on
the decline
continued on next slide

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Frank Schmalleger
Issues Facing Prisons TodayIssues Facing Prisons Today
• Inmates with Mental Illness and
Intellectual Disabilities
 Another group with special needs
 Some are neurotic of have personality
problems, which causes tension in
prison.
continued on next slide

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Frank Schmalleger
Issues Facing Prisons TodayIssues Facing Prisons Today
• Terrorism
 Antiterrorism efforts play an important
role in corrections, so personnel can
prevent future attacks on American
society and any crises in any
correctional institution.