Prison Conditions Research Articles

The Efficacy of Deterrent and Punitive Measures

The author reflects on a study by Dr. David Bierie on the efficacy of offender rehabilitation and punitive programs. He says that general opinion tends to favor rehabilitative over punitive measures, but the latter gains support from policy makers in the case of juvenile offenders. He notes the important implications of investigating whether physical prison conditions can have an impact on inmate violence. He also suggests that punitive measures are more likely to increase reoffending rate. KEYWORDS: Juvenile justice; Juvenile delinquency; Language: en

The Need for Independent Prison Oversight in a Post-PLRA World

The Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) severely hampered the courts' ability to exercise long-term oversight of conditions in prisons and jails. This article examines the potential for alternative types of correctional oversight in a post-PLRA world. The article begins by assessing the critical role the courts have played in exercising oversight over correctional facilities, while acknowledging the weaknesses of the judicial oversight model and the PLRA's restrictions. The article proposes an alternative model of independent government oversight, involving routine monitoring of all correctional facilities on an ongoing basis. Such preventative inspections have long been the norm in other countries that have been less reliant on the courts for the protection of prisoners' rights. The article explores how such oversight might work, and discusses examples of prison monitoring bodies. Finally, the article addresses the all-important continuing role for the courts in enforcing prisoners' rights in conditions cases.

The Prison Litigation Reform Act: A Threat to Civil Rights

The Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA), enacted by Congress in 1996, establishes a separate and unequal system of justice that applies only to prisoners. Under the PLRA, injunctive relief in cases involving prison conditions is both harder to obtain and easier for defendants to terminate than in other cases. The PLRA also imposes strict limits on damages and attorney fees that can be recovered by prisoners whose rights have been violated. Federal courts have largely upheld the PLRA's restrictions, and the reasoning of these decisions is not confined to cases involving prisoners. The PLRA and the court decisions approving it thus stand as a worrisome invitation to Congress to enact similar restrictions on judicial relief for other unpopular and politically powerless minorities.

Foucault and the “Lesson” of the Prisoner Support Movement

Shocked by harsh prison conditions in France, Michel Foucault in February 1971 co-founded the Information Group on Prisons (GIP), a group dedicated to heightening public intolerance towards the prison system by facilitating the voices of prisoners themselves. Foucault immersed himself in the activities of the GIP for the better part of two years. This article explores the intricacies of Foucault's involvement in the group in order to elucidate his approach to theory and practice. The article submits that a kind of dialectic between Foucault's theory and practice emerged throughout the early 1970s, with his theories both arising from his participation in collective struggles against the prison and serving to inform such practices after his withdrawal from the prisoner support movement. Examining this dialectic helps us appreciate the extent to which resistance truly pervaded Foucault's seminal account of disciplinary power and the prison in his Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison.

“The Camp Is Not a Resort”: The Campaign against Privileges in the Soviet Gulag, 1957–61

Rulers change, Archipelago remains. (1) Such was final judgment of preeminent Gulag chronicler, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, after his brief description of Soviet penal under Nikita Khrushchev. At first glance such a broad condemnation seems counterintuitive, in light of well-known reforms of mid-1950s that freed vast majority of political prisoners in Soviet Union, noticeably ameliorated conditions in camps, and put in place mechanisms to ensure that neither staggering numbers of prisoners nor terrible abuses of Stalinist Gulag would return. Yet Solzhenitsyn's primary contention is that after these pitiless blows of liberalism staggered and rocked camp system during mid-1950s, the whole cast of practical workers that staffed Gulag, fearful of their jobs, fought zealously to restore Gulag to its former, repressive state. (2) The initial reforms of 1953-56 were followed by potent ground-up counterreforms, most notably 1961 statute governing corrective-labor colonies and prisons; and as a result, living conditions for prisoners in 1960s rivaled those of late Stalinist period. Solzhenitsyn is not alone in making such claims. A number of scholars and memoirists have echoed view that, in words of Anne Applebaum, the neo-Stalinists had triumphed, and that, according to Anatoly Marchenko, Soviet penal institutions of 1960s were just as horrific as in Stalin's time. (3) A few historians, however, have recently questioned, at least in part, Solzhenitsyn's characterization of conservative counterreforms in penal of early 1960s. Marc Elie, in a brief account of the conservative shift in penal sphere, for instance, ignores Solzhenitsyn's mid-level Gulag officials, portraying counterreforms rather as a product of struggle between high-level reformists and conservatives. Moreover, he sees reaction occurring because of a brief crime wave in 1959--60, which conservatives blamed on recent laxity in repression in Gulag. (4) Thus motive was not restoration of jobs and privileges but rather anger at criminal actions of ungrateful and unreformed released prisoners. Miriam Dobson, by contrast, finds press and especially general public to be influential actors in shaping national debates. More specifically, she posits that reeducation theme of mid-1950s failed to resonate with broader Soviet population, and as a result, Khrushchev and his peers in late 1950s turned instead to optimism for future as a ruling technique, a trope that was inseparably coupled with intolerance for those unwilling to move forward toward communism. (5) There are important reasons for investigating transformation of Gulag under Khrushchev: not only does it reveal much about nature of Soviet society and officialdom in 1950s and early 1960s as they grappled with legacies of Stalinism, but penal that Khrushchev left behind when ousted in 1964 continued without substantive alteration until fall of Soviet Union and then persisted beyond 1991 in successor states. (6) Certainly subject deserves far more attention than it has received, a lacuna this essay remedies only partially. Indeed, present work makes no claim to providing a comprehensive narrative of penal reform under Khrushchev but instead focuses on motivations for creating harsher living conditions in early 1960s, specific policies that ensued, and result of these reforms. As Sohhenitsyn rightly notes, Stalin's death was followed by a period of theoretical and substantive liberalization in regard to inmates' living conditions that persisted into late 1950s. Likewise, there certainly was a campaign that began in late 1950s and culminated in 1961 to make living conditions in Gulag harsher. Moreover, there were many continuities between Gulag of 1950 and that of early 1960s that would seem to support Sohhenitsyn's contention: basic organization of camps and colonies remained relatively unchanged (barracks, barbed wire, guards); production by means of inmate labor remained a serious if not overriding concern for camp administrators; corruption continued unabated; stool pigeons and trusties were always being recruited; ethnic distinctions among prisoner groups remained, and so forth. …

To Be and Not to Be: Adaptation, Ambivalence and Ambiguity in a Danish Prison

In a recent article on Scandinavian Exceptionalism, John Pratt urges that in era defined by a pre-occupation with penal excess, we need to explore what we can learn from the Scandinavian regimes characterized by low levels of imprisonment and exceptional prison conditions. This paper complements Pratt’s comparative historical work by scrutinizing the realities of people living and working inside one Scandinavian penal regime. It explores prisoners’ experiences of and adaption to institutional life focusing on implementation of security and order and the motivational and supportive work. It describes a thriving co-presence of bewildering realities where prisoners’ adaptation is defined by a straining uncertainty, ambiguity and ambivalence, and where moral divides are united in the Modus Vivendi of everyday life. In this context prisoners are expected to express regrets and aspire to reform by demonstrating they are morally on course and motivated to commence a life without crime. Instead prisoners mostly use the institutional reformative stimuli to pursue their own ends that are foreign to the system. The study describes a discrepancy between penal ideals and practices and suggests that penal realities as they are experienced from within may not match the level of exceptionalism that Pratt observes from the outside.

Dr. Djura Djurovic a lifelong opponent of Yugoslav communist totalitarianism

The paper deals with the life story of Dr. Djura Djurovic (1900-1983), one of key targets of Yugoslav communist totalitarianism. He was a Belgrade lawyer who worked in the Administration of the City of Belgrade before WWII. In 1943 he joined the Yugoslav Home Army (YHA) of General Mihailovic, and held high positions in the YHA press and propaganda departments. His duties included running the Radio-telegraphic agency Democratic Yugoslavia. He accompanied General Mihailovic on his meetings with OSS Colonel McDowell, and with Captain Rakovic he established successful cooperation with Red Army units in October 1944. He was arrested by Tito?s partisans in 1945, given a show-trial and sentenced to twenty years in prison. In his writings he described horrible conditions, sufferings and various types of torture used against political prisoners in Yugoslav communist prisons. He himself spent more than two years in solitary confinement, and on several occasions nearly died in prison. He was released in 1962, and was able to establish a circle of former political convicts from the ranks of the YHA and other anticommunists in Belgrade and Serbia. He maintained this network, advocated pro-American policies and hoped that at some point the United States might intervene against communism in Yugoslavia. Gradually he came to the conclusion that Tito was an American ally, and was satisfied to maintain his network of likeminded anticommunists and prepare reports on the situation in Yugoslavia. As a pre-war freemason, he sent one such report to Luther Smith, Grand Commander of AAFM of Southern Jurisdiction of American masons, describing the ghastly conditions in Yugoslav communist prisons. He was rearrested in 1973 on account of his relations with a Serbian ?migr? in Paris, Andra Loncaric, and spent another four years in prison. Thus, the almost twenty-one years he spent in communist prisons qualify him for the top of the list of political prisoners in Yugoslav communism. In 1962-1973 he was spied on by a network of in?formers and operatives of the Yugoslav secret service. The paper is based on Djurovic?s personal files preserved in the penitentiaries in Sremska Mitrovica and Zabela, and his personal file from the archive of the Yugoslav secret service (UDBA/SDB). This is the first paper based on personal files of ?political enemies? compiled by the Yugoslav communist secret service, disclosing the latter?s activities and methods against anti?communist circles in Belgrade.

Women in prison in Serbia: Living conditions for female prisoners in the correctional institution for women in Pozarevac

The Correctional Institution for Women in Pozarevac is the only institution in Serbia for serving prison sentence by female persons. In order to find out what the living conditions in this institution are, Victimology Society of Serbia conducted an action research in 2011 and 2012. The data was collected through observation of the conditions in the female prison and through interviews with female prisoners and the prison staff. The data was analyzed by the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods. The aim f this paper is to present the results of the research in regard to the living conditions for female prisoners. The data is analyzed in the light of the Law on the execution of the criminal sanctions of the Republic of Serbia and the UN Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules).

The Prison in Early Modern Drama

Prison scenes and references to incarceration are ubiquitous in early modern drama, ranging from the Counter-scene in Ben Jonson’s Every Man Out of his Humour, to Hamlet’s famous statement that ‘Denmark’s a prison’. This article considers the reason for the early modern obsession with incarceration, providing a survey of the influence of contemporary prison legislation and conditions on city comedies; the use of chronicles and martyrologies in the writing of history plays; and the linguistic traces of prison literature and literary tropes of imprisonment. In doing so, it demonstrates that many of the recurring features in those plays deemed to be influenced by contemporary London prisons – including the representation of the prison as corrupt and variable in its administration, as unjust or lacking in power – have analogues in earlier literary and historical works.

Prison blossoms: anarchist voices from the American past

In 1892, unrepentant anarchists Alexander Berkman, Henry Bauer, and Carl Nold were sent to the Western Pennsylvania State Penitentiary for the attempted assassination of steel tycoon Henry Clay Frick. Searching for a way to continue their radical politics and to proselytize among their fellow inmates, these men circulated messages of hope and engagement via primitive means and sympathetic prisoners. On odd bits of paper, in German and in English, they shared their thoughts and feelings in a handwritten clandestine magazine called Prison Blossoms. This extraordinary series of essays on anarchism and revolutionary deeds, of prison portraits and narratives of homosexuality among inmates, and utopian poems and fables of a new world to come not only exposed the brutal conditions in American prisons, where punishment cells and starvation diets reigned, but expressed a continuing faith in the beautiful ideal of communal anarchism. Most of the Prison Blossoms were smuggled out of the penitentiary to fellow comrades, including Emma Goldman, as the nucleus of an expose of prison conditions in America's Gilded Age. Those that survived relatively unrecognized for a century in an international archive are here transcribed, translated, edited, and published for the first time. Born at a unique historical moment, when European anarchism and American labor unrest converged, as each sought to repel the excesses of monopoly capitalism, these prison blossoms peer into the heart of political radicalism and its fervent hope of freedom from state and religious coercion.

Socio-Environmental Condition Of Women At Prison: A Case Study Of Karachi Central Jail

This paper proposed to discuss the socio-environmental conditions of women at prison in Karachi.1 Prison is kind of punishment in which people are physically restricted of a range of personal freedom. Besides this, in jail manual, women have been protected by different rules and regulations. This paper is an explanatory study based on quantitative and qualitative research methodology. The questionnaire method was used for the purpose of data collection. The study shows that the situation on ground and the conditions of women prisoners is not good. In Pakistan rules and laws are available however, they are not implemented. This paper also suggests measures and recommendations in order to overcome the unhealthy and unhygienic condition faced by women prisoners at Karachi Central Jail.

Exceptional prison conditions and the quality of prison life: Prison size and prison culture in Norwegian closed prisons

This paper discusses the quality of prison life and prison size in relation to the notion of ‘Scandinavian exceptionalism’. Using the questionnaires ‘Measuring the Quality of Prison Life’ (MQPL) for prisoners and ‘Staff Measuring the Quality of Prison Life’ (SQL) for staff, data were collected from all 32 closed prisons in Norway. Based on the assumption that prison officers’ working lives, their perspectives and their values influence prisoners’ quality of life, the main focus in the paper is on the officers. Small prisons (fewer than 50 prisoners) obtain more positive results than medium-sized (50–100) and large (more than 100) prisons, on several dimensions measured. The relationship between officers and prisoners seems to be of better quality in small prisons than in medium-sized and large prisons. Officers in small prisons also report more positive relationships with senior management than their colleagues in medium-sized and large prisons. The results are discussed in light of previous studies on officers and prison working life dynamics.

Looking Back: The Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons

In early 2005, the Vera Institute of Justice launched the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons (CSAAP). In June 2006, the Commission released its report about the safety and health conditions in U.S. prisons and jails, Confronting Confinement, at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing. This article summarizes how CSAAP recommendations have affected national policy. The Confronting Confinement report and the conversations that arose during the hearings held prior to it continue to fuel debate, provide support for needed change, and encourage efforts to ensure the health and safety of prisoners and staff alike. Keeping prison conditions at the forefront of concern remains a challenge, especially given the urgent need to reduce the size of the incarcerated population.

The Gender Paradox in Prison Suicide Rates

Few studies of prison suicide have focused on suicide among female inmates, and even fewer studies have provided comparisons of rates by gender. Using national data on U.S. prisons and suicide, this study examined the “gender paradox” in prison suicide rates by comparing suicide rates of female and male inmates and U.S. residents and then examined characteristics of prisons that reported suicides. Findings indicated that rates of suicide in prison were similar for female and male inmates, but rates were higher for female inmates and lower for male inmates compared to the respective rates for female and male U.S. residents. Prisons that reported female suicides evidenced significant differences in prison conditions, including higher assault rates and mental health service utilization, compared to prisons for males and female prisons without suicide. Implications of the findings for understanding the gender paradox and for prison suicide prevention are discussed.

Traumatization and mental distress in long-term prisoners in Europe

This article investigates the prevalence of traumatization and mental distress in a sample of 1055 male European long-term prisoners as part of a wider study of the living conditions of prisoners serving sentences of at least five years in Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Spain and Sweden. Data were collected in a written survey using the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS), the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) as well as questions on attempted suicide and auto-aggressive behaviour. Participants experienced a mean of three traumatic events, with 14 per cent developing a Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) subsequently. In each national sample, more than 50 per cent of the participants were in need of treatment because of psychological symptoms and nearly one-third had attempted suicide.

The Influence of Prison Staff on Inmate Conditions: A Multilevel Approach to Staff and Inmate Surveys

The current study connects survey data of inmates and correctional staff in the Dutch prison system in order to describe and explain the impact of staff orientation and staff working conditions on perceived prison circumstances of inmates. Importation and deprivation theory are combined to test an integrated model to explain perceived prison conditions. By surveying staff (N = 1750) and inmates (N = 4673) independently within the same period of time and by afterwards pairing the results on the level of the housing unit (N = 173) using multilevel techniques, it is found that inmates´ perceptions of the prison conditions vary considerably between housing units. It is also found that staff’s perceptions of prison conditions show congruency with those of inmates. Another important finding is that in housing units where the orientation of staff towards inmates is relatively supportive, inmates perceive their circumstances as more positive. Conclusions and directions for further research are provided.

‘Seize the time’: an interview with Stephen Jones

There is a long and substantial history of prisoners’ rights movements in the US, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s, which was spearheaded by Black prisoners, notably figures such as George Jackson, subsequently murdered by prison guards. They were forging a new politics and understanding of the role of incarceration in a capitalist state, a politics echoed in prisons around the world. On the fortieth anniversary of the Attica uprising, in which prisoners seized control of the prison and issued a series of political demands, and which was subsequently crushed with overwhelming force, leaving thirty-nine dead, this article reflects on that history. The lineage of radical Black politics, forged in the increasingly harsh and increasingly generalised conditions of the prison industrial complex, continues not only through the writings of prisoners like Mumia Abu Jamal, but also through the work and teaching of formerly incarcerated Black activists like Stephen Jones, whose insights, analysis and history are presented through his interview here.

‘Entering the Red Sands’: The Corporality of Punishment and Imprisonment in Chimoio, Mozambique

This article probes the understandings and experiences of punishment and imprisonment in and around Chimoio, Manica Province, Mozambique. Focusing on two cases of imprisonment under severe conditions in the provincial agricultural prison of Chimoio, the article argues that corporal punishment is part of the punitive infrastructure of both the colonial and post-colonial state. Analysing the two contrasting cases, the article probes the significance of the metaphor for prison entry – ‘entering the red sands’ – to make the argument that carceral punishment is understood in terms of entry into a state space of potential death. The article recognises the importance of grounding perspectives on imprisonment and punishment beyond assumptions of universal regimes of imprisonment and punishment regimes. In doing so, it focuses on popular understandings and experiences of such practices and supports its argument by demonstrating, firstly, the long-term trajectory of corporal punishment in Mozambique and, secondly, by showing how imprisonment is perceived as challenging key tenets of sociality.

Limited access to HIV prevention in French prisons (ANRS PRI2DE): implications for public health and drug policy.

BackgroundOverpopulation, poor hygiene and disease prevention conditions in prisons are major structural determinants of increased infectious risk within prison settings but evidence-based national and WHO guidelines provide clear indications on how to reduce this risk. We sought to estimate the level of infectious risk by measuring how French prisons adhere to national and WHO guidelines.MethodsA nationwide survey targeting the heads of medical (all French prisons) and psychiatric (26 French prisons) units was conducted using a postal questionnaire and a phone interview mainly focusing on access to prevention interventions, i.e. bleach, opioid substitution treatment (OST), HBV vaccination and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for French prisoners. Two scores were built reflecting adherence to national and WHO international guidelines, ranging from 0 (no adherence) to 10 (maximum adherence) and 0 to 9 respectively.ResultsA majority (N = 113 (66%)) of the 171 prisons answered the questionnaires, representing 74% coverage (46,786 prisoners) of the French prison population: 108 were medical units and 12 were psychiatric units. Inmate access to prevention was poor. The median[IQR] score measuring adherence to national guidelines was quite low (4.5[2.5; 5.5]) but adherence to WHO guidelines was even lower 2.5[1.5; 3.5]; PEP was absent despite reported risky practices. Unsuitable OST delivery practices were frequently observed.ConclusionsA wide gap exists between HIV prevention policies and their application in prisons. Similar assessments in other countries may be needed to guide a global policy reform in prison settings. Adequate funding together with innovative interventions able to remove structural and ideological barriers to HIV prevention are now needed to motivate those in charge of prison health, to improve their working environment and to relieve French prisoners from their currently debilitating conditions.

The ‘dangerous other’ in maximum-security prisons

Drawing on data from maximum-security prisons in England, this article explores the way the representation of criminals as ‘dangerous others’ manifests in prison discourse and practice. Following Bourdieu, it is argued that within the ‘habitus of maximum-security’, prison staff become somewhat predisposed to seeing prisoners as essentialized, ‘dangerous others’ who are not ‘like us’, a perspective that is also reinforced in popular and tabloid print media outside the prison walls. The strength of these representations coupled with the habitus of maximum-security thus constrains possibilities for alternative representations of prisoners labelled as ‘dangerous others’ or for alternative ways of structuring the ethos and conditions of maximum-security prisons.