Open Prisons Research Articles

USING PROJECT FINANCE TO FUND INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENTS

For much of the past century, there has been an increased tendency for large infrastructure projects to be funded and operated by governments. Since the early 1980s, however, private‐sector financing and management of such projects have experienced a dramatic revival. In some cases, this revival has taken the form of the “privatization” of an entire industry. But another, increasingly common, form has been the use of project finance to fund instrastructure investments. Besides being widely used in infrastructure investments like telecommunications and power generation in developing countries, the use of project finance has recently been extended by the U.K.'s Private Finance Initiative to fund public enterprises as diverse as the construction and operation of prisons, hospitals, subway cars, and the National Insurance computer system.In a project financing, the project is managed by a separate company that is owned by a project sponsor (or sponsors) who usually takes an active role in the management of the project. The project company enters into a complex series of contracts with multiple parties, including the host government, the project's customers and suppliers, and the banks that typically provide most of the debt financing.This paper argues that the equity investment by the project's operators works together with high debt ratios and the web of contractual arrangements to reduce “agency” problems in the management of large projects. It also shows how the contracts shift the various project risks to those parties best able to appraise and control them. Finally, it discusses why most project financing takes the form of limited recourse bank loans to the project company rather than, say, public bonds with full recourse to the sponsors.

Penal Innovation in New Zealand

This paper explores the history and development of prisons in New Zealand, and focuses upon the recent implementation of a progressive prison operation and management program known as He Ara Hou. Though still in its infancy, some extremely positive results have been seen, such as higher administrative efficiency, greatly decreased levels of internal disorder, a competent, stable workforce, and a human product whose sense of self-worth and charity have not been destroyed by years of frustration, hatred and fear.

Pseudo-Encapsulation: Open Prison Ligands for Metal Ions

Abstract Rapid growth in the range of polydentate ligands prepared in recent decades has produced firstly macromonocyclic systems and subsequently macropolycyclic encapsulating ligands. Intermediate between these can be identified a set of topologically distinctive ligands whose collective grouping is based on their capacity to satisfy fully the coordination demands of metals ions and bind sets of three adjacent donors to polyhedral faces. This family of ligands offer pseudo-encapsulation of metal ions; whereas a macrobicycle may act as a “cage” or “prison” for a metal ion by trapping it in the cavity, the ligands described here present themselves as “open prisons” because of their less complete framework. The concept and types of pseudo-encapsulating ligands extant is examined here for saturated hexaamines which act as sexidentate ligands and commonly form octahedral complexes. Examples of the various topologies assigned as pseudo-encapsulating hexaamine ligands are described. In particular, the differing shape-directed coordination chemistry of syn− and anti−diammac (6,13-dimethyl-1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane-6,13-diamine) is examined in some detail. The latter isomer is a sterically efficient ligand which forms complexes with “compressed” coordination spheres and extreme physical properties, whereas the former isomer displays no such effects.

Prisons in crisis

Preface Acknowledgments 1. The Sentence of Imprisonment Prison Populations Comparisons of Imprisonment Rates Differences among Nations Ranking the Fifty States Ideologies and Criminal Justice The Community Corrections Model Research on the Use of Imprisonment 2. U.S. Prisons in the Nineties Sentencing Reform and Prisons The PrisonersO Rights Movement Prison Conditions Today Issues befor the Courts Findings of Fact Responses to 1983 Suits Continued Expansion Depopulation 3. Scandinavian Criminology and Prisons Scandinavian Criminology Crime and Punishment in Denmark and the United States Levels of Crime Criminal Codes and Sentencing Conditions in Danish Prisons Cultural Values and Imprisonment 4. Open versus Closed Prisons The Basic Dilemma for Prisons Closed Prisons Nature of Prison Life The Convict Society Impact of Incarceration Open Prisons Philosophies of Open Prisons Characteristics of the Open Prison Effects of Imprisonment A Prison Index 5. International Corrections Cross-Cultural Research Correctional Practices Worldwide CanadaOs Two-Year Rule Forced Labor in Japan The Swedish Ombudsman The Penal Colonies in Mexico and India OOne Person, One CellO in the Netherlands The English Probation Center Prosecution Practices in Germany Denmark and Depenalization Electronic Monitoring in the United States Can Changes be Imported? 6. Toward a Moderation of Punishment Barriers to Prison Reform External Approaches to Change The Correctional OFree LunchO A Principled Jurisprudence of Sentencing Detention instead of Imprisonment Prison for Violent Offencers Only Improvements from Within Bureaucratic Control Inmate Governance The Cology of Prison Survival Principles of Reform Antecedents to Change Epilogue References Index

Doing Good and Looking Bad: A Case Study of Prison/Community Relations

Research studies find that the objective impacts of prisons on their host communities are largely favorable. At the same time, residents of these communities often hold unfavorable attitudes toward their prison and community relationships with the institution may be poor. Using examples from an in-depth study of a new prison in a small town, one source of this disparity is sought in usual practices that would be found elsewhere as well. Corrections/community relations are likely to be influenced by the processes involved in prison siting and operations, and by differences in the premises underlying the judgments of local residents and corrections officials.

Open Prisons in the Japanese Manner

ABSTRACT The nature and functions of five open facilities of Japan's Correction Bureau are placed within the context of comparative criminal justice. As for open prisons about the world, they depart from the “principle of containment” in ways shaped by the sociocultural system of the given society. Effects of war offer remarkable opportunities for penological change that have been seized by pioneering individuals in Japan and elsewhere. The several open units in Japan illustrate the grounding of prison operations in the unique features of Japan's sociocultural system.

Private and Public Prisons: A Comparison of Costs, Programs and Facilities

This article compares three privately operated prisons with three publicly operated prisons in an effort to learn which is run more efficiently. Through a comparative cost analysis of private and public prisons the author found that the private prisons provided more services at lower cost than their public counterparts. Factors that may have contributed to this include: increased economies when purchasing goods; less bureaucratic red tape; better control over resources; more flexible manpower usage; and the ability to build prisons quickly. The author concluded from the findings of this study that comparative cost analyses and possible future research on the privatization of prisons will support the argument by proponents of prison privatization that private operation ofprisons is a worthwhile endeavor.

Prison Litigation: From the 1960s to the 1990s

Prison litigation has been a critical issue for criminal justice and legal scholars, and for correctional practitioners for three decades. It generally is agreed that lawsuits filed by prison inmates and the attention given these suits by the federal courts have served to heighten the debate over the role of prisons in our society. Additionally, from an intergovernmental perspective, much concern has been expressed over the federal courts' role in supervising state prison operations. This article examines a number of legal and social issues that have been raised in prison litigation.

Privatization in America

Prison operations, garbage collection, urban mass transit, fire protection, and mail service are some of the services traditionally provided by governments that are now at least in part provided by private firms. The author details the current state of privatization in the U.S. and looks at what might happen in the future.

Evaluating How Well Your Classification System is Operating: A Practical Approach

With the wide adoption by many states of objective prison classification systems, there has been an associated expectation among prison officials that these new systems would foster improved prison operations and reductions in prison violence. However, this has not always been the case. Failure to realize these expectations can be more accurately traced to improperly designed or implemented classification systems rather than the validity of these systems as originally designed. This article applies the lessons of one state (California) to propose a methodology for evaluating how well designed a particular model is and if implementation is occurring as intended. Referred to as “process evaluation,” this approach is intended to assist prison officials to “fine tune” their classification systems and establish a method for accurately monitoring the most critical aspects of prison operations.

The Chimera of Incarceration: Penal Institutionalization and its Alternatives in a Progressive Nigeria

The central thesis of this paper is that Nigerian correctional thinking is dominated by an ideology of incarcera tion ; that in concept and practice the institutionalization of offenders in the country has failed and become counter-produc tive. Institutionalization in Nigeria has not reduced the number of people brought into the formal system of social control but rather has produced a "widening of the net". Community-based corrections, pretrial diversion, increased use of open prisons, therapy, bail, probation, parole, compensation, discharge, binding over, suspended sentencing. furloughs, ombudsmen and personal recognizance, plus various forms of work and study release programs are advocated as alternatives or solutions to many of the problems of contemporary Nigerian corrections. Their small-scale, treatment-oriented approach, emphasis on employment and adjustment programs, and stress on greater accessibility are cited increasingly as reforms needed by a system now dominated by overcrowded, dehumanizing, degrading, criminogenic, repres sive and highly expensive system of control. To achieve the needed depth of change, decarceration must become the primary focus of Nigerian corrections policy. The emphasis on decar ceration does not mean that confinement will disappear, rather that its use will be bound by the criterion of last resort.

Problems in Estimating the Optimal-Cost Prison Size: A Comment

Trumbell and Witte (p. 115) present an economic analysis that attempts to arrive at a specific figure for the optimal size prison in terms of the costs of prison operation and some of the other features of prisons commonly included in proposed standards for prison operation. The thrust of their findings is that the least expensive prison to operate is larger than small but smaller than gargantuan. Few people would challenge this finding, which is simply a reminder of the economies of scale and the diseconomies of excessive scale.

The Role of Penal Quarantine in Reducing Violent Crime

In reviewing the aims and functions of imprisonment, the author argues that protection of the public should be the basis for decisions regarding incarceration. Quarantine, or isolation, is presented as an incarcerative function that is particularly susceptible to rational analysis as to its impact on public protection. An examination of the limits of quarantine's poten tial effect under actual and ideal circumstances leads to the conclusion that current proposals for increasing the use of quarantine would reduce seri ous violent crime by no more than 10 percent, at a staggering cost for prison construction and operation.Two alternative proposals are then presented. The first is a system of selective quarantine, based on a person's potential for future violence, which could be implemented within the current jurisdictional authority of the correctional system. The second proposal expands on the correctional model by adding changes within the authority of the judicial system. This second model is found to be...

Book Review: A Taste of Prison: custodial conditions for trial and remand prisoners, Albany: birth of a prison—end of an era, Open Prisons

Book Review: A Taste of Prison: custodial conditions for trial and remand prisoners, Albany: birth of a prison—end of an era, Open Prisons

Open Prisons. By Howard Jones and Paul Cornes, with the assistance of Richard Stockford. (Pp. 275; £7.95.) Routledge & Kegan Paul: Henley-on-Thames. 1977.

Open Prisons. By Howard Jones and Paul Cornes, with the assistance of Richard Stockford. (Pp. 275; £7.95.) Routledge & Kegan Paul: Henley-on-Thames. 1977.

Book Notes

Book Reveiwed in this article Matrix Management: A Cross‐Functional Approach to Organization Kenneth Knight (ed). Public Administration and Public Policy H. George Frederickson and Charles R. Wise. Councils, Committees and Boards J. G. Anderson (ed). Sources of European Economic Information Compiled by Cambridge Information and Research Services Ltd. Public Expenditure: Allocation between Competing Ends M. V. Posner (ed). Can Personnel Management meet the Challenge? John Stewart. Practical Performance Appraisal Valerie and Andrew Stewart. Creative Conflict: The Politics of Welsh Devolution John Osmond. The Scottish Government Yearbook 1978 H. M. Drucker and M. G. Clarke (eds). Metropolitan Development and Change: The West Midlands ‐ A Policy Review Frank Joyce (ed). The 1981 Census: A Local Authority Viewpoint R. W. Black. Neighbourhood Councils in England: A Report to the Department of the Environment Stephen Humble and Jennifer Talbot. INLOGOV Register of Research and Intelligence Units A. G. Bovaid (ed). The Press and Publicity for Public Participation Peter Stringer. The Economics of Housing D. C. Stafford. Towards the Comprehensive University Robin Pedley. The Reorganized National Health Service Ruth Levitt. Claim in Time: A Study of the Time Limit Rules for Claiming Social Security Benefits Martin Partington. Justice for Juveniles: The 1969 Children and Young Persons Act—A Case for Reform? Philip Priestley, Denise Fears and Roger Fuller. Open Prisons Howard Jones and Paul Comes, assisted by Richard Stockford. Constitutional and Administrative Law E. C. S. Wade and G. Godfrey Phillips. The Court of Justice of the European Communities L. Nelville Brown and Francis G. Labour and the Law Sir Otto Kahn‐Freund. Aid and Development in Southern Africa David Jones, Croom Helm in association with Overseas Development Institute Christian Democracy in Western Germany Geoffrey Pridham

Inmate Identification in an Institutional Setting

An organizational analysis of various inmate groups within the Mississippi State Penitentiary, locally known as Parchman, has called into question the "cohesion" model of inmate groups as ones which remain firmly united against the enemy out-group, the prison administration. The organizational structure of the Mississippi prison, until very recently, presented a highly stratified version of inmate society. Not only were inmates utilized in the management and operation of the prison, as is traditional in most penal institutions, but a highly select group of inmates, known as trusties, were given the responsibility for the maintenance of social control over fellow inmates. This group of inmates represented an elite corp which presented unique problems of adjustment, not only to fellow inmates but to the staff as well. This article takes a look at these problems of adjustment.

Social Psychology, Criminal Justice, and the Principle of Discretion: A Selective Review

This paper argues that the legal principle of discretion forms an excellent basis for the participation of social psychology in the criminal justice system. Social and psychological factors that enter into arrest, investigation, selective enforcement, plea- bargaining, criminal sentences, and prison operation are reviewed. The bibliography includes 15 case citations and 132 references.

The Soviet Criminal Correction System: Change and Stability

The publication in July, 1969, of the “Principles of Corrective-Labor Legislation of the USSR and the Union Republics” was notable for a lack of fanfare. This was in itself not surprising, since in the area of corrective-labor law, even since the death of Stalin, unpublished statutes have been the main guides for the operation of corrective-labor colonies and prisons. The old corrective-labor codes of the union republics, while still legally in force, had admittedly lost any real legal power.While the new Principles came upon the scene with little advance announcement, this fact should not obscure the more important one that “reform,” clarification, and codification have been on the minds of Soviet jurists for the preceding thirteen years — years which have seen the promulgation of two successive statutes (polozheniia) to guide the operation of the corrective-labor system in the RSFSR but, until 1969, little by way of publication or systematization of new provisions.

Open Prisons and Public Safety

Open Prisons and Public Safety