Prison Work Research Articles

Prison officers' experience as a predictor of risk of attack: an analysis within the British prison system.

Reports of inmate-officer assaults from a prison population of 1,000 males and covering an 18-month period were analysed in order to test the hypothesis that staff who either have little prison work experience or are relatively young might be more likely to be the victims of assault. No significant difference was found between the ages of assaulted and non-assaulted officers, but the difference between the two groups in number of months' prison work experience proved statistically significant. In addition, no correlation was found between the age of the inmate and age of the officer he assaulted, or between the age of the inmate and the experience of the victim officer. The implications and possible reasons for the finding that more experienced officers are less likely to be assaulted are discussed.

Prison labor and recidivism

This study examines recidivism among inmates who participated in prison industry programs during confinement and a comparison group of inmates who were not employed in prison industry. Industry participants had lower recidivism rates than nonparticipants, but when differences between the groups on other characteristics associated with recidivism were controlled, the recidivism rates of participants and nonparticipants were virtually identical. A proportional hazards regression model was estimated that showed that, net of other variables, the effect of prison industry participation on the probability of postrelease felony arrest was small and insignificant. The findings are discussed in the context of existing correctional outcome research and recent developments in prison work programs.

Job-related social skills training ith female prisoners.

Two studies evaluated whether a degree of rehabilitation is possible with prisoners and whether development of job-related social behaviors can be part of such rehabilitation. Both studies involved women prisoners, rarely tested subjects, addressing behaviors important in gaining and retaining employment, which play a critical role in recidivism. One study involved single-subject experiments with two carefully selected, volunteer women 21 and 22 years old in a federal prison. Four on-the-job behaviors were modified by a combination of office-based training and in vivo prompting, self-evaluation, and feedback: discourtesies, attention-seeking, inappropriate flirting, and inappropriate socializing. Each was modified in the appropriate prison work environment, achieving levels rated as comparable to peers. Effects proved durable over several weeks, with some indication of generalization and of the functional validity of performance. The second study, a multiple baseline across subjects and settings, involved three selected women prisoners 22, 22, and 23 years old. Classroom behaviors-off task, talking out, and disrupting-were targeted, due to their relevance to employability, with the same treatment used in the first study. Targeted behaviors changed and remained changed over several weeks of direct observation. The generality and functional validity of changes were substantiated by teacher ratings. Effective rehabilitation of prisoners may be possible if volunteer prisoners are selected, intervention is individualized, and effects are continuously monitored.

Prison Based Occupational Therapy

Occupational therapy within a prison environment is a comparatively new area of practice. This paper draws on the experience of occupational therapists who have worked in “G” Division, Pentridge Prison, the only psychiatric facility of the Victorian penal system. It outlines the philosophical model used for their intervention and gives an example of its practical application. The authors hope that, through this paper, they will demystify some of the myths related to working in prisons, so as to encourage further participation of occupational therapists in this specialist field.

HELP FOR CHILDREN IN CUSTODY

A recent survey of children in custody provides some evidence to inform the debate on whether probation officers should withdraw from working in prisons. Levels of probation staffing in institutions housing children are already very low, and from the survey it appears that in general these children receive little help, at any rate of a kind that could reasonably be described as social work. This may be a particular cause for concern since the survey showed that many of these children had had difficult and disruped lives before the current sentenus. It is suggested that it is doubtful if the present policy of encouraging prison officers to assume a general helping function is a feasible one.

Value orientations of prison and non-prison social work students

Value orientations of prison and non-prison social work students

Developing the Prison Environment Inventory

Climate, a popular conceptualization used to describe contextual properties of prisons that may have significant influence on individual behavior, is generally considered to be multidimensional and can be used to describe what it is like to live and work in prison. Past efforts to apply the conceptualization to organizations in general and specifically to prisons have been faulted for three reasons: inadequate theoretical specification, lack of attention to psychometric details, and a failure to consider the individual effects arising in aggregate measures. This article describes a new correctional climate instrument, the Prison Environment Inventory (PEI), which was attentive to these three issues. Hans Toch's eight environmental concerns—Privacy, Safety, Structure, Support, Emotional Feedback, Social Stimulation, Activity, and Freedom—were used as the dimensions of the instrument. The 80-item Inventory was created in a series of steps in which versions of the instrument were submitted to rigorous evaluations to assure its reliability and validity. Factor analyses of data indicate that the theoretical structure of the instrument is empirically patterned. Scale analyses confirm the integrity of the dimensions of climate, although some scales appear to be better defined than others. Final assessments indicate the individual effects do not greatly bias climate measurement with this instrument.

Mental Health Work in Prisons and Jails

Mental health efforts in prisons and jails most often ignore the mental illness prevention capabilities of main-line correctional personnel. By focusing on inmates with drug dependencies or severe psychiatric disorders, traditional mental health services have failed to come to grips with the problems created for “normal inmates” by the conditions of confinement. This article argues that indigenous correctional personnel might supplement the efforts of professional treatment staff by learning to assist inmates in coping with the stress produced by everyday institutional living conditions.

I Work in a Prison

I Work in a Prison

Van Droogenbroeck Case

The individual in international law — In general — Human rights and freedoms — European Convention on Human Rights, 1950 — Article 5 — Detention without trial — Recidivists and habitual offenders — Judicial order that recidivist be placed at the disposal of the Government for a period of years after completing prison sentence — Wide discretion to keep in detention conferred on minister — Whether detention ordered by a competent court — Whether minister’s decision arbitrary — Article 4 — Applicant’s release made conditional upon accumulating savings from prison work — Whether forced labour — Remedies in national law — Relationship between Convention and domestic law

Chains, Drains and Welfare—where next for Prison Social Work?

The authors argue that a better knowledge base about Social Work in Prisons is essential before any decision can be made about future staffing and style of service.

Management Theory Z: Its Implications for Managing the Labor Intensive Nature of Work in Prison

Management Theory Z: Its Implications for Managing the Labor Intensive Nature of Work in Prison

L'évolution du travail en Algérie au XIXe siècle.

In Algeria, the constitution of a class of wage-earners takes place mainly in the second half of the XlXth century. At the beginning of the XlXth century slave labour remains relatively important in the oases. Resorting to foreign help in household economy implies reciprocity (touiza). The khamessat in agriculture, and the regulation of handicraft concerning the apprentices and guild-members, as well as forced labour are the forms of work mobilization which are the most remote from the domestic conditions of work. During the second half of the XlXth century, shortage of free workers imposed to resort to soldiers work, immigration, unpaid labour and prisoners work. The constitution of a class of wage-earners proper, first appears in agriculture, then in the urban world, where it is less important; it is linked with industrial prospecting and public works. The limits of the process are conspicuous at the end of the XlXth century. The new fact lies in the existence of the first generations of workers, mainly rural labourers, living partly or entirely on their wages, and of a mass of former peasants, now unemployed. The khamessat, which has undergone changes holds on and even spreads on Algerian-owned lands. It is prefered to mere wage-earning and constitutes a means of defence, just like the agricultural associations.

Work Relations and Cynicism Among Prison Guards

While researchers have recently focused their attention on cynicism as a role characteristic of prison guards, they have tended to view cynicism as a consequence of the organization of prison work and have not examined the attitude as the outcome of interaction with others in the institution. The present research explores the feasibility of this line of explanation. Data for the project were derived from questionnaire responses of 144 guards working in a large-state, maximum-security institution in the midwest. In addition to the questionnaire data, formal interviews were also conducted with a stratified sample of the institution's guards. While numerous findings emerged from the study, the most general showed that as a prison guard's work relations with inmates, fellow officers, and administrators deteriorate, his level of cynicism increases. From this, we conclude the article with a discussion of the theoretical significance and practical importance of all findings presented.

Does Coed Prison Work?

Does Coed Prison Work?

Drop Outs and Rejects: An Analysis of the Prison Guard's Revolving Door

High turnover among prison guards has long been noted as a problem plaguing corrections. This study indicates that turnover among rank and file employees results from organizational and cultural strains within the formal organization. A sample survey of 55 former prison guards indicates that the most significant variable in explaining the termination of their prison work is race. Young urban black guards tend to find themselves in conflict with the top echelon in the custodial force while the white recruits have difficulty normalizing relations with the minority inmates.

Economic Implications of Standards Affecting Correctional Programs

Many of the specific recommendations of the Corrections Task Force of the National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals have impacts that cut across traditional administrative or program designations. Two broad sets of such standards are examined here: parole programs and procedures, and proposals for changes in institutional work experiences. In both cases the Task Force standards might be expensive to implement by themselves, but individual proposals generate a cost saving in other activities that partially or even completely offsets the budgetary impact of the standard. The Task Force's recommendations on parole procedures include intensive supervision, financial support and job placement for parolees, and expansion of parolee rights in grant and revocation hearings. Standards in each of these matters could add as much as $700 per case to current parole costs. But all of the recommendations are designed to increase the likelihood of parolee success and thus to reduce institutional populations. The average cost per inmate in major institutions is approximately $5,000. Some of the Task Force standards can be expected to reduce institutional populations by more than enough to offset the additional costs of parole, while in other cases the Task Force proposals would probably impose net-but small-budgetary costs on correctional systems. The Corrections report's proposals for changes in prison work experiences and pay imply basic restructuring of institutional work programs. Upgrading prison industries would impose enormous costs on either correctional systems or private employers who might be invited to operate establishments in prisons. In return, either correctional systems or private employers would generate enormous increases in output and sales, which would more than repay the costs of new capital equipment and higher inmate wages as long as the goods could be sold in markets that historically have been closed by law and custom. The Corrections standard for prevailing wages for maintenance workers, in contrast, would generate cost offsets only if some maintenance workers could be reassigned to profitable prison industries. On balance, the net cost of implementing all the standards dealing with institutional work and pay is likely to be very close to zero.

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:Rehabilitation and Deviance, by Philip Bean.Community Treatment and Social Control by Paul Lerman,The Effectiveness of Correctional Treatment: a survey of treatment evaluation studies, by D. Lipton, R. Martinson and J. Wilks.Magistrates' Justice by Pat Carlen, Martin Robertson,Social Work in Prison by Margaret Shaw.On Licence: A Study of Parole by P. Morris and F. Beverly,Borstal in Ireland: Custodial Provision for the Young Adult Offender 1906–1974 by Nial Osborough.Crime as Opportunity by P. Mayhew, R. V. G. Clarke, A. Sturman and J. M. Hough.

Margaret Shaw, Social Work in Prison: An Experiment in the Use of Extended Contact with Offenders, HMSO, London, 1974, Home Office Research Studies 22, A Home Office Research Unit Report, viii+154 pp. £1.45.

Margaret Shaw, Social Work in Prison: An Experiment in the Use of Extended Contact with Offenders, HMSO, London, 1974, Home Office Research Studies 22, A Home Office Research Unit Report, viii+154 pp. £1.45. - Volume 6 Issue 1

Book Reviews

Journal Article Book Reviews Get access Social Work in Prison, Margaret Shaw. H.M.S.O., 1974. Pp. 104. £1.45. J. L. HESKETH J. L. HESKETH Deputy Secretary Family Welfare Association of Manchester Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The British Journal of Social Work, Volume 6, Issue 3, 1976, Pages 417–419, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.bjsw.a056752 Published: 01 January 1976