Concerns of Older Inmates in a Minimum Prison Setting (From Older Offenders: Perspectives in Criminology and Criminal Justice, P 164-177, 1988, Belinda McCarthy and Robert Langworthy, eds. -- See NCJ-110145)

• NCJ Number: 110156
• Author(s): L J Fry
• Date Published: 1988
• Length: 14 pages
• Sale Source: Praeger Publishers
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Fifty inmates aged 50 and older in the minimum-security California Institution for Men at Chino were administered Toch's (1977a) Prison Preference Inventory (PPI) to identify the concerns of older inmates and compare them with other inmates. 300 The eight environmental concerns identified by the PPI are privacy, safety, structure, support, emotional feedback, social stimulation, activity, and freedom. The analysis was restricted to the elderly inmates in one unit (Elm Hall) and to other inmate age groups in similar housing. When the PPI dimension scores of the sample were compared to Toch's original study, the greatest divergence was found on the privacy dimension, followed by the activity scale score. 'Privacy' pertains to a concern with social and physical overstimulation and a preference for isolation, peace and quiet, and absence of environmental irritants such as noise and crowding. 'Activity' pertains to a concern about understimulation and a need for distraction. Older inmates in the sample were generally more concerned about achieving privacy and relieving idleness than the older inmates in Toch's sample, compared with younger inmates. This was probably due to the overcrowding at Elm Hall. On the other PPI dimensions, the study confirmed Toch's findings that older inmates are more concerned with structure and support than younger inmates and are less concerned with freedom. 2 tables.