NCJ Number
116141
Date Published
1988
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This research examined the severity of consequences for institutional rule breaking, as perceived by juvenile correctional facility inmates.
Abstract
Data were collected in 1981 on confinement processes in several West German juvenile correctional institutions. Information was obtained from inmate case records and interviews that were conducted at the outset, in the middle, and near the completion of correction. The study sample consisted of 276 inmates who participated in the interviews but who had already been released. Interviews contained questions on behavior conformance with correctional sanctions. Sanctions ranged from restrictions on leisure time, transfer to a closed ward or arrest cell, visit and prison leave restrictions, and withdrawal of prison allowance to work without pay, reprimand, and complaint. Filing a complaint was deemed the most severe consequence of institutional rule breaking. Restrictions on prison leave ranked next in importance. Arrest, regarded as the most grave kind of sanction by juridical literature, was given a medium rating by inmates. Inmates cited repeatedly for disciplinary infractions rated particular sanctions more severe more frequently than those affected either little or not at all. Thus, the significance or threat of sanctions regarding the avoidance of deviant inmate behavior was considerably relativized. Differences exhibited at the outset of correction between prison-experienced inmates and inmates confined for the first time were not significant. However, the percentage of prison-experienced inmates giving particular impositions the highest value possible declined rapidly in the course of detention, as compared to those experiencing correction for the first time. 16 references, 2 tables, 11 figures.