NCJ Number
84916
Date Published
1982
Length
12 pages
Annotation
Data on disciplinary violations between July 1978 and April 1980 in the Indiana Reformatory, a maximum security prison for male felons, failed to support the contention that changes in good time rules under a new determinate sentencing law would encourage prisoner misconduct.
Abstract
Some corrections personnel and criminologists claim that changes in good time regulations remove inmates' incentives to obey prison rules, although no empirical studies have documented the effectiveness of good time. The trend toward determinate sentences with the elimination of discretionary release decisions by a parole board appears to threaten this prison management tool. The new 1977 Indiana penal code changed good time to credit time and linked it to the absence of bad behavior so that the presumed parole date becomes the actual release date for most prisoners. The Indiana Reformatory presented a unique opportunity to study the law's effects because the prison was not used at full capacity, eliminating overcrowding as a factor in inmate behavior. From July 1978 through April 1980, the proportion of the Reformatory's population under credit time and presumptive parole rose from approximately 15 percent to over 90 percent. An examination of rule violations reviewed by the Conduct Adjustment Board over this 20-month period revealed a clear increase in minor violations, but no discernible pattern in major violations. Fears that the good time changes would encourage assaultive behavior appear totally unfounded, with major violation rates showing no relation to season, crowding, or credit time policies. The increased rate of minor violations appears correlated with the increased numbers of new code violators in the prison population, but it is unclear whether this relationship can be attributed to prisoners' misconduct or increased enforcement of prison regulations. Graphs, 6 footnotes, and 13 references are included. For additional material, see NCJ 84908.