Impact of Confinement of Juveniles

• NCJ Number: 88531
• Journal: Youth and Society Issue: 14, N 3 Dated: (March 1983) Pages: 301-319
• Author(s): C W Thomas; J Hyman; L T Winfree
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 19 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study found that juveniles confined in correctional institutions manifest the effects of prisonization, notably hostility toward the institution, negative attitudes toward the legal system, and increased levels of delinquent self-identification.

Abstract

This study pursued the goals of (1) evaluating the applicability of a theoretical model that has proven useful in related work in the sociology of corrections, (2) examining the determinants of prisonization among juvenile offenders, and (3) assessing the consequences of confinement in this type of correctional setting. Data were obtained from residents in a relatively large facility for male delinquents ages 14-18. After a lengthy period of informal, open-ended interviewing of 340 juveniles, completed structured questionnaires were obtained from 276 of them. The questionnaire sought to identify feelings of contextual powerlessness (alienation from the institutional environment), perceptions of life chances, prisonization (degree to which a person has become assimilated into the informal normative institutional system), opposition to the institution, and attitudes toward the law and delinquent self-identification. Multivariate analysis found that although some comparative organizational analyses have found variations in the content of the inmate subculture between types of organizations, those confined in this training school have attitudes generally accepted as reflective of prisonization and related consequences. Many of the juveniles were alienated from the institution, hampering the institution's ability to pursue rehabilitative goals. Prisonization was found to have a major effect on other variables, implying reinvolvement in delinquent behavior rather than reintegration into the larger society. The findings suggest the utility of using conceptual models developed in studies of adult felon institutions for the effects of confinement on juvenile offenders. Overall, the findings show the juvenile justice system to be failing in its mandated effect to benefit those under its institutional care. Tabular data and 55 references are provided.