NCJ Number
70899
Date Published
1980
Length
119 pages
Annotation
This book analyzes the legitimate and illegitimate marketplaces in the prison subculture, based on research conducted at a Michigan maximum security prison.
Abstract
Data were collected using open-ended interviews with 207 residents, 49 guards and staff members, and 27 former residents of the prison. In addition, questionnaires were distributed to a selected sample of residents and staff. Following discussions of the legitimate inmate economy and sources of income, the book describes the illegitimate sector and factors within the prison system that facilitate the flow of contraband. The nine major contraband categories analyzed include drugs, alcoholic beverages, gambling, contraband appliances, clothing, buying of institutional privileges, weapons, contraband food and canteen services and prostitution. For each category, issues addressed include the perceived risk involved in supplying contraband, supply and consumer typologies, market structure, and demand elasticities based on estimates of demand curves. In addition, residents' marginal propensity to consumer and income elasticities of demand for legitimate and illegitimate sectors were estimated. Further areas explored include the informal inmate power structure that supports and is supported by the contraband market system and prison administrators' dilemma in trying to control the system. Results indicate that traditional bureaucratic solutions have not eliminated contraband, because they ignore the incongruity between institutional goals and residents' psychological goals. Prison administrators must modify existing prison management philosophies, policies, and procedures to decrease this incongruity. Figures, tables, an index, 94 references, and appendixes presenting study instruments are included.