NCJ Number
91917
Date Published
1983
Length
404 pages
Annotation
This analysis of prison disciplinary offenses, practices, and procedures compares the systems of the United States, where legal intervention has been great, and Great Britain, where it has been noticeably absent.
Abstract
The book initially concentrates on the disciplinary process within prisons, addressing the administrative framework, offenses, punishment, personnel involved in offense determination, and specific procedures. The discussion notes that offenses reflect the prison administration's traditional resistance to change and a military-style discipline. It concludes that punishment practices have many problems and that more humane means of controlling behavior are needed, possibly modeled on Scotland's Barlinnie experiment. The author describes hearings he observed in nine American prisons and three Scottish institutions, commenting that prisoners seldom exercised their right to legal assistance and that most hearings focused on arriving at a disposition rather than determining guilt or innocence. Following a comparison of British and United States constitutional law, the book discusses judicial intervention in prison adjudications and inmates' access to remedial resources -- courts, counsel, public officials, private organizations, the media, and legal materials. Several remedies are proposed that emphasize fair treatment of the incarcerated, such as intra-agency appeal, grievance mechanisms, ombudsmen, judicial review, legal reforms, and (in Great Britain) application to the European Commission on Human Rights. The author suggests that although prison offenses and structures of hearing bodies are unlikely to change, punishments that instill responsibility might replace those fostering subservience. Prisons will not eliminate solitary confinement, but should use it only for security purposes. The appendixes contain a procedures questionnaire and an outline for observation of disciplinary hearings. Also supplied are footnotes, over 75 references, tables of statutes and cases, and an index.