NCJ Number
92600
Date Published
1982
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This study describes the inmate work program of the district jail in Sager, India, and explores the staff's orientation toward correctional objectives, inmates' attitudes toward the work program, and the work program's rehabilitative impact.
Abstract
Interviews with inmates and jail staff were used to profile the inmates, the jail staff, and the types of work and job skills taught. Most of the inmate labor involves maintenance of the jail and its functions, particularly the kitchen. Other work assignments are carpetmaking, weaving, carpentry-blacksmithy, and farming. Illiterate or poorly educated inmates are arbitrarily assigned to work programs supervised by untrained custodial officers with no mandate to instruct inmates in vocational tasks. Equipment is obsolete, and program structure and procedures do not support rehabilitative aims. The vocational skills acquired by inmates are not relevant to the job market outside the jail, and there is no followup to determine whether inmates acquire work after their release. Most of the towns hosting district jails have industrial-technical institutes that provide short-term vocational training programs. Jail work programs might use some of the resources of these institutes.