Living Inside Prison Walls: Adjustment Behavior

• NCJ Number: 177686
• Author(s): Victoria R. DeRosia
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 216 pages
• Sale Source: Praeger Publishers
• Publication Format: Book (Hardbound)
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Thirty inmates who were incarcerated in New York State correctional facilities and were considered advantaged with respect to education, occupation, and social position were compared with 30 nonadvantaged inmates on their adjustment to the prison experience.

Abstract

The research sought to provide information and insight regarding a little-known subpopulation of offenders. Study information was collected by means of detailed interviews regarding the imprisonment experience from the inmate's perspective. Results revealed basically effective adaptation among the subsample of advantaged offenders. A preprison advantaged background status strongly influenced the offender's identity, perceptions of problems, time-management skills, sense of control over personal destiny, and philosophy. Advantaged offenders were very unlikely to be involved in misconduct and were more likely than others to have close family ties and to be active in positive institutional programs. They also had a need for structure, order, productivity, and control and to use coping mechanisms such as elitism or a sense of superiority over more traditional offenders. Findings indicated the need for corrections to find a way to convey the positive message that misconduct need not be the norm and to use the knowledge and experiences of well-behaved offenders. One possibility would be to develop a course or program on positive institutional behavior; the plan of the New York State Department of Correctional Services to establish inmate program associates is a promising change. Other potential improvements would be to reorganize the system of inmate classification to integrate well-behaved advantaged offenders with well-behaved nonadvantaged offenders, to increase opportunities for interactions between inmates and their significant relatives and friends, and to increase opportunities for program participation by all inmates. Research recommendations, tables, index, appended instrument, and 158 references