NCJ Number
179472
Editor(s)
Michael Tonry,
Joan Petersilia
Date Published
1999
Length
562 pages
Annotation
These 10 essays survey current knowledge about policy issues and research developments related to prisons and imprisonment; topics include deterrence, incapacitation, public spending, overcrowding, prison management, inmate health care, inmate suicide, the effects of imprisonment on the offenders' later lives, and others.
Abstract
The volume was jointly sponsored by the National Institute of Justice and the Corrections Program Office of the Office of Justice Programs. The first essay notes that the relationship between corrections policies and crime rates and crime patterns are unknown due to the problem of covariance. It also summarizes several issue clusters on which research has improved understanding; these include the collateral effects of imprisonment; the crime control effects of imprisonment; inmate and staff subcultures and interactions; and the political economy of prisons. Essays on prison population growth examine the factors responsible for the increases and the reasons for changes in penal policy. Additional essays examine the collateral consequences of imprisonment for inmates' children, communities, and former prisoners and examine changes and current challenges in corrections management. Further essays focus on interpersonal violence and social order in prisons and factors related to the relatively high and increasing rates of prison suicides. An essay that reviews research findings on adult correctional treatment concludes that treatment is effective in reducing criminal recidivism and that behavioral/cognitive treatments generally produce larger effects than other treatments. The final two essays examine changes in inmate health care and health care management and recent changes in discretionary parole release and parole field services. Figures, tables, footnotes, author and subject indexes, and chapter reference lists