NCJ Number
79043
Journal
Federal Probation Volume: 45 Issue: 2 Dated: (June 1981) Pages: 3-9
Date Published
1981
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This article discusses ways to reduce tension on prison inmates according to individual inmate susceptibilities to various debilitating influences.
Abstract
Although current correctional reform ideologies advocate the reduction of imprisonment and the development of alternatives to insitutionalization, the use of prisons has increased for a variety of reasons. Given this circumstance, efforts should be made to increase the humaneness of prison environments by classifying inmates and adjusting individual environmental influences so that inordinate stress is eliminated. Those who classify inmates should be intimately familiar with the environmental options available; the consequences of classification decisions should be closely monitored. 'Trial classification' should also be instituted in order to prevent mismatches from being perpetuated. Guards and other staff should also be expected to monitor classification outcomes. Benefits have resulted from developing separate units of inmates within large prisons, so as to create favorable climates for various classifications of inmates. This creation of smaller units of inmates within a prison also permits the development of a therapeutic-community format, where inmate and staff roles and interactions are subjected to constant scrutiny within group discussions, critiques, and decisionmaking. This provides inmates with a significant amount of control in managing their environment to accord with their personal needs. In addition, a system of checks and balances should exist to avoid the perpetuation of unexamined debilitating prison environments. More outside officials, prison staff, and inmates should be vested with the authority and responsibility to identify suffering inmates, initiate expeditious redress of such suffering, and develop programs that will reduce the prevalence of stress. A total of 19 footnotes are listed.