Why inmates return to prison




















Women whose financial needs decreased were less likely to be rearrested and convicted relative to other women. Mitchell Jill A. Prescott, Benjamin Pyle, and Sonja B. Of these, 4 were for alleged misdemeanor offenses. Agan and Michael D. Workers With Criminal Records Society for Human Resource Management and the Charles Koch Institute, May, 74 percent of managers and 84 percent of HR professionals nationwide said they were willing or open to hiring individuals with a criminal record.

Investing Justice Resources to Address Community Needs Urban Institute, February, This report provides an overview of a Colorado based program designed to coordinate the flow of resources to community-led organizations providing direct services to formerly incarcerated people navigating the reentry process.

Kirk, Geoffrey C. Barnes, Jordan M. Hyatt, and Brook W. A Place to Call Home: A Vision for Safe, Supportive and Affordable Housing for People with Justice System Involvement Prisoner Reentry Institute, October, This document makes the case for providing digni ed housing that meets the needs of those with criminal justice histories, and providing it as quickly as possible upon reentry. A State Survey of Serious Mental Illness, Major Crimes and Community Treatment Treatment Advocacy Center, September, This report ascertain each state's structure and programming to assist individuals with serious mental illness who have committed major crimes succeed after community reentry.

And, while that estimate is not certain, there is as much reason overall to believe that incarceration increases crime as decreases it. California Probation in the Era of Reform Public Policy Institute of California, August, California's public safety realignment shifted the management of lower-level offenders from state prison and parole to county jail and probation.

This report discusses how these changes affected local corrections systems. Two-thirds of prisoners who responded to our survey said they had not received mental or behavioral health counseling while in federal prison. Over this period, education aid per student increased by only 11 percent.

Yet that is exactly what mandatory driver's license suspensions do: they introduce new legal, economic, and social barriers for people who are in the midst of reentry. The confinement rate of juveniles rose steadily from in , to in the mids, to in , reaching a peak in before starting to decline Allen-Hagen, ; Child Trends, n.

It is worth noting that the placement rate did not change substantially between and ; the increased confinement rate is due largely to the growth of delinquency referrals handled by juvenile courts during that period rather than greater use of placement National Research Council, With the growth in prison and jail populations, juveniles still represent less than 1 percent of the overall incarcerated population.

When youth are confined in jails, detention centers, or prisons designed for adults, they have limited access to educational and rehabilitative services appropriate to their age and development. Living in more threatening adult correctional environments places them at greater risk of mental and physical harm Deitch et al. Research also has shown that placing youth in the adult corrections system instead of retaining them in the juvenile system increases their risk of reoffending Bishop and Frazier, ; Mulvey and Schubert, ; Redding, These disadvantages are borne disproportionately by youth of color, who are overrepresented at every stage of the juvenile justice process and particularly in the numbers transferred to adult court.

Youth of color also remain in the system longer than white youth. Minority overrepresentation within the juvenile justice system raises at least two types of concerns. First, it calls into question the overall fairness and legitimacy of the juvenile justice system.

Second, it has serious implications for the life-course trajectories of many minority youth who may be stigmatized and adversely affected in other ways by criminal records attained at comparatively young ages National Research Council, Congress first focused on these kinds of racial disparities in when it amended the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of P. If the number of minority youth was disproportionate, then states were required to develop and implement plans for reducing the disproportionate representation.

Despite a research and policy focus on this matter for more than two decades, however, remarkably little progress has been made toward reducing the disparities themselves. On the other hand, at least in the past decade, some jurisdictions have begun to take significant steps to overhaul their juvenile justice systems to reduce the use of punitive practices and heighten awareness of racial disparities for more discussion, see National Research Council [].

The steady decline in the juvenile confinement rate, from per. Thus, the requirement was broadened from disproportionate minority confinement to disproportionate minority contact, and states were required to implement strategies aimed at reducing disproportionality.

Imprisonment produces negative, disabling behavioral and physical changes in some prisoners, and certain prison conditions can greatly exacerbate those changes. As discussed further below, numerous empirical studies have confirmed this observation. Many aspects of prison life—including material deprivations; restricted movement and liberty; a lack of meaningful activity; a nearly total absence of personal privacy; and high levels of interpersonal uncertainty, danger, and fear—expose prisoners to powerful psychological stressors that can.

Prison stress can affect prisoners in different ways and at different stages of their prison careers. Some prisoners experience the initial period of incarceration as the most difficult, and that stress may precipitate acute psychiatric symptoms that surface for the first time.

Preexisting psychological disorders thus may be exacerbated by initial experiences with incarceration e. Other prisoners appear to survive the initial phases of incarceration relatively intact only to find themselves worn down by the ongoing physical and psychological challenges and stress of confinement. They may suffer a range of psychological problems much later in the course of their incarceration Taylor, ; Jose-Kampfner, ; Rubenstein, For some prisoners, extreme prison stress takes a more significant psychological toll.

Posttraumatic stress disorder PTSD is a diagnosis applied to a set of interrelated, trauma-based symptoms, including depression, emotional numbing, anxiety, isolation, and hypervigilance.

Studies conducted in the United States have observed the highest prevalence: PTSD is reported in 21 percent of male prisoners Gibson et al.

Herman proposes an expanded diagnostic category that appears to describe more accurately the kind of traumatic reactions produced by certain experiences within prisons. A person must 1 be exposed to a severe stressor resulting in intense fear or helplessness; 2 undergo psychic reexperiencing or reenacting of the trauma; 3 engage in avoidance behavior or experience psychic numbing; and 4 experience increased arousal, typically in the presence of stimuli related to or reminiscent of the original trauma American Psychiatric Association, For additional discussion of the disorder, see Wilson and Raphael As reported in Haney , p.

Complex PTSD can result in protracted depression, apathy, and the development of a deep sense of hopelessness as the long-term psychological costs of adapting to an oppressive situation.

Of course, the unique and potent stresses of imprisonment are likely to interact with and amplify whatever preexisting vulnerabilities prisoners bring to prison.

Prisoners vary in their backgrounds and vulnerabilities and in how they experience or cope with the same kinds of environments and events. As a result, the same prison experiences have different consequences for different prisoners e. Many prisoners come from socially and economically marginalized groups and have had adverse experience in childhood and adolescence that may have made them more rather than less vulnerable to psychological stressors and less able to cope effectively with the chronic strains of prison life than those with less problematic backgrounds e.

As noted earlier, significant percentages of prisoners suffer from a range of serious, diagnosable psychological disorders, including clinical depression and psychosis as well as PTSD.

The exact onset and causal origins of these disorders cannot always be determined—some are undoubtedly preexisting conditions, some are exacerbated by the harshness and stress of incarceration, and others may originate in the turmoil and trauma generated by prison experiences.

The incidence of psychological disorders among prisoners is discussed further in Chapter 7. Clemmer , p. Incorporating these mores is a matter less of choice than of necessity.

In addition to the internalizing of cultural aspects of the prison, prisonization occurs as prisoners undergo a number of psychological changes or transformations to adapt to the demands of prison life. It is a form of coping in response to the abnormal practices and conditions that incarceration entails. The nature and degree of prisonization will vary.

Two notable characteristics of the prison environment contribute to the process of prisonization: the necessary structure and routines that can erode personal autonomy and the threat of victimization. Maintaining order and safety within prisons often requires that routines and safeguards be established.

As a result, daily decisions—such as when they get up; when, what, or where they eat; and when phone calls are allowed—are made for prisoners.

Over long periods, such routines can become increasingly natural Zamble, , and some prisoners can become dependent on the direction they afford. As Irwin , p. Those who succumb to prisonization may have trouble adjusting to life back in the community, which is more unstructured and unpredictable. In extreme cases, some lose the capacity to initiate activities and plans and to make decisions Haney, In addition, prisoners often are aware of the threat of victimization, especially in overcrowded institutions.

As part of the process of prisonization, prisoners develop strategies for coping with or adjusting to this threat McCorkle, Some prisoners become hypervigilant. Some cope with the threat of victimization by establishing a reputation for toughness, reacting quickly and instinctively even to seemingly insignificant insults, minor affronts, or slightest signs of disrespect, sometimes with decisive even deadly force Haney, ; Phillips, Other prisoners adopt aggressive survival strategies that include proactively victimizing others King, ; Rideau and Sinclair, As King , pp.

The process of adapting to the prison environment has several psychological dimensions. Often unable to trust anyone, they. Some prisoners can become psychologically scarred in ways that intensify their sense of anger and deepen their commitment to the role of an outsider, and perhaps a criminal lifestyle Irwin, The prisonization process has additional psychological components. Finally, as Lerman b, pp. Prisoners who have deeply internalized the broad set of habits, values, and perspectives brought about by prisonization are likely to have difficulty transitioning to the community.

Not surprisingly, according to Haney , p. We have repeatedly emphasized that even maximum and medium security prisons vary widely in how they are physically structured, in the procedures by which they operate, and in the corresponding psychological environment inside. We have focused our analysis primarily on what can be regarded as the common features of prison life, lived under ordinary circumstances. However, the aphorism that.

In this section, we consider two prison conditions that are at the extreme ends of the social spectrum of experiences within prison—overcrowding and isolation. As noted earlier, the rapid increase in the overall number of incarcerated persons in the United States resulted in widespread prison overcrowding.

The speed and size of the influx outpaced the ability of many states to construct enough additional bedspace to meet the increased demand Haney, Specifically, as of the end of , only 20 state prison systems were operating at less than percent of design capacity, while 27 state systems and the Federal Bureau of Prisons were operating at percent of design capacity or greater see Guerino et al.

California has experienced significant prison population reductions since then, largely in response to the federal court directive issued in Brown v. Plata In the mids, the average prisoner in a maximum security prison in the United States was housed in a single cell that was roughly 60 square feet in dimension slightly larger than a king size bed or small bathroom.

That relatively small area typically held a bunk, a toilet and sink usually fused into a single unit , a cabinet or locker in which prisoners stored their personal property which had to be kept inside the cell , and sometimes a small table or desk. After the s, double-celling or, in extreme cases, triple-celling, dormitory housing, or even the use of makeshift dormitories.

See Carson and Sabol , p. The use of double-celling can place a significant strain on prison services if not accompanied by commensurate increases in staffing, programming resources and space, and infrastructure to accommodate the larger population of prisoners in confined spaces. During the period of rapidly increasing rates of incarceration, legislators, correctional officials, and prison architects came to assume that double-celling would continue, and as noted earlier, the Supreme Court in essence authorized its use.

Despite the initial widespread concern over double-celling among correctional professionals, prison litigators, and human rights groups, this practice became common in prison systems across the United States. Although many prisoners have a decidedly different view, correctional officials report that it causes a minimum of disruption to basic prison operations Vaugh, Several correctional practices have perhaps ameliorated the dire consequences that were predicted to follow widespread double-celling.

One such practice is use of the larger cells mentioned above. These are smaller than the previously recommended 60 square feet of space per prisoner, and not all prisons adhere to this new standard. However, those that do—typically prisons built more recently—provide double-celled prisoners with more space than they had in the small cells common in older facilities. In addition, even in some older facilities that do not meet the newer standard, the adverse consequences of double-celling can be mitigated by extending the amount of time prisoners are permitted to be out of their cells and increasing the number of opportunities they have for meaningful programming and other productive activities.

A large literature on overcrowding in prison has documented a range of adverse consequences for health, behavior, and morale, particularly when overcrowding persists for long periods e.

More recently, British researchers found that overcrowding and perceived aggression and violence were related to increased arousal and stress and decreased psychological well-being Lawrence and Andrews, In another study, Gillespie observed that prior street drug use and degree of overcrowding could explain the.

In addition, several studies have made a connection between overcrowding and the increased risk of suicide Huey and McNulty, ; Leese et al.

According to Huey and McNulty , p. Establishing empirical relationships between overcrowding and inmate disciplinary infractions and violence has proven challenging e. Some studies have found a causal relationship, while others have not for a review, see Steiner and Wooldredge, The apparent inconsistency in outcomes may be due in part to other factors of prison life that complicate research in this area, including the level of analysis at which crowding is measured and its effects are assessed e.

Prison operations adjust and institutional actors adapt in multiple ways in attempts to deal with overcrowding-related pressures. Inmate violence levels themselves are known to be affected by a complex set of forces and factors Steiner, , and even undercrowded conditions, prisoner behavior can be managed through exceptional means, such as an especially high concentration of staff Tartino and Levy, These and other complexities likely help explain the lack of definitive research results on this issue.

According to Haney , p. Overcrowding is likely to raise collective frustration levels inside prisons by generally decreasing the amount of resources available to prisoners.

In addition, overcrowding has systemic consequences for prison systems. Prisons and prison systems may become so crowded that staff members struggle to provide prisoners with basic, necessary services such as proper screening and treatment for medical and mental illnesses see Chapter 7.

In fact, the Supreme Court recently concluded that overcrowding in the large California prison system. Prison administrators can take steps to ameliorate the potentially harmful impact of overcrowding, and many of them have done so. To deal with drug use, for example, prison officials have effectively employed increased surveillance and interdiction of the flow of drugs into prisons, increased the number and effectiveness of internal searches, implemented more random drug testing of prisoners, provided significant disincentives for drug possession or use, made treatment more accessible to prisoners with substance abuse problems, and closely monitored the continued application of these measures and their outcomes.

Such control efforts have proven effective as part of a comprehensive drug interdiction program in reducing overall levels of drug use even in overcrowded prisons e.

Heightened staffing levels may allow prisons to approximate the kind of programming and increased out-of-cell time that less crowded prisons would afford at least to the point where the sheer lack of space impedes or prevents doing so and may serve to counteract some of the adverse consequences of overcrowding.

Similarly, the introduction of improved mental health monitoring and suicide prevention programs may lessen the harmful psychological consequences of overcrowding. As noted earlier, there is evidence that at least since the s, prisons generally have become safer and more secure along certain measurable dimensions. Specifically, the number of riots and escapes and per capita rates of staff and inmate homicides and suicides all have decreased sharply from the early s.

Thus, however much the severe overcrowding and lack of programming may have adversely affected the quality of life for prisoners, certain basic and important forms of order and safety were maintained and even improved in some prison systems Useem and Piehl, , There are a number of plausible explanations for this unexpected finding.

For one, during the period in which rates of imprisonment rapidly increased, a greater proportion of prisoners were incarcerated for nonviolent, less serious crimes. In addition, the architecture and technology of institutional control became much more sophisticated and elaborate over this period, so that correctional systems may have become more effective at responding to and thwarting disruptive or problematic behavior. A number of commentators also have acknowledged the important ways in which decisive judicial intervention and continuing oversight contributed significantly to maintaining prison order and stability, as well as ameliorating the most inhumane practices and conditions during the period of the prison buildup Feeley and Rubin, ; Schlanger, Finally, other.

Also deserving of further study is the extent to which prisoner characteristics, modern forms of architectural and institutional control, decisive judicial intervention, and the use of more sophisticated prison management practices have successfully offset the negative consequences of overcrowding discussed above. Whether and to what degree some or all of these ameliorating factors may have entailed significant trade-offs in other aspects of the quality of prison life should be investigated as well e.

Historically, to maintain order and safety within facilities, prison administrators have placed individuals exhibiting assaultive, violent, or disruptive behaviors in housing units separate from the general prison population.

Segregation or isolated confinement goes by a variety of names in prisons in the United States—solitary confinement, security housing, administrative segregation, close management, high security, closed cell restriction, and others.

Isolated units may also be used for protective custody, for those inmates that need to be protected from others but do not necessarily pose a threat to the population.

Such units have in common the fact that the prisoners they house have limited social contact in comparison with the general prison population. Ensuring inmates receive appropriate substance abuse treatment. BOP has provided intensive substance abuse treatment for inmates for more than 20 years. In addition, to help inmates with a history of opioid dependence as they transition back to the community, BOP has recently launched a regional field trial to offer Medication-Assisted Treatment MAT for certain inmates, with plans to expand the program.

Helping inmates maintain family ties while incarcerated. In April , BOP announced a series of family-friendly initiatives aimed at strengthening the bonds between inmates and their children and families.

These programs included expanded video-conferencing visitation; the launch of a pilot program that engages children of incarcerated parents in positive youth development activities; new guidance and training for BOP staff on how to make visitation spaces more child friendly and interact with children in a developmentally appropriate way; educating inmates on how to keep in contact with children who may be in foster care; tip sheets for parents, correctional staff and mentors to support children of incarcerated parents; and a new interagency partnership to develop model policies that can be used by state and local prison facilities to help strengthen family ties.

Enhancing programs for female inmates. In December , the Bureau will resume housing female inmates at its facility in Danbury, Connecticut, making it easier for female inmates from the Northeast to remain in contact with their families. In addition, the Danbury facility will house an integrated treatment facility for female inmates, which will include RDAP, a mental health step-down program, and a trauma treatment program.

Over the past year, the Bureau has sought to enhance its overall programming for females, culminating in its first-ever national conference for Bureau wardens and agency leaders on gender-responsive programming.

R educing the use of solitary confinement and other forms of restrictive housing. In January , the Department of Justice announced a series of reforms designed to safely limit the use of solitary confinement and other forms of restrictive housing throughout the criminal justice system.

As part of this effort, BOP agreed to end the practice of placing juveniles in restrictive housing and to limit its use for low-level disciplinary infractions. In an August memorandum, the Department announced that the Bureau would be reducing—and ultimately ending—its use of privately operated prisons. To further this objective, the Bureau recently reduced the beds sought in a pending solicitation to private prison companies down from 10, beds to 3, beds.

Reforming and strengthening federal halfway houses. Since the early s, the ownership and operation of RRCs have been fully privatized, with BOP relying on a mix of for-profit companies and non-profit organizations. Of the prisoners released during —18 in Victoria, This was similar to the national rate of Percentage of prisoners released during —18 who returned to prison within two years.



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