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Overview
Prisons were initially created as a means of reforming offenders, but over time, the objective of rehabilitation gave way to a strategy of mass imprisonment—a system that has resulted in correctional facilities dealing with serious problems such as overcrowding, prison gangs, pervasive violence, and a significant incidence of mental illness among inmates. Prisons in the United States: A Reference Handbook examines the history of corrections in America, detailing how well-intentioned policies intended to "get tough on crime" sanctioned the dismantling of parole systems and resulted in laws that imposed mandatory minimum sentences. These changes contributed to the United States now having the biggest incarcerated population worldwide and the highest rate of incarceration.
The book offers an accessible history of the development of the prison system in the United States and analyzes the various problems and controversies associated with prisons in the present day. The coverage includes key related issues, including those of race and gender, and enables readers to understand how past developments continue to affect public and official perceptions of the prison experience—for example, how the practice of keeping inmates in solitary confinement for lengthy periods has been reinvented and represents a returban to a historically discredited practice. Accounts of former inmates and of correctional officers are integrated into the text, adding context and offering rarely heard perspectives on difficult issues affecting prisons.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781440844379 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Publication date: | 03/27/2017 |
| Series: | Contemporary World Issues |
| Pages: | 336 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.81(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Preface xiii
1 Background and History 1
History of the Prison 2
Traditional Punishments: Colonial Period 4
Jails, Prisons, and Penal Reform 4
The Birth and Decline of the Penitentiary 9
Elmira Reformatory and the Men's Reformatory Movement, 1876-1920 21
The Women's Reformatory Movement 26
Post-Penitentiary Developments, 1865-1940 32
Individual Deviance and the Medical Model: Progressive Period, 1900-1920 33
The 1940s 40
Developments in Corrections: The 1950s to Date 41
References 50
2 Problems, Controversies, and Solutions 55
The "Pains of Imprisonment" and Recidivism 56
Prison and Amenities: Principle of Less Eligibility 64
Rising Correctional Costs 70
Mentally Ill Prisoners 71
Elderly Prisoners 74
Prison Violence 75
Prison Gangs 81
Juveniles in Adult Prisons 87
The Corrections Industrial Complex 89
Private Prisons 90
Super-Maximum or "Supermax" Prisons 94
Solitary Confinement 99
Prison Rape 104
Transgender Prisoners 108
Life Sentences and Life without Parole (LWOP) 111
Abolishing Imprisonment and Prison Reform 114
References 118
3 Perspectives 129
Imprisonment in America, Ashley Nellis 131
Mass Injustice: The War on Drugs, Institutional Discrimination, and the Impact on U.S. Prisons, Christine Arazan 135
Supermax: A Troubling Trend in Incarceration, Michael Costelloe 140
Should a College Degree Be Required for Correctional Officers?, Deborah Mitchell Robinson 144
Challenges Paced by Female Prison Officers Working with Female Prisoners, Susan Jones 147
Threads of Correctional Leadership: A Wardens Perspective, Angel Medina 150
Working with Chronically Mentally HI Inmates: A Shift Commander's Perspective, Vince Guerrero 155
Roll Call James J. Hamm 159
4 Profiles 165
American Civil Liberties Union National Prison Project 166
American Correctional Association 167
American Correctional Health Services Association 169
American Friends Service Committee 171
Association of State Correctional Administrators 172
Bureau of Justice Statistics 174
Correctional Association of New York 175
Corrections Technology Association 178
Families Against Mandatory Minimums 179
Federal Bureau of Prisons 180
Human Rights Watch 184
The Innocence Project 185
National Association of Sentencing Commissions 187
National Correctional Industries Association 189
National Institute of Corrections 190
The Sentencing Project 192
Solitary Watch 194
Transgender Law Center Detention Project 194
U.S. Sentencing Commission 195
Women's Prison Association 198
5 Data and Documents 201
Incarceration Trends and Numbers 201
Figure 5.1 International Rates of Incarceration per 100,000 202
Figure 5.2 U.S. State and Federal Prison Population, 1925-2014 202
Table 5.1 Prisoners under the Jurisdiction of State or Federal Correctional Authorities, December 31, 2004-2014 203
Table 5.2 Imprisonment Rates for Sentenced Prisoners under the Jurisdiction of State and Federal Correctional Authorities per 100,000 U.S. Residents, December 31, 2014 204
Demographic Characteristics 205
Table 5.3 Imprisonment Rate of Sentenced State and Federal Male Prisoners per 100,000 U.S. Residents, by Demographic Characteristics, December 31, 2014 206
Table 5.4 Imprisonment Rate of Sentenced State and Federal Female Prisoners per 100,000 U.S. Residents, by Demographic Characteristics, December 31, 2014 206
Type of Offense 207
Table 5.5 Estimated Percentage of Sentenced Prisoners under Federal Correctional Authority, by Most Serious Offense, Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin, September 30, 2014 207
Recidivism 208
Table 5.6 Rearrest Rates for Recidivism Study Offenders by Federal Offense Type 209
Table 5.7 Texas: Rearrest Rates by Fiscal Year of Release or Start of Supervision, Fiscal Years 2009-2011 Showing Percentage Rearrested within Three Years 210
Mandatory Minimum Sentences 211
Table 5.8 Overcrowding in All Federal Facilities and Low-, Medium-, and High-Security Male Facilities, FY1995-FY2012 212
Life Sentences and Life without Parole 213
Table 5.9 Offenses for Which Life Imprisonment Was Imposed in the Federal System in FY2013 213
Table 5.10 Offenses for Which De Facto Life Sentences Were Imposed in the Federal System in FY2013 214
Table 5.11 State Enactment of Life without Parole Laws 214
The Aging Prison Population 215
Table 5.12 Sentenced State Prisoners, by Age, Race, and Hispanic Origin, December 31, 1993 215
Table 5.13 Sentenced State Prisoners, by Age, Race, and Hispanic Origin, December 31, 2013 216
Mental Health 217
Table 5.14 Prevalence of Symptoms of Mental Health Disorders among State and Federal Prisoners, 2004 217
Table 5.15 Prisoners Who Had a Mental Health Problem, by Characteristic of Gender, Age, and Race 219
Documents 220
Colonial Punishments 220
U.S. Constitution 221
Benjamin Rush on Public Punishments (1798) 221
On the Penitentiary System in the United States (1833) 223
Female Convicts (1864) 226
Resolutions of the National Congress on Penitentiary and Reformatory Discipline (1870) 228
Grover Cleveland on Prison Reform (1886) 230
Herbert Hoover on Federal Prison Reform (1929) 233
Richard Nixon on Prison Labor (1973) 235
Barack Obama on Prison Reform (2015) 238
6 Resources 245
Books and Book Chapters 245
Journal Articles 264
Reports of Federal Agencies 266
News Media Reports 267
Reports by Private Organizations 269
Nonprint Resources 269
7 Chronology 281
Glossary 293
Index 297
About the Author 311