Life in Prison: Conditions and Consequences of Incarceration

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Life in Prison Conditions and Consequences of
Incarceration

• Outline of Topics
• Inmate Society Adaptations to prison
• Prisoners Rights
• Getting Out of Prison

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Life in Prison

• The conditions of imprisonment
• Prison as Total Institution
• Pervasive presence of violence
• Adaptation to prison ? Prisonization
• Distinct modes of individual adaptations to
  prison? A common typology is
• Jailing
• Gleaning
• doing time
• Snitching
• freaking out

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Life in Prison the Inmate Society

• Reflect distinct social structure value code
• Documented by studies in the 1950s
• Klemmer (1951) The Prison Community
• Sykes (1958) The Society of Captives
• Situation changed in the 1960s 1970s
• Broader social changes in society
• Racial divisions became more sharply drawn
• Prison riots and disorders
• More political organization
• Growth in prison gangs
• Legal decisions and recognition of Prisoner
  Rights
• Greater heterogeneity multiple subcultures

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Life in Prison Variations

• Importance of Security Levels
• Different levels in deprivation control
• Different levels in violence and threat
• Total institutions become Partial
  institutions at lower security levels
• Differences among the security levels?
• Physical facilities
• Social organization and management
• Resident population compositions
• How many levels and how distinct are they?

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II. Prisoners Rights

• What are legal rights of convicted offenders?
• While serving their sentences conditions of
  custody and confinement
• After serving their sentences legal status
  after paying their debt (i.e., sex offenders
  loss of civil rights)
• Two constitutional provisions have had wide
  relevance for how convicted offenders treated
• 8th Amendment 13th Amendment

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Constitutional Provisions

• 13th Amendment, Section 1 Neither slavery nor
  servitude, except as a punishment for crime where
  of the party shall have been duly convicted,
  shall exist within the United States, or any
  place subject to their jurisdiction.
• 8th Amendment Excessive bail shall not be
  required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel
  and unusual punishments inflicted
• Other constitutional provisions?

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II. Prisoners Rights

• Conditions of confinement and custody
• Before 1960, little legal attention to treatment
  of prison inmates reflecting
• Common law perception that Conviction Civil
  Death (13th Amendment)
• Judicial practice Hands Off Doctrine
• Held that corrections should be viewed as an
  executive (not judicial) function
• The 8th amendment applies only generally

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Prisoners Rights (cont.)

• The Due Process revolution in the 1960s changed
  this by recognizing legal rights of prisoners
• Period of social activism challenges to the law
• Politically aware and connected prisoners
• Activist Supreme Court
• Note the Due Process revolution affected two
  distinct legal areas
• Rights of persons accused of crimes (but not yet
  convicted)
• Rights of persons convicted of crimes (and in
  state custody)

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Prisoners Rights (cont.)

• Landmark decision Cooper v. Pate (1964)
• Cooper v. Pate established the right of prisoners
  to sue for civil rights violations (Black Muslims
  at Stateville)
• Concerned right to religion worship
• Brought under Civil Rights Act of 1871
• Applies the basic due process guarantees of
  constitution even to convicted prisoners
• Suggests that the civil death under the 13th
  Amendment is not absolute
• Assigns to the Courts a greater oversight role

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Prisoners Rights (cont.)

• Cooper v. Pate (1964) was decided in limited,
  case-specific grounds
• But it opened door for many other cases to follow
  on other issues
• And it initiated the Prisoners Rights movement
• Substantive legal rights
• Access to legal process and resources
• 1st Amendment rights (i.e., speech religion)
• Medical rights
• Procedural Due Process for prison discipline
• Brutality use of force
• Conditions of confinement
• Methods of execution

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Prisoners Rights (cont.)

• Most prisoners rights suits have invoked either
  Civil Rights acts (1871)(1963) or the 8th
  Amendment
• Cruel unusual punishment (8th Amend.)
• Not initially defined in the amendment
• Has been defined through many court decisions
• shocks the conscience
• degrades the dignity of human beings
• fundamentally unfair
• deliberate indifference to personal safety
  well-being
• flagrant disregard for due process
• disproportionate to the offense for which
  sentenced
• punishes according to persons status rather
  than action

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Prisoners Rights (cont.)

• What are the major debates or disputes?
• Prisoners Rights vs. Prison Security
• Prisoners rights may be infringed when there is
  compelling public or correctional interest
• Prisons are expected to make reasonable
  accommodation (considering costs security)
• Prisoners Rights vs. Victims Rights
• Sense of justice for victims
• Security of potential victims
• Prisoner litigation prompted a political
  backlash
• Federal passage of Prison Litigation Reform Act
  in 1996 to restrict litigation by prison inmates
• Recent court decisions suggest a partial return
  to the Hands Off Doctrine

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III. Exiting Prison Getting Out

• Prison is generally intended to be a limited
  period of confinement, not a permanent state
• 93 of inmates are eventually released into
  society
• Need to consider two general questions
• How do convicted offenders get released?
• What happens to them after they are released?

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A. How Do Offenders get Released?

• Several ways that inmates are released from
  incarceration
• Unconditional Release after they have served
  the full length of their sentence in prison (15)
• Parole Conditional release into community under
  supervision prior to end of full sentence (74)
• Commutation lessening or suspension of the
  remainder of the sentence without overturning
  conviction
• Pardon suspension of the remainder of sentence
  by overturning the conviction
• Furlough temporary or periodic release into
  community for special purposes

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A. How Offenders get Released

• Most common form of release Parole (74 in
  2003 vs. 78 in 1977)
• Mandatory Release release when unserved portion
  of sentence equals earned good time
• 52 in 2003
• 6 in 1977
• Discretionary Release release on the
  discretionary judgment of parole board
• 22 in 2003
• 72 in 1977

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Release on Parole (cont.)

• Parole boards
• Reduced roles of parole offices with mandatory
  release
• Conflicting roles of parole officers
• Conditions of Parole
• Revocation of Parole
• Causes of revocation
• Technical violations (about ½)
• New crimes (arrests or convictions) (about ½)
• Revocation hearings
• Intensive Parole Supervision

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Release on Parole (cont.)

• Effectiveness of Parole (2 senses)
• Successful completion of parole period
• Staying crime-free after parole period
• Parole Failure Rate
• about 65 are rearrested within 3 years
• About 50 are returned to prison
• 25 fortechnical violations 25 for new crimes
• Highest rearrest rates property crime offenders
  (about 75)
• Lowest rearrest rates violent crime offenders
  (40-45)

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Release on Parole (cont.)

• Why do released offenders fail?
• Personal characteristics
• Impact of prison and readjustment problems
• Lingering effect of a criminal record
• Permanent effect of being a convict
• Enduring stigma of criminal record
• Expungement?
• Loss of civil rights

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Rights lost upon conviction?

• 14 states permanently deny felons the right to
  vote
• 18 states suspend right to vote until sentence
  completed
• 19 states terminate parental rights
• 29 states consider felony conviction legal
  grounds for divorce
• 6 states deny felons the opportunity for public
  employment
• 31 states disallow convicted felons right to
  serve on juries
• 29 states prevent convicted felons from holding
  public office
• Federal law prohibits ex-convicts from owning
  guns all states (except Vermont) have
  additional limitations on gun ownership
• 46 states require that felons register with
  police agencies (note that in 1986 only 8 states
  had this requirement)
• 4 states still practice full civil death (or
  loss of all civil rights) for ex-convicts