1
Life in Prison Conditions and Consequences of
Incarceration

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

2
Life in Prison

• The conditions of imprisonment shape prison life
• Prison a Total Institution
• The attendant problem of institutionalization
• Deprivation of common everyday experiences
• Pervasive presence of violence
• Adaptation to prison ? Prisonization
• Personal adaptations to prison
• Collective adaptations to prison inmate
  society inmate social codes
• Privation vs. Importation as explanations

3
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
• Fits with Shawshank Redemption depiction
• 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

4
Life in Prison (continued)

• Changes in 1980s and 1990s
• Changes in prison administration
• Changes in professionalization
• Prison more tightly run with greater oversight
  and accountability
• Privatization provided competition
• Currently prison life does not look like that
  depicted in Shawshank Redemption

5
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?

6
Security Levels in Prisons

• See the description in the book of levels
• Levels inmates in state prisons (2004)
• Minimum Security 34.4
• Medium Security 37.1
• Maximum Security 21.5
• Super-Max 0.5
• Unclassified 6.5
• Note wide variation in use of security levels
  across states

7
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

8
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?

9
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
• Corrections viewed as an executive (not judicial)
  function
• The 8th amendment applies only generally

10
Prisoners Rights (cont.)

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

11
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
• Applied the basic due process guarantees of
  constitution even to convicted prisoners
• Suggests that the civil death under the 13th
  Amendment is not absolute
• Assigns Courts a greater oversight role in
  corrections

12
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
• Subsequent substantive legal rights of inmates
• 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

13
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

14
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 restricts litigation by prison inmates
• Recent court decisions suggest a partial return
  to the Hands Off Doctrine

15
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?

16
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)
• Conditional Release Supervised release into
  community 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

17
A. How Offenders get Released

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

18
Release on Parole (cont.)

• Parole boards
• Reduced roles of parole boards offices with
  mandatory release
• Conflicting roles of parole officers
• Conditions of Parole
• Revocation of Parole
• Causes of revocation
• Technical violations (about 50)
• New crimes (arrests or convictions) (about 50)
• Revocation hearings
• Intensive Parole Supervision

19
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
• 1/2 for technical violations 1/2 for new crimes
• Highest rearrest rates property crime offenders
  (about 75) drug offenders
• Lowest rearrest rates violent crime offenders
  (40-45) sex offenders

20
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
• Loss of opportunities for reintegration
• Loss of civil rights?

21
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