Prison Management

1
Prison Management

• Governing Prisons
• Corrections Officers

2
Prisons as unique organizations (vs. UMD or
General Motors)

• Dont select clients
• Have little or no control over release
• Clients held against their will
• Clients do most of the daily work in the
  institution (and are not really paid)
• Depends on the relationships between staff
  clients

3
How best to run prison?

• The Old Penology
• PN vs Auburn model, prison farms, etc.
• Use of corporal punishment
• Sociological Research/Implications
• Interest in inmate culture, argot roles,
  prisonization, and so forth
• Not interested in helping the man control
  inmates
• Implies that running a prison demands the
  cooperation of inmates (CO-inmate agreement,
  tolerate some violations, etc.)

4
John DiIulio Governing Prisons (1986)

• Approaches issue from policy/political science
  background
• What is a good prison?
• Confinement model
• Order, amenity, security
• Comparison of three prison systems
• TX control model
• MI responsibility model
• CA consensual model
• Concludes TX is best, and suggests much of the
  prison violence in 1960s/70s due to lax,
  liberal management

5
DiIulio II

• Critique
• Was prison violence of the 1970s due to
  lax/permissive management?
• The exceptional leader theory of prison
  management
• Defects in the TX system
• Building Tenders
• CO use of physical coercion
• Collapse of TX system in 1980s
• Importance of Book MANAGEMENT MATTERS

6
Manager Styles

• Authoritarian
• gives orders, manages details, controls all (TOP
  DOWN)
• Joseph Ragen (Stateville until 1960s)
• George Beto (TX until 1970s, Walking George)
• Laissez-faire
• Little/no direction (do what you think is best)
• Maybe for hospitals (highly trained staff) but
  probably not prisons
• Democratic/participatory
• See, A Model Prison box in Clear et al. book
• Inmates pool funds to buy amenities, town hall
  meetings

7
Unit Management

• Used heavily in the federal BOP and many states
  (more popular of late)
• Divide prison into small units
• Greatly aided by architecture (pods)
• Units more manageable
• Team approach (CO and caseworkers)
• Better career ladder
• Restrict inmate movement

8
Corrections Officers

• How do COs maintain control over the inmate
  population?
• Hassine?
• Conover?
• Bases of Power
• Legit (power b/c of position)
• Coercive (ability to punish)
• Reward (ability to reward)
• Expert (special knowledge, skill, professional
  judgment)
• Referent (gain respect)

9
Influences on Power

• What dictates the type of power that is most
  important to a CO?
• Environment/Structure
• Coercion less likely in a centralized bureaucracy
  
• Expert more valued and training more likely
• Attitudes/Roles
• More social distance less referent/expert power
• Custody orientation more coercive
• Type of prison (Rx or Custody)
• Rx depends upon more referent/expert power

10
Marquart (1986)

• The extent and nature of the use of coercive
  force
• Qualitative/participatory studyCO in the Texas
  Department of Corrections
• Ass Whooping and Tune up relatively common.
• Part of CO subculture (build cohesion), how
  officers got better post or were promoted,
  maintain control model
• More common among young

11
Job Satisfaction/Burnout

• Why Important?
• What predicts burnout/intention to quit?
• Importation (Gender, Race, Education, etc.)
• Weak effects, but nonwhite, female, more
  education hold more negative attitudes
• Deprivation (Perception of Danger)
• Danger is 1 predictor (mean r .26)
• Management (Supervisor Support, Role conflict)
• Role conflict (r .22), Support (r -.16)

12
CO Basics

• Corrections Officers
• More popular now (move up ranks, money is a bit
  better, more qualfications)
• Median federal around 40K (State 32K, Private
  22K)
• Job prospects good
• Corrections Counselors
• More requirements (psychology degrees) and earn
  more money (case manager, counselor)