Lynne Goodstein

Long-Term Incarceration Impacts and Characteristics of Long-Term Offenders: An Empirical Analysis

The responses long-and short-term inmates make to incarceration and differences in the responses made by distinct subgroups were examined. Prison inmates in three large maximum security institutions reported their levels of stress (anxiety, depression, psychosomatic illnesses, fear), adjustment (prisonization), criminal history, self-esteem, and demographic characteristics. Inmates new to prison who anticipated serving long terms in prison were found to report higher levels of stress and lower self-esteem than did inmates who had already completed long terms in prison. Short-term inmates new to prison reported less depression and fewer psychosomatic illnesses in comparison to new inmates with long sentences. Distinct subgroups of long-term offenders (lifers versus habituals) could be identified on the basis of demographics and past history. However, these groups did not differ in stress, adjustment, or self-esteem. It was concluded that inmates who were new to prison but anticipated serving long sentences in prison experienced the most stress. Inmates who had received long sentences and had already served a lengthy time in prison appeared to have developed a method of coping with the experience.

Inmate Adjustment to Prison

Since the publication of The Prison Community (Clemmer, 1940) virtually thousands of books and articles have been published on prison life and the adjustment of prisoners to their confinement. Most authors depict prison life as destructive to inmates who reenter community life with increased knowledge concerning the mechanics of crime and a reserve of bitterness toward “the system.” In recent years, researchers have recognized that whereas incarceration impacts adversely on some prisoners, others cope relatively well with the stresses of confinement. Researchers have begun to identify factors, both external to the prison environment and internal to the inmate, as well as combinations of these factors that may influence the type of adjustment an inmate makes.

An evaluation of juvenile intensive aftercare probation: Aftercare versus system response effects

In recent years, many jurisdictions have implemented “intensive” supervision regimens for offenders on probation or parole as alternatives to routine probation and/or incarceration. Prior studies often failed to distinguish between two distinct potential effects of intensive supervision. The first effect is a reduction in the propensity to commit any new offenses, and may be viewed as reflecting a rehabilitative or deterrent model. The second possible effect is a reduction in the opportunity to reoffend, caused by the courts response to misbehavior on the part of the probationer or parolee—a risk control or selective incapacitation model. The current study is an experimental evaluation of an intensive aftercare probation program for serious juvenile offenders. The program had a dramatic impact on the frequency, but not the incidence, of recidivism. This finding suggests that the value of intensive supervision lies in its risk control components (a system response effect) rather than in its ability to red...

The Implementation of an Intensive Aftercare Program for Serious Juvenile Offenders A Case Study

This article presents the results of a study of the implementation of an intensive aftercare probation (IAP) program developed in Philadelphia. In addition to presenting program design and standards, the article discusses issues involved in effecting a successful innovation. These include (a) the transition from the old to the new model of supervision, (b) evolution of the IAPs mission and philosophy, (c) applications of the evolved model, (d) unanticipated conditions affecting program operations, and (e) client responses to the IAP program. The program experienced difficulties in several areas. A critical period occurred in which there was a breakdown in service delivery, officers apparently had difficulty understanding and adjusting to the new organizational norms implicit in the programs mission, and program goals and philosophy were not articulated clearly by program planners. Nevertheless, over the course of the implementation period, a successful model incorporating social control and rehabilitative elements was developed and stabilized.

Feminist perspectives and the criminal justice curriculum

Feminist perspectives have had major impacts on theoretical and curricular developments in a wide range of academic fields. Despite the significant volume of feminist scholarship and research produced in criminology over the past decade, however, these perspectives do not appear to have had much effect on criminal justice education. In this paper I draw upon the curriculum transformation literature from womens studies to offer a model for incorporating feminist perspectives into our curricula in criminal justice. To aid instructors interested in adopting feminist perspectives and pedagogy in their classes, I offer seven goals for the feminist curriculum. Finally, I discuss potential problems and pitfalls of efforts at curriculum transformation, especially in areas such as criminal justice, in which many instructors may have little background and may resist change.

Organizational Imperatives and Sentencing Reform Implementation: The Impact of Prison Practices and Priorities on the Attainment of the Objective of Determinate Sentencing

Determinate sentencing, advocated as a means of increasing sentencing equity and reducing inmate release uncertainty and coerced program participation, has been heralded as a major criminal justice reform. Yet organizational theorists caution that successful implementation of a legal reform may be impeded by a number of factors. In this article we concentrate on the implementation of determinate sentencing reform by the correctional system and propose that its objectives will be compromised by its low priority relative to more visible, immediate, and central mandates of prison administration. Focusing on the reform states of Illinois, Minnesota, and Connecticut, the article explores the prison practices and policies governing good time, supervised release, and program participation. We conclude that the objectives of determinate sentencing were affected, to varying degrees, by more central and salient correctional concerns, such as prison crowding and the need to exert social control.

Defining determinacy: Components of the sentencing process ensuring equity and release certainty

Determinate sentencing has gained in popularity in recent years, yet the specific meaning of determinacy is not universally accepted. Determinacy is viewed as a means for providing prisoners with release certainty, a mechanism for increasing fairness in the sentencing process, or both. The purpose of this paper is to define the components of determinacy and to articulate the conditions of the sentencing and post-adjudication process necessary to fulfill these criteria. The discussion of fairness in sentencing is restricted to issues of procedural equity, or the degree to which sentencing decisions are made reliably. Release predictability involves providing inmates early in their prison stays with knowledge concerning their release dates. Sentencing equity and predictability depend on how the sentencing model is structured to deal with a series of discretionary decisions affecting criminal defendants throughout the judicial and correctional process. Six choice points are considered, three pertaining to th...

Importance to Prisoners of Predictability of Release A Test of a Presumed Benefit of the Determinate Sentence

Psychological theory and research on uncertainty and stress has supported the assumption that prisoners prefer determinate to indeterminate sentencing, because it insures predictability of release and alleviates stress, and are willing to incur costs to achieve certainty. In this study, it was hypothesized that prisoners would be willing to serve time beyond their minimums to obtain predictable release dates. Inmates scheduled for parole hearings within one year of the data collection were asked to make hypothetical choices between appearing before the board or serving increasingly longer sentences in exchange for guaranteed release. Most inmates were found to be willing to serve one additional month in prison for guaranteed release but no longer. Furthermore, the desire to minimize time in prison was found to be more important than the need to alleviate stress in determining the amount of additional time inmates would serve. These findings suggest that prisoners desire predictability of release, but only if it can be achieved without significantly extending the length of time served. Implications for the current movement toward determinate sentencing are discussed.

Book Reviews : License To Rape: Sexual Abuse Of Wives. By D. Finkelhor and K. Yllo, New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985

He wanted to, she didn’t, is a scenario which may best epitomize the assumption of most of us concerning the underlying dynamics of rape in marriage. In their book, License to Rape: Sexual Abuse of Wives, David Finkelhor and Kersti Yllo provide evidence to debunk these assumptions, arguing instead that rape in marriage is generally an act of brutality and humiliation, equal in its impact on the victim to other forms of rape outside of marriage. They also demonstrate the widespread extent of the problem of marital rape, estimating that rape or attempted rape occurs in one out of every ten marriages. And perhaps most significant is the fact that in many states this type of violence by husbands is perfectly legal. Finkelhor and Yllo have produced a comprehensive review which is interdisciplinary in nature and accessible to the lay audience as well as the academic community. The data for the book are derived from two studies which they conducted, one a large scale survey of 600 parents in the metropolitan Boston area, the other a series of 50 in-depth interviews with victims of marital rape. The book relies heavily on these interviews, letting the voices of the victims speak for themselves about the causes, types, and consequences of marital rape. The authors, both sociologists of the family, affiliated at the book’s writing with the Family Violence Research Program at the University of New Hampshire, take a feminist perspective in the presentation of their findings. To a large extent, this perspective is a logical outgrowth of their investigation of the legal and social context within which marital rape occurs and is understood by its victims and society at large. In addition to leaving much of the descriptions of victims’ experiences to the victims themselves through extensive case material, throughout the chapters Finkelhor and Yllo recognize the imbalance of power between husbands and wives as significant in causing and perpetuating this type of violence. Most of the wives on whom the case studies were built were separated from their abusive husbands at the time of the interviews. The stories of the women