Scott D. Camp

Gender differences in outcomes from prison-based residential treatment

This study examines gender similarities and differences in background characteristics, the effectiveness of treatment, and the predictors of post-release outcomes among incarcerated drug-using offenders. The sample of 1,842 male and 473 female treatment and comparison subjects came from a multi-site evaluation of prison-based substance abuse treatment programs. Three-year follow-up data for recidivism and post-release drug use were analyzed using survival analysis methods. Despite the greater number of life problems among women than men, women had lower three-year recidivism rates and rates of post-release drug use than did men. For both men and women, treated subjects had longer survival times than those who were not treated. There were both similarities and differences with respect to gender and the other predictors of the two post-release outcomes. Differences in background characteristics and in factors related to post-release outcomes for men and women suggest the plausibility of gender-specific paths in the recovery process.

Criminogenic Effects of the Prison Environment on Inmate Behavior: Some Experimental Evidence

The current study analyzed a subset of the experimental data collected by Berk, Ladd, Graziano, and Baek (2003) to test whether different intensities of incarceration make inmates more criminal while incarcerated. There were 561 male inmates whose equivalent classification scores indicated they had the same level of risk to commit institutional misconduct at the time they were incarcerated. One half of these inmates were sent to the lowest security-level prisons in California, and the other one half were sent to prisons one step down from the highest security level in California. If prisons are criminogenic, then the probability of misconduct should vary with the security level to which the inmates were assigned. Instead, inmates were equally likely to commit misconduct in prison regardless of whether they were assigned to a Level I (lowest security level) or a Level III prison.

The impact of work–family conflict on correctional staff A preliminary study

Work–family conflict (WFC) occurs when the work domain and family domain are incompatible with one another in some manner. A survey of staff at a private Midwestern prison measured four dimensions of WFC: time-based work on family conflict, strain-based work on family conflict, behavior-based WFC and family on work conflict. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression results indicate that strain-based conflict was the only form of WFC to have a significant effect on job stress. Both strain-based conflict and behavior-based conflict had a significant impact on job satisfaction. Finally, time-based conflict, behavior-based and family on work conflict all had significant effects on organizational commitment.

Federal prison residential drug treatment reduces substance use and arrests after release.

Objective: The effectiveness of federal prison-based residential drug and alcohol treatment programs was evaluated using event history procedures that addressed the problem of selection bias and included a wide range of control variables. Methods: The sample comprised 760 treatment subjects and 809 comparison subjects. Treatment subjects were from 20 different prisons of medium, low, and minimum security levels. Comparison subjects were drawn from over 30 prisons. Results: The results indicated that individuals who entered and completed in-prison residential treatment were less likely to experience the critical postrelease outcomes of new arrests and substance use during the first 6 months following release. Conclusions: Without controlling for selection bias, the effects of treatment would most likely have been attenuated. The results have greater generalizability than other studies of prison-based treatment. This study occurred within a multisite context of 20 programs serving both male and female inmates and operating within different security levels and different geographic regions.

Alternative solutions to the problem of selection bias in an analysis of federal residential drug treatment programs.

In an evaluation of prison-based residential drug treatment programs, the authors use three different regression-based approaches to estimating treatment effects. Two of the approaches, the instrumental variable and the Heckman approach, attempt to minimize selection bias as an explanation for treatment outcomes. Estimates from these approaches are compared with estimates from a regression in which treatment is represented by a dummy variable. The article discusses the advantage of using more than one method to increase confidence in findings when possible selection bias is a concern. Three-year outcome data for 2,315 federal inmates are used in analyses where the authors separately examine criminal recidivism and relapse to drug use for men and women. Statistical tests lead the authors to conclude that treatment reduces criminal recidivism and relapse to drug use. The treatment effect was largest when the inference was based on the Heckman approach, somewhat smaller when based on the instrumental variable approach, and smallest when based on the traditional dummy variable approach. Treatment effects for females were not statistically significant.

Do Inmate Survey Data Reflect Prison Conditions? Using Surveys to Assess Prison Conditions of Confinement

This study examines whether survey data collected from inmates can be used to create group-level measures of prison conditions. Inmates often carry a stigma that they are never to be trusted. A subset of a national survey of inmates was used to examine how inmates incarcerated in prisons operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons answered questions about safety, noise, and job assignments at their prisons. In particular, this report demonstrates that inmate answers to the questions vary in a systematic fashion that lends credence to using survey data from inmates to obtain information about the prisons in which they are incarcerated. However, proper techniques for using survey data have not been practiced in existing evaluation studies comparing public and private prisons.

Estimating the Mental Illness Component of Service Need in Corrections Results From the Mental Health Prevalence Project

From the moment of their admission to prison, offenders with mental illness represent a population with special service needs. From this services perspective, the present study draws population estimates of mental illness indicators for newly committed offenders using operational data sources available within a correctional system. In a cohort of 2,855 male and female offenders across three security levels and five regions of the United States, several indicators of mental illness (e.g., diagnosis of serious mental illness, inpatient psychiatric care) were aggregated. Findings suggest that 15.2% of newly committed offenders at low-, medium-, and high-security facilities may require some level of mental health services to address a need related to mental illness. Prevalence rates differed between gender and between lower versus medium or high security levels. Implications informing the work of clinicians, administrators, and policy makers are discussed. Future research developing additive models estimating service need among other components of corrections populations is recommended.

Using Inmate Survey Data in Assessing Prison Performance: A Case Study Comparing Private and Public Prisons

The public sector needs to monitor the performance of the private prisons, and it is necessary to conduct the monitoring as objectively as possible. This article demonstrates that an often overlooked source of data, surveys of inmates, can be used to differentiate prisons on such Was a gag activity, and security, sanitation, and food service delivery. Hierarchical line models were used to generate the prison performance measures. We also show that inmates and staff largely agreed in in their assessments of conditions at the prison. Finally, we demonstrate that although there is considerable consistency for different measures within the topical areas that we examined, there is no necessary correspondence in performance across the different topical areas of gang management, safety and security, sanitation, and food service delivery. Although survey will never and should never replace operational reviews and audits, we demonstrate that they can be effectively used to obtain information about operational differences between prisons.

Do Official Misconduct Data Tell the Same Story as the Individuals Who Live in Prison

This analysis focuses on misconduct rates and inmates’ perceptions of safety at 10 low-security prisons. Performance measures derived from two different data sources, inmate survey data and agency records of inmate misconduct, are compared. The findings demonstrate that the rankings of the prisons with performance measures derived from inmates’ perception of safety correlate with measures obtained from official misconduct rates. These findings provide evidence regarding the validity and reliability of inmate survey and official misconduct data when assessing conditions of confinement.

The Influence of Organizational Incentives on Absenteeism Sick-Leave Use Among Correctional Workers

Absenteeism creates problems for organizations. The policies of the Civil Service Retirement System, available to federal workers hired before 1987, allow unused sick leave to be added to length of service when workers retire. The policies of the Federal Employees Retirement System, on the other hand, create a use or lose situation. Yearly data on sick leave, a measure of absenteeism, for employees at the Federal Bureau of Prisons were examined for 1994 through 2003. The results of multilevel analysis confirmed that different incentive structures of the two federal retirement systems produced differences in the use of sick leave. The analysis also demonstrated that the use of leave was affected by differences in the environment at the respective prisons. Finally, some preliminary and rough cost figures are presented to give some idea of the financial costs associated with the greater leave associated with the newer federal retirement system.