Sheldon Ekland-Olson

Prison Overcrowding and Disciplinary Problems: An Analysis of the Texas Prison System

Data on prison overcrowding and disciplinary rates are examined. Trends for the total system, as well as individual institutions within the Texas Department of Corrections are presented. This is followed by analysis of data from individual inmates. Both assault and total disciplinary rates are found to be a function of the age of the inmate population rather than overcrowding. This is consistent with findings from the Federal Bureau of Prisons as well as data from English prisons (Nacci, Teitelbaum & Prather, 1977; Farrington & Nuttall, 1980). Although prison overcrowding may be an important factor in the overall quality of prison life, it is inappropriate to conclude that it has much influence on either the total disciplinary or the assault rates in prisons.

Gazing into the Crystal Ball: Can Jurors Accurately Predict Dangerousness in Capital Cases?

The Texas post-Furman death penalty statute restricts capital punishment to a limited category of murders. If the defendant is found guilty of one of these crimes, the jury must address two and sometimes three questions in the punishment phase of the trial. Affirmative answers to the questions by all jurors result in an automatic death sentence. A no answer to any question results in an automatic life sentence. One of the three questions is whether the defendant presents a continuing violent threat to society. From 1974 to 1988, niney-two capital murderers had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. These commutations allow a natural experiment to assess the predictions made by jurors that these individuals would present a future violent threat to society. Patterns of institutional and post-release behavior of this group were compared to similar patterns for defendants convicted of capital murder who were not predicted to be dangerous and who received life imprisonment over the same fifteen-year period. We found that although most capital offenders were model inmates, two commuted capital prisoners committed second murders, one while in prison and the other while in the community. We conclude with a discussion of the validity of current death statutes that require jurors to predict future dangerous-

The Challenge of Social Control: Citizenship and Institution Building in Modern Society.

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The Response of the Criminal Justice System to Prison Overcrowding: Ecidivism Patterns Among Four Successive Parolee Cohorts

Over the past decade crowded prison conditions became the subject for lawsuits across the country, resulting in restrictions on the capacity of prison systems in a number of states. These restrictions produced pressures throughout the criminal justice system, from arrest to release on parole. The question addressed in this research is whether these restrictions and pressures affected the probability and pattern of return to prison among parolees. Data were collected at yearly intervals from four successive cohorts of parolees in Texas. Each cohort was followed for thirty-six months to determine the pattern and probability of returning to prison. Four alternative explanations for shifts in recidivism probabilities are explored using survival analysis techniques. Evidence is found for reduced deterrence in addition to effects from cohort composition and administrative discretion.

Crime and Incarceration: Some Comparative Findings from the 1980s

Incarceration, crime, and unemployment rates from Texas, California, and the United States during the 1970s and 1980s are examined to explore the link between incarceration policies and crime rates. Comparing Texas and California, despite different incarceration policies in the 1980s, there are few differences in violent crime rate trends. By contrast, in the late 1980s, property crimes increased in Texas and decreased in California. These state-rate differences across types of crime parallel findings across four successive parolee cohorts in Texas, where increases in repetitious property offending patterns were noted, and repetitious violent offending remained stable. Variations in incarceration rates and economic conditions are noted as explanatory factors.

Moral Boundaries and Dilemmas A Call for Applied and Clinical Research

We ask a single question: How do we, through our customs, laws, religion, and common practice, go about justifying the violation of these deeply important, perhaps universal, moral imperatives, all the while holding tightly to their importance? The short answer is this: With empathy and logic we draw boundaries and through political debate we set priorities to resolve dilemmas. An infusing theme running throughout is the life-defining importance of assessed social worth. From time to time science, technology, and crystallizing events disturb, clarify, and inform existing understandings of the implied sense of social worth. New resolutions of dilemmas and definitions of life’s protective boundaries are called for. In this manner moral systems evolve. We will find they do so along a jagged and often contentious path.

Intra-Cohort Variation in Reincarceration

While the primary focus of this research is the longitudinal analysis of reincarceration patterns across successive cohorts of parolees, it is also important to assess the characteristics and survival patterns of parolees within a release cohort. We are interested in two basic questions. First, what are the primary relationships among the characteristics of parolees. Second, are there patterns of reincarceration that depart from previous research that might be linked to changes in the criminal justice system during the years this study examines?

Inter-Cohort Comparisons of Reincarceration Rates

The specific question addressed in this chapter is, “How did the transformation of Texas criminal justice in the 1980s, a period when the burgeoning prison population led to a dramatically expanded use of parole, affect recidivism patterns of successive yearly cohorts of parolees released between 1984 and 1987?” The primary analytic strategy is once again analysis of survival patterns and hazard rates.

Incarceration and Crime: Is There a Link?

Systematic research on the link between incarceration and crime rates began in the late 1960s and continued with increased momentum throughout the 1970s and 1980s. In response to a vigorous national debate over this research and over the appropriate role of criminal sanctions in reducing high-crime rates, a panel was convened in the late 1970s by the National Academy of Sciences (Blumstein, Cohen, and Nagin 1978) to systematically evaluate data then available.

National Trends and the Assessment of Prison Crowding

In the early 1980s, prison crowding was proclaimed “the most critical administrative problem facing the United States criminal justice system” (Blumstein 1983, 229). While debates emerged over the meaning of “crowding” as the decade unfolded (Sherman and Hawkins 1981; Gaes 1985), there are few today who would dispute that crowded prison conditions were the major driving force for the administration of criminal justice in the 1980s.