annotated bibliography

Annotated Bibliography on Jail and Prison Dynamics and Problems They Are Facing

Builder, D. F. (n.d.). Prison History. Retrieved March 03, 2017, from http://www.adpsr.org/home/prison_history

          According to Morris G. Caldwell’s Group Dynamics in the Prison Community, there are two separate groups within them. There is a formal group and an informal group. The formal group is the prison personnel, their purpose is to maintain order, organize work, and help with the rehabilitative programs. They get the inmates in to groups and assign tasks, the inmates are in charge of the maintenance of the prisons. The staff is responsible making sure the tasks are completed and done properly. The informal group is made up of the inmates, and their roles with each other. These roles include, gambling, sexual perversion, moonshine makers, and so forth. These roles are secretive, but their hierarchy roles are often not. For instance, most guards can tell which inmates are the alphas and which are betas. However, the details of these roles are frequently looked passed. All jail and prisons have their own set of norms and rules; however, it is important to understand why society needs institutions like this.

          It is so amazing to read about how different jails and prisons are from each other. They definitely have their similarities, but most people do not realize they serve somewhat different purposes.

Criminal Law, v. 1.0. (n.d.). Retrieved March 02, 2017, from http://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/reader/4373?e=storm_1.0-ch01_s05

Criminal Law by Lisa M. Storm, is an article that briefly describes the five purposes of punishment. The five being, Specific or General Deterrence, Incapacitation, Rehabilitation, Retribution, and Restitution. Deterrence prevents crime by putting fear in the defendant or the public. Incapacitation does it by taking the defendant out of society. Rehabilitation aims to prevent future crime by attempting to change the defendant’s behavior. Retribution tries to achieve crime prevention by “having the punishment fit the crime,” resulting in the society feeling that no one will get away with any sort of crime. Restitution prevents future crime but using money to punish the defendant. Often times the defendant will have fines to pay or cost of damages.

This was quite relevant to the research because it explained how each form of punishment works and its importance to the justice system. It also provided more knowledge on each one and effectively summarized the goals behind each of the punishments.

 E., P., E., E., C., E., . . . Farrell, A. (n.d.). Prisons: Prisoners - Inmate Subcultures And Informal Organizations. Retrieved March 02, 2017, from http://law.jrank.org/pages/1796/Prisons-Prisoners-Inmate-subcultures-informal-organizations.html

In this article titled, Prisons: Prisoners - Inmate Subcultures And Informal Organizations, the author goes extensively into the unspoken social norms within prisons and even jails. These norms are more common in prisons being that the inmates spend longer time there, thus developing a subculture. Certain inmates play certain roles and people must recognize all roles and play their own parts as well. Most times the guards have an idea of some of the roles that the inmates play in their prison community. However, even the guards who spend the most time with the inmates, know exactly how the subculture works and its rules. The article also touched on the slang names of each of the different roles and what they are responsible for. Prison guards try to regulate as best they can, but many times the inmates get creative with their tactics and it results in them still having their subculture intact along with everything that comes with it. For example, somehow being able to get things from the “Free-world” inside of the prison.  This is common and even though it is really hard it can still be done.

The article was really helpful in learning the day to day dynamics of prisons. It was very interesting to read on how they all play a different part, and that most of them just know it without having to actually address it.

Incapacitation - The Scholarly Literature On Incapacitation And The Measurement Of Incapacitative Effects. (n.d.). Retrieved March 03, 2017, from http://law.jrank.org/pages/1353/Incapacitation-scholarly-literature-on-incapacitation-measurement-incapacitative-effects.html

In the United States the most common form of incapacitation is imprisonment. That is why most jails and prisons are highly crowded. Being that the United State has more regulations and laws concerning human rights, cause for there to be more incarceration, longer sentencing, and less harmful punishments. Incapacitation needs to be further studied especially if it is one of the more common forms of justice. Many of the numbers and statistics concerning it are, skeptical because it is really hard to measure if whether a person was going to even commit a crime in the first place. There are a lot of things left unsure and unanswered with this type of punishment.

All forms of justice are imperative in the criminal justice system. Incapacitation is the most common form of punishment, and it is necessary because it remove the harmful person from society.

Minton, T. D., & Zeng, Z. (2016, December). Jail Inmates in 2015. Retrieved February 12, 2017, from https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ji15.pdf

          Jail Inmates in 2015, is an article that describes the population of jails in the recent years. According to the article, jails reached their peak of inmates in 2008 with 776,600. That number is the amount of inmates in jail daily divided by the number of days in a year. In 2015 the number remained at a steady 721,300, which is quite a decrease from 2008. With such a decrease in the daily average of inmate, the number of bed space increased while the population decreased. The numbers however, are still high and prove the people are still going into jail a ridiculously fast rate. The article shows that smaller jail have a higher turnover rates, versus their larger counterparts. This is mainly due the facility being smaller and needing the space for newer offenders.

          This article was less relevant, still very insightful. However, it will most likely not be making it into the final paper.

Restorative Justice Briefing Paper. (2005, May). Retrieved February 16, 2017, from http://www.d.umn.edu/~jmaahs/Correctional%20Assessment/rj%20brief.pdf

          Restorative justice is “a new movement in the fields of victimology and criminology. Acknowledging that crime causes injury to people and communities, it insists that justice repair those injuries and that the parties be permitted to participate in that process. In other words, the main focus is to repair and to restore as much of the damage as they can. Restorative Justice views criminal behavior and actions as not just lawbreaking, but also realizes that it they harm done to the victim, community, and themselves. It also allows for more victims and communities to respond to crime, rather than just the government and the offender. Additionally, it measures success by the amount of harm that is repaired or prevented, instead of how punishment is administered. One of the ways that this form of justice is applied, is by face-to-face meetings.

          It is important to know all components of each forms of justice. This will help to narrow down why rehabilitative justice is the best form.

Schlanger, M. (2003, April). The Differences Between Jails and Prisons. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from https://www.law.umich.edu/facultyhome/margoschlanger/Documents/Resources/The_Differences_Between_Jails_and_Prisons%20.pdf

This article goes quite in depth on the differences between jails and prisons. It starts off with their size, jails are often very small but there are a few quite large ones. Jails, often times, are more chaotic than prisons because jails usually have more inmates. Jails are considerably more dangerous than prisons, because they are more crowded with people who are more dangerous. Jail inmates may be considered more dangerous because they are usually going through a lot more emotionally and can react badly to everything. They are also more crowded which leads to more chaos. Jails have less funds available to them due to their funds coming from the county, and prisons get it from the government. This in turn, leads to jail having poorer living conditions, and less treatment programs available to them.

This article was fantastic, it had a lot of important information. It was great because it had a lot of studies and statistics that made it more credible. It was also originally a book that was uploaded, which is also nice to have.

Thigpen, M. L., Hutchinson, V. A., & Geaither, R. E. (2002, January). Jail Crowding. Retrieved January 3, 2017, from http://static.nicic.gov/Library/017209.pdf

          Jails are becoming more and more crowded, even though the rate of serious crime is going down. Less people are having to spend the rest of their sentence in prison because their crimes are not grave enough to do so. The most common crimes are drug related; these crimes do not require a lengthy sentence, but do require jail time. Most of these offenders continue to offend after getting out of jail, and eventually find their way back into jail. The article also touches on the purposes of jails, and who make up the population of jails. Most jails hold offenders who are in there for property and public offenses. However, this does not mean that they do not hold dangerous criminals who have committed serious crimes, those criminals just typically go to prison fairly quickly. Most people who spend time in jail usually only stay from 10 to 20 days. The majority of jails can hold offenders for up to a year, and some for even up to 2 years, it varies depending on the jail.

          Very interesting information, not sure how significant it will be. It further proved how rehabilitation program in jails are imperative to truly helping and changing the inmate.