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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 12:43 am
Time: 12:43 am
Results for prisons (u.s.)
7 results foundAuthor: Kirchhoff, Suzanne M. Title: Economic Impacts of Prison Growth Summary: This report provides an economic overview of the correctional sector in the United States as background for the unfolding debate over spending and other policies. It begins with information on the growth in prison populations in public and in private prisons. It also briefly explores the economic impacts of prison location. Details: Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, 2010. 35p. Source: CRS Report for Congress Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 118259 Keywords: Economics (Corrections)Prisons (U.S.) |
Author: Henrichson, Christian Title: The Price of Prisons: What Incarceration Costs Taxpayers Summary: Staff from Vera’s Center on Sentencing and Corrections and Cost-Benefit Analysis Unit developed a methodology to calculate the taxpayer cost of prisons, including costs outside states’ corrections budgets. Among the 40 states that participated in a survey, the cost of prisons was $38.8 billion in fiscal year 2010, $5.4 billion more than what their corrections budgets reflected. States’ costs outside their corrections departments ranged from less than 1 percent of total prison costs in Arizona to as much as 34 percent in Connecticut. The full report provides the taxpayer cost of incarcerating a sentenced adult offender to state prison in 40 states, presents the methodology, and concludes with recommendations about steps policy makers can take to safely rein in these costs. Fact sheets provide details about each of the states that participated in Vera’s survey. Details: New York: Vera Institute of Justice, 2012. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 26, 2012 at: http://www.vera.org/download?file=3407/the-price-of-prisons.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.vera.org/download?file=3407/the-price-of-prisons.pdf Shelf Number: 123766 Keywords: Costs of Criminal JusticeExpenditures in Criminal JusticePrisons (U.S.) |
Author: Boudin, Chesa Title: Prison Visitation Policies: A Fifty State Survey Summary: This paper presents a summary of the findings from the first fifty-state survey of prison visitation policies. Our research explores the contours of how prison administrators exercise their discretion to prescribe when and how prisoners may have contact with friends and family. Visitation policies impact recidivism, inmates’ and their families’ quality of life, public safety, and prison security, transparency and accountability. Yet many policies are inaccessible to visitors and researchers. Given the wide-ranging effects of visitation, it is important to understand the landscape of visitation policies and then, where possible, identify best practices and uncover policies that may be counterproductive or constitutionally infirm. Comparative analysis of the sort we have undertaken will, we hope, not only inform academics but empower regulators and administrators of prisons to implement thoughtful reforms. Our paper and data set allow for state-by-state comparison across a group of common categories of visitation-related policies. In addition, we identify commonalities and variation in the categories we tracked, and also documented outlier policies revealed in the course of our research. We worked with the Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA) to track down difficult-to-find policy documents, and received written feedback from nearly all fifty state departments of corrections to ensure accuracy. The paper is organized as follows. Part I describes the methodology we employed and considers its potential limitations. Part II provides our key substantive findings, presents a few highlights of the data, and discusses the basic commonalities of the policies, while noting the divergence in other key areas. Part III provides a detailed description of two sub-policy areas within visitation regulations. Here we analyze in more detail the range of approaches that states take to two contrasting forms of visitation: video visitation and overnight family (“conjugal”) visitation. Part IV outlines possible next steps for research on this topic. Details: New Haven, CT: Yale University, School of Law, 2012. 62p. Source: Internet Resource: Working Paper Series: Accessed November 20, 2012 at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2171412 Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2171412 Shelf Number: 126939 Keywords: PrisonersPrisons (U.S.)Visitation |
Author: Porter, Nicole D. Title: On the Chopping Block 2012: State Prison Closings Summary: The Bureau of Justice Statistics recently reported that the overall state prison population declined for the third consecutive year in 2011. State sentencing reforms and changes in parole revocation policies have been contributing factors in these reductions. As a result, state officials are now beginning to close correctional facilities after several decades of record prison expansion. Continued declines in state prison populations advance the narrative that the nation’s reliance on incarceration is largely a function of policy choices. In 2012, at least six states have closed 20 prison institutions or are contemplating doing so, potentially reducing prison capacity by over 14,100 beds and resulting in an estimated $337 million in savings. During 2012, Florida led the nation in prison closings with its closure of 10 correctional facilities; the state’s estimated cost savings for prison closings totals over $65 million. This year’s prison closures build on closures observed in 2011 when at least 13 states reported prison closures and reduced prison capacity by an estimated 15,500 beds. Details: Washington, DC: The Sentencing Project, 2012. 14p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 24, 2012 at: http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/On%20the%20Chopping%20Block%202012.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/On%20the%20Chopping%20Block%202012.pdf Shelf Number: 127391 Keywords: Correctional FacilitiesPrisonersPrisons (U.S.) |
Author: Olson, Jeremiah Carl Title: Social Construction and Political Decision Making in the American Prisons System(s) Summary: With over two million inmates, the United States’ prison population is the largest in the world. Nearly one in one hundred Americans are behind bars, either in prisons or pre-trial detention facilities. The rapid growth in incarceration is well-documented. However, social science explanations often stop at the prison gates, with little work on treatment inside prisons. This black box approach ignores important bureaucratic decisions, including the provision of rehabilitative services and the application of punishment. This dissertation offers a systematic analysis of treatment decisions inside the American prisons. I use a mixed methods approach, combining multiple quantitative datasets with environmental observation at four prisons, and original interviews of twenty-three correctional staff members. I offer the only large-n comparative analysis of American state prisons. Characteristics of the inmates as well as characteristics of staff are explored. I am able to analyze data at the state, facility and individual level. All of this is to answer a crucial and somewhat overlooked question; how do prison staff decide who should be punished and who should receive rehabilitative treatment? I find that theories of social construction offer insight into the treatment of American prison inmates. Specifically, I find that socially constructed racial categories offer explanatory value for inmate treatment. Black and Hispanic inmates are less likely to receive important rehabilitative programs, including access to mental health and medical care. Black and Hispanic inmates are also more likely to receive punishment including the use of solitary confinement in administrative segregation units. I find, consistent with theories of representative bureaucracy that staffing characteristics also impact treatment decisions, with black and Hispanic staff members expressing lower preferences for punishment and prisons with higher percentages of black staff members utilize administrative segregation less. I provide a historical overview of the changing social constructions of crime and prisons inside the United States, from colonial to present day America. I argue that the treatment of prisoners changes as our conception of crime changes. I discuss recent bipartisan attempts at prison reform and offer my own suggestions for reform of the American prison system. Details: Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky, Political Science, 2013. 222p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed May 13, 2013 at: http://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=polysci_etds Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=polysci_etds Shelf Number: 128713 Keywords: Correctional ProgramsCriminal Justice PolicyDecision-MakingOffender RehabilitationPrisons (U.S.) |
Author: U.S. General Accounting Office Title: Bureau of Prisons: Improvements Needed in Bureau of Prisons’ Monitoring and Evaluation of Impact of Segregated Housing Summary: The U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons confines about 7 percent of its 217,000 inmates in segregated housing units for about 23 hours a day. Inmates are held in Special Housing Unit (SHUs), Special Management Units (SMUs), and Administrative Maximum (ADX). GAO was asked to review BOP’s segregated housing unit practices. This report addresses, among other things: (1) the trends in BOP’s segregated housing population, (2) the extent to which BOP centrally monitors how prisons apply segregated housing policies, and (3) the extent to which BOP assessed the impact of segregated housing on institutional safety and inmates. GAO analyzed BOP’s policies for compliance and analyzed population trends from fiscal year 2008 through February 2013. GAO visited six federal prisons selected for different segregated housing units and security levels, and reviewed 61 inmate case files and 45 monitoring reports. The results are not generalizable, but provide information on segregated housing units. What GAO Recommends GAO recommends that BOP (1) develop ADX-specific monitoring requirements; (2) develop a plan that clarifies how BOP will address documentation concerns GAO identified, through the new software program; (3) ensure that any current study to assess segregated housing also includes reviews of its impact on institutional safety; and (4) assess the impact of long-term segregation. BOP agreed with these recommendations and reported it would take actions to address them. Details: Washington, DC: GAO, 2013. 72p. Source: Internet Resource: GAO-13-429: Accessed June 1, 2013 at: http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/654349.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.gao.gov/assets/660/654349.pdf Shelf Number: 128885 Keywords: Corrections ManagementInmate ClassificationInmate SegregationPrison AdministrationPrisons (U.S.)U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons |
Author: Samuels, Julie Title: Stemming the Tide: Strategies to Reduce the Growth and Cut the Cost of the Federal Prison System Summary: The federal prison population has escalated from under 25,000 inmates in 1980 to over 219,000 today. This growth has come at great expense to taxpayers and other important fiscal priorities. As policymakers consider the array of options to stem the tide of inmates, our research concludes that a combination of strategies is the best way to make a real impact. In this report, we evaluate various policy options for cutting the size and costs of the burgeoning federal prison system. The short explanation for the rapid prison population growth is that more people are sentenced to prison and for longer terms. In fiscal year (FY) 2011, more than 90 percent of convicted federal offenders were sentenced to prison, while about 10 percent got probation. By comparison, in 1986, only 50 percent received a prison sentence, over 37 percent received probation, and most of the remainder received a fine. Though the number of inmates sentenced for immigration crimes has also risen, long drug sentences are the main driver of the population's unsustainable growth. In 2011, drug trafficking sentences averaged 74 months, though they have been falling since 2008. Mandatory minimums have kept even nonviolent drug offenders behind bars for a long time. The average federal prison sentence in 2011 was 52 months, generally higher than prison sentences at the state level for similar crime types. This difference is magnified by the fact that, at the federal level, all offenders must serve at least 87 percent of their sentences, while, at the state level, most serve a lower percentage and nonviolent offenders often serve less than 50 percent of their time. Federal prisons are currently operating at between 35 and 40 percent above their rated capacity; this overcrowding is greater in high-security facilities, which, in FY 2012, were operating at 51 percent over capacity, and medium-security facilities, which were operating at 47 percent over capacity. In both medium- and high-security facilities, most inmates have histories of violence. This crowding is projected to continue to grow, with the federal prison system over capacity by at least 50,000 inmates each year through 2020. Absent any new policy changes (including bringing new prisons online), we estimate overcrowding to rise to 55 percent by 2023. Prison staffing has not kept up with population growth. The ratio of inmates to staff has grown from four to one in FY 2000 to a projected five to one in FY 2014. The US Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has found that high inmate-to-staff ratios are closely connected to increases in serious assaults. Overcrowding makes it hard to provide programs designed to keep inmates from re-offending, and it strains essential prison infrastructure, such as plumbing, through overuse. Further, the average cost of keeping an inmate behind bars is $29,000 a year. Most of these costs are fixed, so one inmate more (or less) is a difference of $10,363. The federal prison system's budget request for FY 2014 is $6.9 billion, which is more than a quarter of the Department of Justice's (DOJ's) budget. That share is projected to grow, taking resources away from other public safety priorities. Options for reform include changes that reduce the number of people entering the BOP and their sentence length (front-end options) and changes that can lead to early release or transfer to community corrections for people already in BOP custody (back-end options). The estimated impact of each of the options described below is detailed in tables ES.1 and ES.2. The underlying assumptions and methodology for the estimates are summarized in the Methodology section at the end of this report and presented in more detail in Appendix B (available online: http://www.urban.org/publications/412932.html). The cost estimates for dollars saved are based on the average marginal cost of imprisoning one inmate for one year; they do not reflect cost savings that could accrue from averted prison construction or prison closures, including staffing changes or other structural changes within the BOP. Details: Washington, DC: Urban Institute, 2013. 63p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 7, 2013 at: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412932-stemming-the-tide.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412932-stemming-the-tide.pdf Shelf Number: 131604 Keywords: Federal PrisonsPrison ConditionsPrison OvercrowdingPrisons (U.S.) |