Master of Arts / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Gerad Middendorf / The stigma of prison extends beyond the male prisoner to those who care about him, often his wife. Almost all prisoners will be released back into their communities (Hughes, 2003) and having a solid support network improves successful re-entry experiences and lowers recidivism rates for men who are released from prison (Duwe & Clark, 2013). The stigmatization that prison wives feel because they are married to an inmate, can affect how attached they feel to their community, how comfortable they feel in their workplace, and how accepted they feel by their family and friends. Financial exploitation, challenging prison policies, and visitation procedures oftentimes can make an already difficult situation even more difficult. While the number of men in prison in the United States is slowly declining, the United States remains the world leader in the number of people incarcerated (Travis, et. al., 2014). As this level of incarceration continues to affect such a large number of people (specifically women for this research) in our society, there is reason to consider a more intentional approach to focusing on recognizing the feelings and experiences of prison wives. This research includes narrative interviews of 35 women who identified as prison wives. The goal of the research was to specifically gather details on their experiences of being a prison wife and how they feel that society judged them based on the stereotype they perceived society to have. My research shows that the interviewees feel stigmatized; however, the awareness of, feelings about, and the reaction toward the stigmatization manifests differently among the two groups of prison wives that I identified: Riders and Stoppers. I have gathered details about how their experiences were often made more challenging as they tried to maintain their relationships in the midst of financial exploitation and challenging prison policies and procedures. I conclude my thesis on the relevancy of their experiences as they relate to the prison-industrial complex in our society and how this affects their interactions within the communities in which a prisoner’s wife, family members, and formerly incarcerated individuals live and work.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the US prison system was expanding at an unprecedented rate. This research charts how prisoners at the nation’s largest maximum-security prison, the Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly referred to as Angola, founded the Angola Special Civics Project to collectively organize for prison reform. Using a combination of oral history and archival research, this thesis argues that the Angola Special Civics Project emerged during an era of political opportunity created by the coupling of political openings and contractions. Unlike outside advocates who focused their reform efforts on internal conditions, the Angola Special Civics Project centering of prisoners’ experiential knowledge led them to organize for an end to life sentencing through a combination of research, political education, electoral organizing, and coalition building. This thesis further asserts that their organizing should be conceptualized as a form of prison abolitionist reforms.

Situado no contexto de incremento das políticas penitenciárias de interiorização de unidades prisionais por todo o estado de São Paulo, este trabalho tem a intenção de analisar o cotidiano e as práticas sociais e profissionais de agentes penitenciários do município de Itirapina, cidade localizada no interior paulista, onde se encontram instaladas duas penitenciárias. Análise parte da ótica de agentes, moradores, comerciantes e demais moradores,para resgatar o modo pelo qual tais políticas de interiorização dos presídios têm afetado a vida no município em questão. Assim como os detentos, os agentes penitenciários têm seu cotidiano ligado à rotina da prisão, criam seu vocabulário e seu modo de agir transitando entre o interior da cadeia e o convívio com demais pessoas na cidade. A dinâmica social recebe grande influência dos valores e das práticas oriundos das penitenciárias construídas na cidade. Portanto, dentro deste contexto, a construção de discursos e valores colocam a profissão de agente penitenciário numa posição de destaque, cercada de privilégios, relativizando o conceito de prestígio, mesmo estando diretamente relacionado com um universo tão estigmatizado como o prisional. Através da observação da rotina desses profissionais e demais pessoas que se relacionam entre si, na intenção de perceber a dinâmica social cotidiana dessas pessoas, este trabalho também realizou entrevistas com agentes, moradores e comerciantes, buscando perceber como o ambiente criado dentro dos limites da prisão ultrapassa suas muralhas até invadir e influenciar a rotina da grande maioria da população local.. Dessa maneira, destaca-se a relevância do agente penitenciário nos mais variados espaços de sociabilidade do município, fazendo deles agentes sociais referenciais no contexto urbano. Esta dissertação volta sua análise para as transformações e consequências engendradas durante esse processo, percebendo o trânsito de agentes penitenciários, sua comunicação do convívio intramuros com o extramuros, ao mesmo tempo em que ambos se coalescem em sua dinâmica social. Percebe-se, portanto, como a cidade e a prisão interligam-se uma à outra, envolvendo todas as pessoas pertencentes a esse contexto. / Situated in the context of increase policies internalization of prisons throughout the state of Sao Paulo, this paper aims to analyze the everyday practices of social and professional prison officers of Itirapina the municipality, a town in the interior, where are installed two prisons. Analysis through the views of agents, residents, merchants and other inhabitants of the city such as internalization of prison policies has affected the county in question. Like the inmates, prison officers have linked to their daily routine of prison, they create their vocabulary and their mode of action moving between the inside of jail and living with others in the city. The social dynamics developed in Itirapina receives great influence of the values and practices from the prisons built in the city. Therefore, within this context, the construction of discourses and values put the profession of the prison guard in Itirapina in a prominent position, surrounded by privileges, relativizing the concept of prestige, it is directly related to a universe so stigmatized prison. By observing the routine of these professionals and others who relate to each other, hoping to understand the social dynamics of these people daily, this study also conducted interviews with staff, residents and merchants, seeking to understand how the environment created within the confines of the prison beyond its walls to break the routine and influence of the great majority of the population of the city. Thus, we highlight the relevance of the prison guard in a variety of social spaces in the city, making them agents of social references in the urban context. This essay turns its analysis to the changes and consequences engendered during this process, realizing the transit of prison guards, their communication with the extramural with intramural living, while they both coalesce in its social dynamics. It is clear, therefore, how city and prison are interconnected to each other, involving all those present here.

This dissertation will focus on prison work programs and prisoner rehabilitation. In particular, a program evaluation of the federal inmate labor program, the Prison Industry Enhancement Certificate Program (PIE), will be conducted in order to investigate how this program affects recidivism and labor market outcomes of offenders. This dissertation will contribute to the literature in two ways. First, it develops a simple theoretical model that incorporates prison labor into its framework in order to analyze how prison labor affects crime participation. The model suggests that the criminal’s problem is recursive. Therefore, the criminal will first decide how much time to allocate to legal activities, and then choose the optimal time allotment to illegal endeavors. The model shows that it is theoretically possible that participation in PIE could increase recidivism through wages if an increase in the wage rate causes the consumption of illegal activity to increase by more than the consumption of legal endeavors. The decision to commit a crime will be a function of the expected unemployment rate, the subjective probability of detection and conviction, legal labor market activity, the penalty for illegal activity, gains from illegal activity, nonwage income or wealth, the subjective probability of legal work while in prison, severity of punishment, and tastes. Second, it will empirically investigate how prison labor programs that approximate real world employment opportunities affect the decision to commit a crime upon release from prison, as well as post-release employment outcomes of the offender. In particular, using a unique dataset collected on participants in the PIE program across various states, this dissertation investigates how the PIE program affects recidivism and labor market outcomes compared to those who do not participate in the program. While, Smith, Bechtel, Patrick, Smith, and Wilson-Gentry (2006) is the only other research to use these data to analyze the effects of this program on recidivism and labor market outcomes, their analysis does not fully utilize control variables. The results of this study indicate that the PIE program significantly increases the time from release to arrest, significantly increases employment duration, and significantly increases earnings of the ex-offender.

No description available.

Situated amidst farmland 18 kilometres from the centre of Christchurch is Paparua men’s prison, one of New Zealand’s oldest and largest penal institutions. Prisoners have been housed at the Paparua site since 1915 and when the prison buildings were completed in 1925, around 120 prisoners were incarcerated there. Still at the same location where the two original wings continue to accommodate inmates, Paparua has the capacity for nearly 1,000 low to high-security male prisoners. Despite being almost a century old, very little has been recorded about Paparua, which is symptomatic of the paucity of published material on New Zealand prisons. This thesis seeks to address this shortfall in the literature by, for the first time, documenting the events which have taken place at Paparua and giving insight into life for prisoners there over the last 100 years. These events and the changes to prison life have been driven by the social conditions of the day and their intersection with a complex range of factors at the inmate, community and administrative levels. Paparua’s evolution, therefore, has been the product of the changing socio-political climate and by contextualising the prison’s history I will show how these dynamics have contributed to the development of Paparua. The research undertaken to achieve such a task involved an historical analysis of 130 years of departmental reports, government reports, parliamentary debates and newspaper articles. This was accompanied by 13 comprehensive interviews with former and current staff and inmates of Paparua. The reconstruction of Paparua’s past is valuable not only in that it captures the details of an interesting feature of New Zealand history but because it offers insight into the complex range of forces that a are likely to influence its development in the future.

This thesis argues that the Prison Service, while it has several unique features, is a bureaucratic structure with a typical mix of organisational strengths and weaknesses. The study of the development of the organisation of the Scottish Prison Service is, therefore, as possible and as proper as is the study of any large organisation. The first substantive chapter of the thesis analyses the historical development of the Scottish Prison Service within an organisational context. This has taken place in 3 main phases, the first two of which were sequential, the third less obviously so and more the result of the increasing involvement of central bureaucratic processes. Historically the Scottish prison system has been properly located within the criminal justice process and throughout the first 100 years of its modem existence the judiciary and the legal establishment played a central role in its development. The first phase or its history covers the years between 1835 and 1877 when it was taken progressively under central control. Particular attention is paid to William Brebner, the founding father of the Scottish prison system, and to the place of the General Prison at Perth. The second historical phase covers the tenure of office of the Scottish Prison Commission between 1877 and 1929. The significance of the Elgin Report of 1900, which has not previously been the subject of research, is described. The third phase of development which began in 1929 and continues today-has attempted to take the prison system out of the criminal justice process and to place it inappropriately within the mainstream of the administrative Civil Service. The thesis analyses the reasons for this and suggests that this structural change, rather than any lack of resources, is responsible for many of the present difficulties facing the Prison Service. The second substantive chapter of the thesis examines the place of the prison system within the sociology of organisations. By definition, an organisation can have only one primary goal. A feature of bureaucratic organisations is that those who work within them will not be satisfied with a single objective and are likely to develop secondary goals. One consequence of the location of the prison system within the mainstream of the civil service has been an emphasis on the secondary goals of imprisonment, principally that of rehabilitation, to the neglect of the primary goal which is the punishment involved in the deprivation of liberty for the length of time laid down by the court. A second consequence is the influence which staff are able to exert on the development of the service. The manner in which the trade unionism of prison staff has evolved in Scotland makes this area particularly worthy of study; an important and topical example is the control of difficult prisoners. The Thesis suggests that the management of the Scottish Prison Service is more participative in style than either the Official or the Staff Side recognise. Throughout the thesis many of the arguments presented are given support by responses to a questionnaire which was issued to serving members of staff and which is fully documented into appendices.

This study investigates whether Christianity has a reformative influence in the lives of prisoners who consider themselves ‘genuine’ Christians. Interviews were conducted with forty-five prisoners and fifteen ex-prisoners (who had been released from prison as Christians) - all high/medium-security inmates with long sentences. The study had two basic aims: to examine aspects of their religious backgrounds, experiences, and beliefs, and whether Christianity benefited and/or hindered them; second, to investigate their religious needs (in prison and post-release), whether they were being met, and the likely effect to potential benefits of existing support structures. It was anticipated that existing support would be inadequate to meet the men’s needs, particularly those who had been released from prison. In relation to these issues the findings are both positive and negative. With few exceptions, Christian prisoners/ex-prisoners believed that being a Christian made a qualitative difference to life in prison, offering essential hope, meaning and purpose in life, a positive outlook, and productive use of time. Christianity provided a different way of life, with new morals, values, and a renewed sense of self that helped overcome guilt and generally enhanced relationships. Belonging to a religious group provided practical and moral/spiritual support, which assisted prison adjustment and personal security. Moreover, Christian inmates had more self-control and tolerance/respect (than they ordinarily would) for authorities and others, resulting in fewer institutional rule violations. (For complete abstract open document)

La question de la sexualité en prison de femmes constitue en France un vide sociologique. Elle n’a été jusqu’à présent abordée qu’en creux de l’intérêt porté à la sexualité dans les détentions masculines. L’étude se fonde sur une enquête qualitative menée dans sept établissements pénitentiaires, où ont été réalisés des entretiens avec plus de cent cinquante acteurs carcéraux, détenues comme professionnels et bénévoles. Ce travail de terrain a permis de mettre en évidence quatre formes sous lesquelles se donne à voir la sexualité en prison de femmes. Chacune se caractérise par la mise en œuvre de processus spécifiques, qui traduisent la prégnance respective des dimensions spatiale, temporelle, individuelle, collective, relationnelle et institutionnelle dans les situations à caractère sexuel auxquelles elle renvoie. La sexualité clandestine implique des processus de transgression, les acteurs étant contraints de vivre leurs pratiques sexuelles dans les interstices de l’arsenal coercitif déployé pour les endiguer. Particulièrement discrète elle aussi, la sexualité invisible met cette fois en jeu des processus d’invisibilisation, qui se perçoivent au travers de l’effort conjoint des acteurs de confiner l’activité sexuelle dans la sphère privée. La sexualité ostensible en revanche se donne à voir ouvertement au moyen de processus d’affichage, les comportements délibérés étant néanmoins régulés par certaines règles informelles. S’observe enfin une forme rationalisée de sexualité, caractérisée par la dilution de la dimension sexuelle de certaines situations dans des processus abstraits visant à la rationaliser. / The purpose of sexuality in women prison is a sociological emptiness in France, since it has been approached only in comparison with the situation in men custody. The study relies on a qualitative survey, led in seven prisons where I carried out interviews with one hundred and fifty inmates, members of staff and volunteers. This survey enabled to bring out four forms of sexuality in which sexuality in women’s prison can be observed. Each of them is characterized by specific processes, which show respective salience of spatial, temporal, individual, collective, relational and institutional dimensions in sexual situations. The underground sexuality involves processes of transgression since actors are forced to experience their sexual practices in the coercive arsenal’s interstices developed to stem them. Especially discrete too, the invisible sexuality implies processes of invisibilisation that can be perceived throughout prison actors’ conjunct efforts to confine sexual activity in the private sphere. On the other hand, the ostensible sexuality can be overtly watched thanks to processes of display, even if deliberate behaviors are regulated by some informal rules. At last we can notice a rationalized sexuality, which is characterized by the dilution of particular situations’ sexual dimension in abstract processes which tend to rationalize it.

Situado no contexto de incremento das políticas penitenciárias de interiorização de unidades prisionais por todo o estado de São Paulo, este trabalho tem a intenção de analisar o cotidiano e as práticas sociais e profissionais de agentes penitenciários do município de Itirapina, cidade localizada no interior paulista, onde se encontram instaladas duas penitenciárias. Análise parte da ótica de agentes, moradores, comerciantes e demais moradores,para resgatar o modo pelo qual tais políticas de interiorização dos presídios têm afetado a vida no município em questão. Assim como os detentos, os agentes penitenciários têm seu cotidiano ligado à rotina da prisão, criam seu vocabulário e seu modo de agir transitando entre o interior da cadeia e o convívio com demais pessoas na cidade. A dinâmica social recebe grande influência dos valores e das práticas oriundos das penitenciárias construídas na cidade. Portanto, dentro deste contexto, a construção de discursos e valores colocam a profissão de agente penitenciário numa posição de destaque, cercada de privilégios, relativizando o conceito de prestígio, mesmo estando diretamente relacionado com um universo tão estigmatizado como o prisional. Através da observação da rotina desses profissionais e demais pessoas que se relacionam entre si, na intenção de perceber a dinâmica social cotidiana dessas pessoas, este trabalho também realizou entrevistas com agentes, moradores e comerciantes, buscando perceber como o ambiente criado dentro dos limites da prisão ultrapassa suas muralhas até invadir e influenciar a rotina da grande maioria da população local.. Dessa maneira, destaca-se a relevância do agente penitenciário nos mais variados espaços de sociabilidade do município, fazendo deles agentes sociais referenciais no contexto urbano. Esta dissertação volta sua análise para as transformações e consequências engendradas durante esse processo, percebendo o trânsito de agentes penitenciários, sua comunicação do convívio intramuros com o extramuros, ao mesmo tempo em que ambos se coalescem em sua dinâmica social. Percebe-se, portanto, como a cidade e a prisão interligam-se uma à outra, envolvendo todas as pessoas pertencentes a esse contexto. / Situated in the context of increase policies internalization of prisons throughout the state of Sao Paulo, this paper aims to analyze the everyday practices of social and professional prison officers of Itirapina the municipality, a town in the interior, where are installed two prisons. Analysis through the views of agents, residents, merchants and other inhabitants of the city such as internalization of prison policies has affected the county in question. Like the inmates, prison officers have linked to their daily routine of prison, they create their vocabulary and their mode of action moving between the inside of jail and living with others in the city. The social dynamics developed in Itirapina receives great influence of the values and practices from the prisons built in the city. Therefore, within this context, the construction of discourses and values put the profession of the prison guard in Itirapina in a prominent position, surrounded by privileges, relativizing the concept of prestige, it is directly related to a universe so stigmatized prison. By observing the routine of these professionals and others who relate to each other, hoping to understand the social dynamics of these people daily, this study also conducted interviews with staff, residents and merchants, seeking to understand how the environment created within the confines of the prison beyond its walls to break the routine and influence of the great majority of the population of the city. Thus, we highlight the relevance of the prison guard in a variety of social spaces in the city, making them agents of social references in the urban context. This essay turns its analysis to the changes and consequences engendered during this process, realizing the transit of prison guards, their communication with the extramural with intramural living, while they both coalesce in its social dynamics. It is clear, therefore, how city and prison are interconnected to each other, involving all those present here.