Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Ted Chiricos, Florida State University, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Jan. 26, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 115 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Based on the author's Thesis (Master in Criminology)--Rijksuniversiteit of Gent, Belgium, 1989-90. / Text in English; questionnaire in Pidgin. Includes bibliographical references (p. 79-88).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Political Science, December 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (MA (Public administration))-University of Pretoria, 2004. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 194-200). Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Neil Betten, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of History. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed May 10, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 221 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

There is a small, but growing, body of research on prisoners' families. It has shown that these families experience numerous pains and deprivations associated with imprisonment, ranging from financial hardship to social (stigma) and emotional issues (grief-like emotions). It has also been suggested that long sentences could exacerbate and prolong these problems. However, no studies on long-term prisoners' families specifically have yet been conducted in the UK. This study explores the experiences of 33 long-term prisoners' partners. Prison sociology, which has explored imprisonment, and long-term imprisonment specifically, is used to inform the analysis. Themes such as coping with the pains of imprisonment over time and with the length of the sentence and time passing are explored. It is also shown that partners are fundamentally changed, on an identity level, by a long sentence. Furthermore, stigma is explored, and it is argued that partners of long-term prisoners experience especially strong stigma and that it lasts for a long time indeed. Finally, this thesis considers how the partners outside 'do family' across prison walls, and how imprisonment makes this challenging indeed. In conclusion, it is argued that the experiences of prisoners' partners speak to the sociological research on imprisonment more broadly and that drawing on these experiences can develop the prison sociologist's knowledge about the broader sociological impact of imprisonment.

No description available.

This thesis is a comparative examination of prisoners' rights in England and Germany. The thesis has three dimensions: first, it is a description of the legal status of the prisoner in Germany and England; second, it is an examination of the social, political and cultural dynamics which have shaped prisoners' rights in each jurisdiction; and third, it is in itself an exercise which seeks to address the problems of comparative law which are identified in the introduction. England and Germany have been chosen as comparators as their respective approaches to prisoners' rights present illuminating contrasts. In England, despite significant judicial activity in the development of a prisoners' rights jurisprudence, prisoners' rights protection remains partial and equivocal. Many aspects of prison life are left within the realm of executive discretion, and the present Government, much like its predecessors, is unlikely to entrench a bill of prisoners' rights. Proponents of prison reform in England argue that the system of prisoners' rights protection is inadequate, not only in terms of the rights which prisoners can claim, but in terms of the possibilities of enforcement and the independence of enforcement bodies. This equivocal commitment to rights in England is heightened when juxtaposed against Germany's highly articulated rights culture and ambitious system of prisoners' rights protection under the Prison Act 1976. The German Prison Act, which is underpinned by a considerable constitutional jurisprudence on prisoners' rights, sets out foundational principles of prison administration, affords prisoners positive rights, defines the limitations of prisoners' constitutional rights and provides prisoners recourse to a Prison Court. Moreover, the rights and principles under the German Prison Act have been developed and refined in a substantial body of prison law jurisprudence over the last thirty years. Chapters one to three of the thesis make available to an English audience an in-depth account of the conception and protection of prisoners' rights in Germany and the broader context in which this has taken place. Chapters four and five of the thesis examine the method and manner of conceiving of the prisoner's legal status in England in the light of the German conception and explore the deeper political and cultural reasons for the divergence between England and Germany.

Prisons are organized to hold and control inmates. Inmates traditionally oppose authority, and the social ecology of prisons resists change-oriented programs. Successful educational programs appear to neutralize certain negative aspects of the social ecology while engaging inmates in setting and working toward pro-social goals. One initiative is the Simon Fraser University prison-based baccalaureate program in the humanities. Inmates in this program appear to develop positive student roles. Explanations for the program's apparent success had not previously examined the interaction between inmates and the social ecology of the program. Previous accounts of the program relied on anecdotal reviews and psychological explanations of inmate development. To bridge this gap, this study was designed to explicate a theoretical model to explain student roles and associated feeling states and expectations, to operationalize it, and to examine relationships with various socio-demographic and carceral variables. Three approaches were used. The first involved formulating the model, drawing on previous studies and experience with inmates in this program, literature about the program, and role theory. A model of role development was posited. It has five stages: (1) Recruitment, (2) Disorientation, (3) Separation, (4) Transition, and (5) Solidarity. The second phase involved operationalizing the model. Seventy written statements were constructed representing inmates' feelings toward prison, and the university program, at each stage of the model. They were judged by five experts in correctional education who strongly concurred in assigning the 70 statements into respective stages. The second phase also involved a card sort of these 70 statements by 33 inmate university students in one prison. They sorted the cards according to: (1) "how I feel now"; (2) "how I used to feel, but not now"; (3) "never felt like this"; and (4) "don't know." For the third phase, data were analyzed using Pearson correlations and ANOVA statistical procedures. The major conclusions which emerged from the study pertained to the three purposes. With regard to the explication of a model of role development, it was concluded that (1) Role theory is an appropriate framework for articulating a model of prison ecology, and (2) Inmates experience five distinct and sequential stages of role development. With regard to the operationalization of the model, it was concluded that (1) Judges found the overall model plausible and workable, (2) Judges were able to reliably discriminate items into stages, and (3) Inmates' responses confirmed intra-stage reliability. With regard to relationships between scores obtained from operationalizing the model and various socio-demographic and prison-related variables, it was concluded that (1) The expected associations were not confirmed, (2) Inmates' forwarding of feelings from previous incarcerations supports the Importation model, (3) A counter-intuitive finding (university term by Recruitment) is probably an artifact of previous penitentiary experience, and (4) The university program does foster pro-social role development, thus providing support for the "some things work" position. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

Rehabilitating incarcerated individuals has become a focal point within corrections, with a variety of programs being implemented within facilities to assist individuals as they return to society from incarceration. Programs such as prison-based animal programs (PAP) provide incarcerated individuals a number of benefits that range from learning an employable skill to psychosocial benefits, which stem from the human animal interactions. Importantly, the current study aims at expanding knowledge on the current, limited literature that exists on public perceptions and opinions towards PAP programs. The importance in measuring the level of support for programs of this nature lies in the role public opinion plays in criminal justice policymaking, being that the public has been reported as having a level of influence on policymaking. A sample of 230 Florida Atlantic University students were surveyed concerning their perceptions towards PAP programs, focusing on whether these programs are beneficial to incarcerated individuals. The focus of this thesis was to examine whether students support PAP programs within correctional facilities and to analyze the differences in perceptions based on multiple demographic characteristics. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2021. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection