The varying purposes of prison labor and labor-oriented programs are discussed in light of positive and classical criminological theories relating employment/unemployment, income, and crime. Labor programs, based on the punitive classical model, have utilized labor as punishment, assuming a reduction in recidivism would result; applications of positive theories have assumed that more substantial post-release employment, achieved by prison labor programs through habituation, anti-idleness, skill enhancement, or bonding, would also result in a reduction in recidivism. / Through the development of critical explanations of the relationship between the state, punishment, and labor, it is argued that effective labor programs would not be achieved due to competing, and more important, concerns of the state under capitalism. In addition, programs geared to change at the individual level would fail to address more important structural concerns, resulting in no substantial change in unemployment or crime rates. Hypotheses are developed to test alternate assumptions of the classical, positive, and critical models. / Using two years of follow-up data on 1210 ex-offenders released from the Florida Department of Corrections, the relationship between post-release employment and rearrest, as well as the impact of prison labor programs on these two indicators were studied. Results showed primarily weak, non-significant, negative relationships between employment level and crime, caused by the extremely low variance in employment status of ex-offenders and by surprisingly lower recidivism rates for unemployed than for underemployed offenders. No prison labor to labor-oriented program was found to significantly effect recidivism rates. While participants in two programs, community work release and vocational education, had higher post-release employment levels than non-participants, the weak impact of these programs failed to result in any reduction in recidivism rates. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-08, Section: A, page: 2660. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1984.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75359 |
| Contributors | JOHNSON, CANDACE MARIE., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 212 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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