Chapter 13

Summary:
Jails and prisons are considered places of peril, therefore training should be provided in numerous areas of the facility.  A correctional officer works in a jail or prison and supervises correctional inmates.  Being a correctional officer is challenging and stressful with the constant threat of lawsuits and due process rights for prisoners.  The Attica Revolt made it clear that correctional officers and staff are under-trained.  The core responsibilities of correctional officers are care, custody, and control.   Several roles exist within corrections, including cell block officers, work detail supervisors, industrial shop and educational programs, yard officers, tower guards, and administrative building assignments.  JDLR is the sense that things “just don’t look right”, in prison jargon.  The Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 enacted to “provide for appropriate remedies for prison condition lawsuits, to discourage frivolous and abusive prison lawsuits, and for other purposes”.  Drug interdiction and treatment is difficult in jails and prisons because offenders still manage to obtain illicit drugs during their incarceration.  There are major differences between females and males in the prison setting.  Females are more likely to have suffered physical and sexual abuse as children, have the responsibility of child rearing, and have difficulty adjusting to institutional life.  Mentally ill inmates are potentially violent and may serve long sentences, constituting 13% of all state prison inmates receiving therapy and/or counseling.  Prison gangs develop for several reasons: solidarity, protection, and power.  Thirty-six states and federal prisons administer capital punishment with highly trained teams. Prisoners’ constitutional rights have been affected by a number of different means: “hand off” vs. “hand on” doctrines, legal remedies and access to the courts, the First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, and the Fourteenth Amendment.  Prisoners and inmates are deprived of: liberty, goods and services, heterosexual relationships, autonomy, and security while imprisoned.  Prisonization is when inmates conform to the norms and values considered socially acceptable by other inmates.

Objectives:

• Describe how prisons and jails are perilous places, and some tips for determining when trouble is brewing
   
• Review the general duties of prison corrections officers and jail employees
   
• Explain how jails are different from prisons in terms of purpose and environment
   
• List the deprivations of prison life that constitute the “pains” of imprisonment
   
• Explain what is meant by prisonization
   
• Review what is meant by the “hands off” era of prison administration
   
• Explain several major federal court decisions that greatly expanded prisoners’ rights
   
• Discuss the unique challenges posed by women, gang members, senior citizens, and mentally ill persons who are in prison
   
• Review the basic responsibilities in carrying out executions
   
• Discuss the nature and extent of litigation by prison and jail inmates
   
• Describe the general problem of drug abuse in prisons, and methods of interdiction

Outline:

• Places of Peril
   
  • Corrections hostage-taking events can involve any individuals, employees, visitors, or prisoners held against their will by an inmate seeking to escape, gain concessions, or achieve other goals, such as publicizing a particular cause
     
• Jail Personnel
   
  • Jails
     
  • Prisons
     
  • Training should be provided on the booking process, inmate management and security, general liability issues, policies related to AIDS, problems of inmates addicted to alcohol and other drugs, communication and security technology, and issues concerning suicide, mental health problems, and medication
     
• Prison Correctional Officers
   
  • A Job Description
     
  • Changes Wrought by the Attica Revolt
     
  • Evolving Roles, Selection, and Training
     
• Issues of Prison Governance
   
  • A Warden’s Wisdom
     
  • Dealing With Inmate Litigation: The Prison Litigation Reform Act
     
  • Drug Interdiction and Treatment       
     
  • Women in Prison: “Pains” and Adjustment
     
  • Mentally Ill Inmates
     
  • Coping with Prison Gangs
     
  • Death Work: Administering Capital Punishment
     
• Prisoners’ Constitutional Rights
   
  • Demise of the “Hands Off” Doctrine
     
  • Selected Court Decisions
     
• Life in Prison
   
  • Deprivations
     
  • Prisonization