The Prison Environment
Alcatraz Cell
Prison in Deer Lodge Montana (photo
by Ann Kramlich)
Some Quotes
"Every time you build a prison, you close a school.”
-Victor Hugo
"No matter what the question has been in American criminal justice
over the last generation, prison has been the answer.”
-Franklin E. Zimring
We are tracking one group of kids from kindergarten to prison, and
we are tracking one group of kids from kindergarten to college." Lani Guinier
California has built 21 prisons since 1980. In the same period, the University of
California system has opened one new campus. Although California's prison
population has declined in recent years, the state's spending per prisoner has
increased 5 times faster than its spending per K-12 student in the last two
decades. The Huffington Post | By Saki Knafo Posted: 08/30/2013 1:50 pm
EDT
Recidivism Rates
From BJS at: http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/rpr94.pdf
Emerging Issue ---The Rise of For-Profit Private Prisons
We believe the long-term growth opportunities of our
business remain very attractive as insufficient bed
development by our customers should result in a
return to the supply and demand imbalance that has
been benefiting the private prison industry.
~ Corrections Corporation of America 2010 ANNUAL
REPORT
In 2012, CCA sent a letter to 48 states offering to buy their prisons as a solution for "challenging
corrections budgets” faced by states. In order to do so, CCA asked for a 20-year (or longer)
contract plus:
• A minimum rated occupancy of 1,000 beds;
• A structure age of no more than 25 years;
• A designation that the structure is suitable for immediate occupation or is already occupied by an
inmate population; and
• An assurance by the agency partner that the agency has sufficient inmate
population to maintain a minimum 90 percent occupancy rate over the term of the
contract.
Prisoner Labor
The Federal Prison Industries (commonly referred to as FPI or UNICOR) was
established in 1934 by Franklin D. Roosevelt to employ federal inmates for
production of goods needed in the government.
It is the mission of Federal Prison Industries, Inc. to employ and provide skills
training to the greatest practicable number of inmates confined within the Federal
Bureau of Prisons; contribute to the safety and security of our Nation's correctional
facilities by keeping inmates constructively occupied; produce market-price quality
goods for sale to the Federal Government; operate in a self-sustaining manner; and
minimize FPI's impact on private business and labor.
Adapted from the Unicor web site[ http://www.unicor.gov/index.cfm]
Sample of Products
• Combat uniforms, ammunition bags
• Battery boxes, battery box assemblies and non-rechargeable batteries
• Electrical and electronic components are used in guided missile seekers; electronics for
missile launchers, propulsion systems, antenna mast groups, guidance processors and warhead
detonation
• Helmets for advanced combat, ballistic, paratrooper, Special Forces and riot control
• Office furniture
• Cable assemblies
• Electro-optical and circuit board assemblies, and electrical connectors for a wide range of
military, agency and commercial applications
• Lighting products are used in lighting runways, base camp living quarters, kitchens and
hospital tents
• Semi-rigid co-axial cables (for radar), radio-frequency and microwave communications
Source: www.unicor.gov/
At the end of FY 2005, the Federal inmate population was almost
188,000. Today (September, 2013) the total number of federal
inmates is 219,218. Source:
http://www.bop.gov/news/weekly_report.jsp
Work Programs
Sentenced inmates are required to work if they are medically able. Institution
work assignments include employment in areas like food service or the
warehouse, or work as an inmate orderly, plumber, painter, or groundskeeper.
Inmates earn 12¢ to 40¢ per hour for these work assignments.
Approximately 16% of work-eligible inmates work in Federal Prison Industries
(FPI) factories. They gain marketable job skills while working in factory
operations, such as metals, furniture, electronics, textiles, and graphic arts. FPI
work assignments pay from 23¢ to $1.15 per hour.
Source: http://www.bop.gov/inmate_programs/work_prgms.jsp
Dell to Stop Using Prison Workers July 4, 2003 By LAURIE J. FLYNN
Responding to concerns from both customers and environmental advocates, Dell
Computer announced yesterday that it would no longer rely on prisons to supply
workers for its computer recycling program.Dell, the world's largest seller of PC's,
said it had canceled its contract with Unicor, a branch of the Federal Bureau of
Prisons that employs prisoners for electronics recycling and other industries.
Prison Labor Used for Packaging for Starbucks and Nintendo
[http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/0152/news-barnett.php]
News Story
Company Focus
3 prison stocks poised to break out
Thanks in part to overcrowding, governments are turning to private
companies to build and manage prisons. Here's how to pick the right
time to buy into the trend.
By Michael Brush
In what might be a revealing commentary on our country's state of
affairs, the nation's private prison companies look like solid
investments for the next several years
Source: http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/P105034.asp
Stanford Prison Experiment
[Web-based slide show of prison simulation study - Click here]
Overall purpose of the study: To investigate the psychological
effects of prison -- for both prisoners and guards
Participants
Originally 70 volunteers (via newspaper ads)
Screening: Diagnostic interviews and psychological test
administered, existence of medical problems, criminal
background, substance abuse
Total of 24 participants
Random
assignment
Paid $15/day for
participating
12
Prisoners
12 Guards
Stanford Prison Experiment (cont.)
Procedure of the Study
“Prisoner recruitment -- Picked up at home by a police car
• Booked, fingerprinted, sprayed, blindfolded and put into holding cell
•Uniforms [dress, or smock worn with no underclothes. Prisoner ID
number was on front and back of the uniform]. Made to wear a
heavy chain on their right ankle’s at all times and a stocking cap over
their heads
Stanford Prison Experiment (cont.)
Construction of the Prison Environment (to ensure realism)
• Use of consultant team including a former prisoner
• Input from prisoners and correctional personnel involved
in course entitled “The Psychology of Imprisonment”
• Cells were small; enough room for only three cots with room
for little else
Prisoner Treatment -- Some Examples
•
Use of "counts" to familiarizing the prisoners with their numbers and exercise
control over the prisoners (counts took place several times each shift and often at
night)
• Punishments (e.g., push-ups) -- sometimes stepping on prisoner’s backs or having
others sit on top of the backs of prisoners while doing push-ups
• After an early prisoner rebellion --• Guards used a fire extinguisher to shot a stream of skin-chilling carbon
dioxide on the prisoners.
• Guards broke into cells, stripped the prisoners naked, took beds out, forced
the ringleaders of the rebellion into solitary confinement
• Going to the toilet became a privilege which a guard could grant or deny at his
discretion
• After the nightly "lock-up," prisoners were often forced to urinate or defecate in a
bucket in their cells. Sometimes the guards did not allow prisoners to empty the
buckets
• Forcing prisoners to perform degrading, repetitive work such as cleaning out toilet
bowls with their bare hands
Behavior of the “Prisoners”
• Negative Affect (e.g., anxiety, depression, rage)
• Learned Helplessness
• Conversation between prisoners
• Use of numbers to refer to themselves (in conversation with a Catholic priest)
• Loss of group unity
• “Parole Board” -- Most prisoners willing to forfeit the money they had earned up to
that time in order to be paroled
• Several behavioral reactions of prisoners (e.g., emotional breakdowns, psychosomatic
rash)
The “Guards”
• Wore khaki uniforms, carried a whistle around their neck and a billy
club and wore dark sun-glasses
• Worked eight-hour shifts
• Use of arbitrary control by the guards (e.g., Privilege cell)
• Most aggressive “guard” viewed as role models
• Overall, three types of guards emerged (1) tough, fair ones who followed
prison rules, (2) "good guys" who did favors for the prisoners and never
punished them, and (3) guards (about 1/3) who were hostile, arbitrary, and
inventive in humiliating prisoners; they appeared to enjoy the power they
possessed
• No guard ever came late for his shift, called in sick, left early, or demanded
extra pay for overtime work
Premature Ending
Christina Maslach, a recent Stanford Ph.D., was brought in to
conduct interviews with the guards and prisoners
After viewing prisoners being marched on a toilet run (bags over
their heads, legs chained together, hands on each other's shoulders)
she strongly objected in an outrage by saying, "It's terrible what
you are doing to these boys!”
The study was stopped after only 6 days --- the plan was for a 2week timeframe
Abu Ghraib
[Ted Talk: Philip Zimbardo, The Psychology of Evil – Click here]
11:25 p.m., Nov. 12, 2003.
The detainee is covered in
what appears to be mud and
human feces.*
*All caption information is
taken directly from CID
materials
8:59 p.m., Oct. 18, 2003.
Detainees is handcuffed in the
nude to a bed and has a pair of
panties covering his face. The
photograph is taken from
inside the cell and at a
downward angle
11:50 p.m., Nov. 7, 2003.
SPC HARMAN has camera
or video camera in hand as
she stands behind the
detainees nude.
SOLDIER(S): SPC
HARMAN
• 9 Army soldiers (all enlisted) have been court-martialed and convicted of crimes at Abu Ghraib. Accountability
stopped at the rank of staff sergeant -- no commanding officers have been prosecuted
• Commanders are legally responsible for orders given and "if he has actual knowledge, or should have knowledge ... that
troops or other persons subject to his control are about to commit or have committed a war crime and he fails to take the
necessary and reasonable steps to insure compliance with the law of war or to punish violators thereof.” [Paragraph 501 of
Army Field Manual 27-10]