Review of Literature

Amanda Rogers
English 102
Dr. Sonia Begert
May 10, 2014

Review of Literature

The United States of America is home to the highest number of incarcerated criminals in the world. Our country holds just 5% of the world’s population, and a shocking 25% of the world’s incarcerated population. Many factors contribute to this dreadful statistic such as the war on drugs, poverty, gang affiliations, and overall violence. Of course, in order to keep a level of justice in society, reduce crime rate, and discourage others from breaking the law, criminals should endure some sort of punishment for their crimes committed. However, I believe it is greatly important to distinguish between the act of being hard on crime and being hard on criminals. Punishment in prison has, unfortunately, become the main focus of the correctional system in America.  When an offender is sent to prison, that offender will have to endure the harsh policies, and troublesome living conditions that are currently in place in our criminal justice system.  Many psychologists believe the dreaded confinement conditions, along with a sever lack of criminal rehabilitation programs, make it extremely difficult for inmates to properly adjust to prison life, and in turn, makes it hard for them to ever improve their lives overall. In my project, I will seek to uncover the current policies that are making it so difficult for convicted felons to lead normal, crime-free lives post-release.  Most of the sources consulted in this research project fall into the divisions of criminal recidivism, the psychological effects of prison, the effects of incarceration on families and children, rehabilitation within prison, the rising harshness of punishment within the corrections system, and finally, prisoner reentry trends and policy.

        There have been several excellent works published on the subject of criminal recidivism. The sources I have reviewed on this topic mainly focus on the reason criminals re-offend, the effect it has on society, and strategies for keeping recidivism to a minimum. An example includes Jeremy Travis’s book “But They All Come Back: Facing the Challenges of Prisoner Reentry.” In this book, the author writes about America’s extensive use of prison as a response to crime, and the problems with the prison system which cause a high percentage of released prisoners to land right back behind prison walls. Travis describes the new realities of punishment in prison, and the links this has to criminal recidivism. Additionally, Travis addresses the harm that is done when prisoners are released without the supervision of a parole officer. On a related note, Jeremy Travis, and Christy Visher’s “Prisoner Reentry and Crime in America” explores the topic of the large number of released prisoners each year, and their criminal activity after prison. The authors examine different theories on why criminals re-offend such as increases in violence in their communities, and how to keep the crime rate to a minimum, such as recommendations by politicians suggesting we keep prisoners out of high crime neighborhoods. Additionally, I have reviewed a study conducted by The Pew Center on the States which was written for the Public Safety Performance Project. This study addresses a broad range of issues relating to the controversial process of mass incarceration. The authors use surveys and data from various states to emphasize the “revolving door” effect of criminal recidivism, and how it is adding to the overall cost of prisons. Therefore, this study focuses on criminal re-offending rates, statistics, and what can be done to reduce the rate of criminal recidivism to stop the “revolving door” process.

The many psychological effects prison has on criminals are widely discussed in a considerable amount of the sources to which I have referred. For instance Etienne Benson’s article “Rehabilitate or Punish?” discusses the punitive nature of the correction system in America, and how it is negatively affecting inmates. Benson, expresses the concern of inmates having increasingly high mental health issues due to the punishment-oriented correctional system in America. The author explains how psychologists are doing more research on the cause of crime, and the psychological effects of incarceration to help transfer the focus from punishment, to rehabilitation. He explains, however, that psychological help within prisons in scares, which is rapidly adding to the emotional deterioration of inmates. A study that proves this issue is the “Stanford Prison Experiment”, which was conducted in 1971 by a selected group of students about the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard.  Twenty-four male students took on randomly assigned roles as prisoners and guards in a mock prison located in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. The participating students claim their planned two-week experiment had to be aborted after only six days due to the extreme depression and stress it was causing them. The “guards” unintentionally, but quickly, took on a strong authoritarian approach which subjected their “prisoners” to psychological torture. On a similar note, Craig Haney’s “The Psychological Impact of Incarceration: Implications for Post-Prison Adjustment”, published by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, discusses the many psychological changes that prisoners undergo throughout the course of incarceration. Haney argues that the psychological harms inflicted on prisoners have increased over the past 10 years due to the harsh policies and non-existent rehabilitation programs.  Emphasizing Haney’s point, Nicole Crawford’s article “Helping Inmates Cope with Prison Life” confronts the extreme lack of mental health help available to inmates in America. Crawford bases her article around an interview with psychologist Robert Morgan, who has devoted his career to providing basic mental health services to help inmates adjust to life behind prison walls. Crawford writes about Dr. Morgan’s experiences providing mental health services to prisoners. The main point of this article is to raise awareness of the fact that mental health help is crucial for inmates to have a successful adjustment to prison life. An important part of this article is when the author quotes Dr. Morgan as saying that attending to inmates' basic mental health needs also helps with prison safety. To grasp a better understanding of what is involved with the therapy of inmates, I reviewed Marisa  Mauro’s “My Work as a Psychologist in Prison” This article describes the duties and experiences of a prison psychologist. It is written first-hand by psychologist Marisa Mauro who is a clinical psychologist at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Mauro discusses the challenging nature of her job, which includes providing counseling to high-risk inmates including those who are suicidal, homicidal, and mentally unstable. She addresses some of her clinical responsibilities such as mental health screenings, responding to emergency situations, psychological evaluations, therapy, and court-ordered assessments. This serves as an overall picture of what a prison psychologist’s job involves. The psychological changes that are endured throughout the course of an inmate’s sentence can be harmful, and if no action is taken to better these issues, should be considered neglect. I will use these sources to indicate that mental health help should be available to all offenders, as it is a positive thing from which they could greatly benefit both inside and outside of prison.

              

         Being sentenced to prison does not only affect the offender, but the families of that offender. Families undergo many devastating hardships when a loved one is sent to prison. These hardships can jeopardize relationships, and more severely, children. Many sources explore the topic of families affected by prison. Tracey L Meares’ “Mass Incarceration: Who Pays the Price for Criminal Offending?” is an essay that addresses the effect mass incarceration has had on offenders, families, and society. Mears confronts the point that mass incarceration has not necessarily shown a level of crime reduction on the community or neighborhood level. Instead, it has mainly added to the financial and emotional hardships that families of those in prison have to endure. Comparably, Joseph Murray’s “The Effects of Imprisonment on Families and Children Of Prisoners”, which appeared in the book The Effects Of Imprisonment, addresses the difficulties faced by the partners of those who are incarcerated such as loss of income, social isolation, trouble with child-care, and difficulties maintaining the relationship. In addition to relationship hardships, this chapter provides more in-depth research on the effects that having an incarcerated parent has on the children of offenders. Of course it is difficult when a loved one is incarcerated, and unfortunately, the hardships tend to continue even after the offender is set free. Christopher Wildeman and Bruce Western’s “Incarceration in Fragile Families” which appeared the Future of Children explores the consequences family’s face of those whose loved ones have been released from prison. The authors argue that imprisonment severely diminishes the earnings of adult men which compromises their health, and decreases the amount of available family resources. The authors discuss how this can ultimately lead to broken, poverty-stricken families, which may In turn pave the way to delinquent lifestyles for the children of these offenders. These sources direct the focus to the “hidden victims” of incarcerated people. Victims of crime are not just those who were directly affected by the crime itself, but also the families of the offender. Therefore, better policy regarding the support of prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families should be created in order to help ensure a successful life for everyone involved.

            

        Rehabilitation within prison is not something you hear a lot about. This is due to the stronger focus on punishment, and the lack of correctional courses available to prisoners. Iain Murray’s “Making Rehabilitation Work: American Experience of Rehabilitating Prisoners” is an article by a British author who is discussing rehabilitation within the American prison system. Murray argues his point that if rehabilitation helps to prevent even a small amount of crime committed by those who are released from prison, then it is nevertheless, an important part of the correctional process. Although “rehabilitation techniques” vary from prison to prison, the most important form of correction, in my opinion, is that of education. In an article which appeared in The Journal of Correctional Education, Dustin Cantrell’s “Correctional Education as Democratic Citizenship Education” discusses the education programs offered in prison, and the effect they have on prisoners. The author focuses this article around interviews he conducted with educators who have been teaching in prisons for 4-17 years. The educators he interviews express the importance of seeking to transform their students into active, aware, engaged citizens. The educators explain how they’ve witnessed positive changed in their students through prison education programs. Such courses can greatly benefit inmates, changing their attitude and outlook for the better. Overall, increased availability of education courses in prison will improve an offender’s chances of transforming his or her life, helping them to become a successful citizen post-release.

                

        The rising harshness of punishment within the corrections system is becoming an issue regarding the overall health of prisoners. Hank Green’s YouTube video titled “Mass Incarceration in the U.S.” covers the many effects mass incarceration has on criminals and society. Green focuses on the three pieces of what he refers to as the "incarceration pie". The pieces include corrections, punishment, and deterrence. Green puts emphasis on the fact that the "punishment" aspect of the criminal justice system severely outweighs the "corrections" part which makes it difficult and unfair for prisoners who are trying to adjust to prison life, and those who are hoping to live a successful life post-release. Green argues his point that being tough on crime by punishing criminals is a "failed experiment" and deems it bad policy. The questionable punishment policy is further explored in Stuart Henry’s “On the Effectiveness of Prison as Punishment” which is a paper written for the Conference: Incarceration Nation: The Warehousing of America’s Poor. This paper is centered around the question “does punishment work?”  Henry explores important questions such as “for whom is punishment effective?” He also questions whether prison is an effective punishment for crime, or if there may be other methods that would be more useful in reducing crime and decreasing harmful criminal behavior. A good example of just how severe punishment in prison can be is provided in Kirsten Weir’s article “Alone, In ‘The Hole’: Psychologists Probe the Mental Health Effects of Solitary Confinement.” This article addresses the controversial issue of long-term solitary confinement within prisons, and the psychological impacts among those in so-called “supermax” prison. Weir writes about the increased amount of prisoners sentenced to solitary confinement, and strives to answer the question of what really happens to prisoners who are deprived of social contact for extended amounts of time. In a slightly different vein, Ernest  Van Den Haag’s “Could Successful Rehabilitation Reduce the Crime Rate.”  Which appeared in The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology argues that in order to successfully reduce crime rate, the expected severity of punishments should increase along with the probability of suffering them. According to the author, this would decrease the overall “net advantage” of committing crimes.

                

        There has been much written in regards to prisoner re-entry trends and policies. Common to all of the sources I have referred to respecting this subject is that of the lack of access to proper re-entry training courses in prison, as well as the difficulties offender face accessing much needed social resources post-release.  In an article which appeared in Crime and Delinquency, James Austin’s “Prisoner Reentry: Current Trends, Practices, and Issues” uses national data, and a survey of eight states to examine the current policy of prison re-entry programs, and their effectiveness. Provided with charts and statistics on prison population, and who is participating in certain prison “prerelease” programs, Austin indicates that all states have some sort of “prerelease” programs, but usually these courses are voluntary and a set of restrictions apply. Once released from prison, offenders continue to have trouble utilizing sources to help get them back on their feet. Wendy  Pogorzelski, Nancy Wolff, Ko-Yu Pan, and Cynthia L. Blitz’s article “Behavioral Health Problems, Ex-Offender Reentry Policies, and the ‘Second Chance Act’” published by the American Journal of Public Health discusses the underlying problems regarding the “Second Chance Act of 2005”, which calls for easier access of community reentry services for people leaving prisons and jails such as public assistance, housing, health and mental health services, education, and job training. The authors identify the many challenges offenders face post-release relating to the restricted access of public recourses, arguing that because of the “invisible punishments” that come along with current policies, the ability for released offenders to access these critical community resources is incredibly limited. On a related note, Amy L Solomon, Kelly Dedel Johnson, Jeremy Travis, Elizabeth Cincotta McBride’s “From Prison to Work: The Employment Dimensions of Prisoner Reentry:  A Report of the Reentry Roundtable” examines the transition process from prison to the community, and addresses the challenges offenders face adjusting to freedom and responsibility post-release. The main point of this report is that a large number of prisoners are released each year into a community that is not prepared well enough to support a positive and successful transition. To further explore re-entry trends in America, I have referred to a study released by the United States Bureau of Justice Statistics titled “Reentry Trends in the United States.” The statistics were provided by BJS statisticians Timothy Hughes, and Doris James Wilson. Released in 2004, the source provides information on trends such as growth in State prison and parole populations, releases from State prisons, entries to State parole, success rates for State parolees, recidivism, and characteristics of release. These sources put into perspective the botched-system that is currently in place to support released prisoners, and their families. I will use them to further indicate that more stable policies should be in place regarding the opportunity for pre-release programs in prison, and the availability of community resources to prisoners after release.