Information about prison

Dorchester Penitentiary in New Brunswick, Canada is an institution that is part of Corrections Canada. Opened in 1880 as a maximum security prison, it now functions as a medium security facility.

A prison, penitentiary, or correctional facility is a place in which individuals are physically confined or interned and usually deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Prisons are conventionally institutions which form part of the criminal justice system of a country, such that imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime.

A criminal suspect who has been charged with or is likely to be charged with a criminal offense may be held on remand in prison if he or she is denied, refused or unable to meet conditions of bail, or is unable to post bail. This may also occur where the court determines that the suspect is at risk of absconding before the trial, or is otherwise a risk to society. A criminal defendant may also be held in prison while awaiting trial or a trial verdict. If found guilty, a defendant will be convicted and may receive a custodial sentence requiring imprisonment.

Prisons may also be used as a tool of political repression to detain political prisoners, prisoners of conscience, and "enemies of the state", particularly by authoritarian regimes. In times of war or conflict, prisoners of war may also be detained in prisons. A prison system is the organizational arrangement of the provision and operation of prisons, and depending on their nature, may invoke a corrections system. Although people have been imprisoned throughout history, they have also regularly been able to perform prison escapes.

Design and facilities

The main entrance to the Utah State Prison.

Male and female prisoners are typically kept in separate locations or separate prisons altogether. Prison accommodation, especially modern prisons in the developed world, are often divided into wings. A building holding more than one wing is known as a "hall".

Amongst the facilities that prisons may have are:

A main entrance, which may be known as the 'gatelodge' or 'sally port' (stemming from old castle nomenclature)
A chapel, mosque or other religious facility, which will often house chaplaincy offices and facilities for counselling of individuals or groups
An 'education facility', often including a library, providing adult education or continuing education opportunities
A gym or an exercise yard, a fenced, usually open-air-area which prisoners may use for recreational and exercise purposes
A healthcare facility or hospital
A segregation unit (also called a 'block' or 'isolation cell'), used to separate unruly, dangerous, or vulnerable prisoners from the general population, also sometimes used as punishment (see solitary confinement)
A section of vulnerable prisoners (VPs), or protective Custody (PC) units, used to accommodate prisoners classified as vulnerable, such as sex offenders, former police officers, informants, and those that have gotten into debt or trouble with other prisoners
A section of safe cells, used to keep prisoners under constant visual observation, for example when considered at risk of suicide
A visiting area, where prisoners may be allowed restricted contact with relatives, friends, lawyers, or other people
A death row in some prisons, a section for criminals awaiting execution
A staff accommodation area, where staff and guards live in the prison, typical of historical prisons
A service/facilities area housing support facilities like kitchens
Industrial or agricultural plants operated with convict labour
A recreational area consisting of a TV and pool table

Prisons are normally surrounded by fencing, walls, earthworks, geographical features, or other barriers to prevent escape. Multiple barriers, concertina wire, electrified fencing, secured and defensible main gates, armed guard towers, lighting, motion sensors, dogs, and roving patrols may all also be present depending on the level of security. Remotely controlled doors, CCTV monitoring, alarms, cages, restraints, nonlethal and lethal weapons, riot-control gear and physical segregation of units and prisoners may all also be present within a prison to monitor and control the movement and activity of prisoners within the facility.

Modern prison designs, particularly those of high-security prisons, have sought to increasingly restrict and control the movement of prisoners throughout the facility while minimizing the corrections staffing needed to monitor and control the population. As compared to the traditional landing-cellblock-hall designs, many newer prisons are designed in a decentralized "podular" layout with individual self-contained housing units, known as "pods" or "modules", arranged around centralized outdoor yards in a "campus". The pods contain tiers of cells laid out in an open pattern arranged around a central control station from which a single corrections officer can monitor all of the cells and the entire pod. Control of cell doors, communications and CCTV monitoring is conducted from the control station as well. Movement out of the pod to the exercise yard or work assignments can be restricted to individual pods at designated times, or else prisoners may be kept almost always within their pod or even their individual cells depending upon the level of security. Goods and services, such as meals, laundry, commisary, educational materials, religious services and medical care can increasingly be brought to individual pods or cells as well.

Conversely, despite these design innovations, overcrowding at many prisons, particularly in the U.S., has resulted in a contrary trend, as many prisons are forced to house large numbers of prisoners, often hundreds at a time, in gymnasiums or other large buildings that have been converted into massive open dormitories.

Lower-security prisons are often designed with less restrictive features, confining prisoners at night in smaller locked dormitories or even cottage or cabin-like housing while permitting them freer movement around the grounds to work or activities during the day.

See Panopticon for a historical prison design that has influenced modern designs.

Types

Juvenile

Prisons for juveniles (people under 18) are known as young offenders institutes and hold minors who have been convicted, many countries have their own age of criminal responsibility in which children are deemed legally responsible for their actions for a crime.

See also: Juvenile delinquency

Military

Main article: Military prison

Prisons form part of military systems, and are used variously to house prisoners of war, unlawful combatants, those whose freedom is deemed a national security risk by military or civilian authorities, and members of the military found guilty of a serious crime.

Political

Main article: Political prisoner

Certain countries maintain or have in the past had a system of political prisons; arguably the gulags associated with Stalinism are best known. The definition of what is and is not a political crime and a political prison is, of course, highly controversial.

Psychiatric

Main article: Involuntary commitment

Some psychiatric facilities have characteristics of prisons, especially when confining patients who have committed a crime and are considered dangerous.

Rehabilitation

Meta-analysis of previous studies shows that prison sentences do not reduce future offenses, when compared to non-residential sanctions.^[1] This meta-analysis of one hundred separate studies found that post-release offenses were around 7% higher after imprisonment compared with non-residential sanctions, at statistically significant levels. Another meta-analysis of 101 separate tests of the impact of prison on crime found a 3% increase in offending after imprisonment.^[2] Longer periods of time in prison make outcomes worse, not better; offending increases by around 3% as prison sentences increase in length.^[3]

Effective rehabilitation programs reduce the likelihood of re-offense and recidivism.^[4] Effective programs are characterised by three things: first, they provide more hours for people with known offense risk factors (the Risk Principle); secondly, they address problems and needs that have a proven causal link to offending (the Needs Principle); and thirdly, they use cognitive-behavioural approaches (the Responsivity Principle). Providing rehabilitation to people at lower risk of reoffending results in a 3% reduction in reoffending, while providing rehabilitation to people with a high risk of reoffending is three times as effective, resulting in a 10% reduction in subsequent offending.^[5] Risk factors for reoffending are: age at first offense, number of prior offenses, level of family and personal problems in childhood and other historical factors, along with level of current needs related to offending. Those individuals who had many personal and family problems in childhood (particularly 19 or more), started offending before puberty, and have committed multiple priors are more likely to reoffend in future, according to longitudinal studies internationally.^[6]

In support of the Needs Principle:
Programs that specifically target criminogenic needs (causal needs and problems), see a 19% reduction in reoffending.^[7]

In support of the Responsivity Principle:
There is a 23% reduction in reoffending after participating in programs that use cognitive-behavioural methods to bring about changes in behaviour, thinking, and relationships.^[8]

When all three of these principles are effectively applied, the impact on offending is a 26-32% reduction.^[9]^[10] This is in comparison to a 3-7% increase in offending that is found with imprisonment.

Residential approaches—whether in prison or some other live-in option—tend to be less effective than non-residential approaches.^[11] These researchers found that effective programs delivered in the community were followed by a 35% reduction in reoffending, whereas effective programs delivered in residential settings (such as prisons and halfway houses) were followed by a 17% reduction in reoffending. One very likely reason for this is that for teens and adults, mixing with antisocial peers increases the risk of offending. In prison or residences inmates spend a great deal of time with other people immersed in criminal pursuits and beliefs, whereas in community-based programs there is more opportunity to mix with people involved in constructive, law-abiding activities. Antisocial peers in prisons and residences can form a very powerful pressure group, subtly and not so subtly influencing the behavior of other inmates.

Population statistics

As of 2006, it is estimated that at least 9.25 million people are currently imprisoned worldwide.^[12] It is believed that this number is likely to be much higher, in view of general under-reporting and a lack of data from various countries, especially authoritarian regimes.

In absolute terms, the United States currently has the largest inmate population in the world, with more than 2 1/2 million^[13] in prison and jails, even though violent crime and property crime have been declining since the 1990s according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.^[14] Although the United States represents less than 5% of the world's population, over 25% of the people incarcerated around the world are housed in the American prison system. Pulitzer Prize winning author Joseph T. Hallinan wrote in his book Going Up the River: Travels in a Prison Nation, "so common is the prison experience that the federal government predicts one in eleven men will be incarcerated in his lifetime, one in four if he is black." In 2002, both Russia and China also had prison populations in excess of 1 million.^[15] By October 2006, Russian prison population was decreased to 869,814 which translated into 611 prisoners per 100,000 population.

As a percentage of total population, the United States also has the largest imprisoned population, with 738 people per 100,000 serving time, awaiting trial or otherwise detained.^[16]

In March 2007, the United Kingdom had 80,000 inmates (up from 73,000 in 2003 and 44,000 in 1985) in its facilities, one of the highest rates among the western members of the European Union (EU) (a record formerly held by Portugal). The highest imprisonment rates among the larger EU members include that of Poland, which in August 2007 had about 90,000 inmates, i.e. 234 prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants,<ref name="polishprisonsAug2007" /> while the highest rates are in the Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with estimated rates of 240, 292 and 333 respectively in 2006.<ref name="worldprisons_7ed" />

The high proportion of prisoners in some developed countries is from various causes, but the attitude towards drug-taking plays a considerable part. In undeveloped countries, rates of incarceration are often lower, though this is not a rule. In general, such societies have less goods to steal and a more community based social system, with less judicial law-enforcement. Also their economies may not support the high cost of incarceration.

**Prison population per 100,000 inhabitants**
USA	Russia	Australia	UK	Turkey	Canada	Germany	Italy	France	Vietnam	Sweden	Denmark	Japan	Iceland
743	713	163^[17]	124	107	102	98	92	80	75	64	61	37	29

The value of 743 in the USA includes 491 prisoners per 100,000 in prisons,^[18] and 252 prisoners per 100,000 in jails.^[19]

Mean: Estimate of 197 (196.63) Median: 92 Range: 696

Prisons by country

Ireland

Most jails in the Republic of Ireland were built in the 19th century, including Kilmainham Gaol (no longer in use), Mountjoy Prison and Portlaoise Prison. A new €30m prison is planned at Thornton Hall to replace Mountjoy.

Australia

Further information: List of Australian prisons, Immigration detention centres, Mandatory detention in Australia

The main cell block of Fremantle Prison, Western Australia.

Many prisons in Australia were built by convict labour in the 1800s. During the 1990s, various state governments in Australia engaged private sector correctional corporations to build and operate prisons whilst several older government run institutions were decommissioned. Operation of Federal detention centres was also privatised at a time when a large influx of illegal immigrants began to arrive in Australia.

Japan

Further information: Penal system of Japan

Turkey

Prisons in Turkey are classified as closed, semi-open and open prisons. Closed prisons are separated into different kinds according to its structure and the number of the prisoners held. Examples are A type, B type, and F type. F types are the ones in which high penalty prisoners are held. Most which are being built today are L types that are for low penalty prisoners.

United Kingdom

Further information: Scottish Prison Service, Northern Ireland Prison Service, Her Majesty's Prison Service, United Kingdom prison population, List of United Kingdom prisons

Canada

Further information: Correctional Service Canada

France

France has 188 prisons in mainland and the oversea territories. Statistics showed around 50,000 places on July 1, 2005 for around 60,000 prisoners.

Germany

Further information: Prisons in Germany

Germany has 194 prisons (of which 19 are open institutions). Official statistics showed 80,214 places on March 31 2007. On the same day, there were 75,719 prisoners (of which 13,168 pre-trial; 60,619 serving sentences; 1,932 others, i.e. mainly civil prisoners; 4,068 were female). This is less than the highest value of 81,176 prisoners on March 31 2003.^[20]^[21]

Poland

As of the end of August 2007, Poland officially declared 90,199 prisoners (13,374 pre-trial; 76,434 serving sentences; 391 others; 2,743 prisoners were female), giving an imprisonment rate per 100,000 inhabitants of about 234. The overpopulation rate (number of prisoners held compared to number of places for prisoners) was estimated by the official prison service as 119%.^[22]

The growth rate of imprisonment in Poland during 2006-2007 was approximately 4% annually, based on the August 2007 estimate of 90,199 prisoners and the June 2005 estimate of 82,572 prisoners.^[23]

United States

Further information: Prisons in the United States

Correspondence

Research indicates that inmates who maintain contact with family and friends in the outside world are less likely to offend and usually have an easier reintegration period back into society [1]. Many institutions encourage friends and families to send letters, especially when they are unable to visit regularly. However, guidelines exist as to what constitutes acceptable mail, and these policies are strictly enforced.

Mail sent to inmates in violation of prison policies can cost inmates "gain time" and even lead to punishment. Most Department of Corrections websites provide detailed information regarding mail policies. These rules can even vary within a single prison depending on which part of the prison an inmate is housed. For example, death row and maximum security inmates are usually under stricter mail guidelines for security reasons.

There have been several notable challenges to prison corresponding services. The Missouri Department of Corrections (DOC) stated that effective June 1, 2007, inmates would be prohibited from using pen pal websites citing concerns of fraud. [3] Service providers such as WriteAPrisoner.com, together with the ACLU, plan to challenge the ban in Federal Court. [4] Similar bans on an inmate's rights or a website's right to post such information has been ruled unconstitutional in other courts, citing First Amendment freedoms. [5] Also, since most DOCs already post inmate information on their websites, critics claim this is a moot point. Inmates' ability to mail letters to other inmates has been limited by the courts. [6] Inmate correspondence with members of society is typically encouraged because of the positive impact it can have on inmates, albeit under the guidelines of each institution and availability of letter writers.

Corresponding with prisoners can be very helpful to them but carries risks for both correspondents; improper mail to inmates can cost them privileges (normally, all mail to inmates is read by prison staff). Use of a pen-pal service reduces (but not eliminates) these risks; as of 2005, there were more than 36 such services for U.S. prisoners.

Notes

1. ^ Smith et al, 2002
2. ^ Andrews and Bonta, 2003
3. ^ Smith et al, 2002
4. ^ Andrews and Bonta, 2003
5. ^ Andrews and Bonta, 2003
6. ^ e.g.Moffit T E, Caspi A, Harrington H and Milne B J (2002) Males on the life-course persistent and adolescence-limited pathways: Follow-up at age 26, Development and Psychopathology, 14: 179 - 207
7. ^ Andrews and Bonta, 2003
8. ^ Andrews and Bonta, 2003
9. ^ Andrews and Bonta, 2003
10. ^ Andrews et al, 1990
11. ^ Andrews and Bonta, 2003
12. ^ World Prison Population List (Seventh Edition). Retrieved on 2007-03-23.
13. ^ Harrison, Paige M., Allen J. Beck (June 2006). Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2005. Bureau of Justice Statistics.
14. ^ [7]
15. ^ Prison population statistics. Retrieved on 2007-10-04.
16. ^ World Prison Population List (Seventh Edition). Retrieved on 2007-03-23.
17. ^ Prisoners in Australia, 2006[8]
18. ^ US Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisons[9]
19. ^ US Bureau of Justice Statistics, Jails[10]
20. ^ [https://www-ec.destatis.de/csp/shop/sfg/bpm.html.cms.cBroker.cls?action=basketadd&id=1019821 Official Prison Statistics of Germany] (from the German statistics office)
21. ^ Prison Archive (from the University of Bremen)
22. ^ Statistics - August 2007 (pdf) (Polish). Prison Service, Poland (Służba Więzienna) (August 2007). Retrieved on 2007-10-07.
23. ^ Statistics - June 2006 (pdf) (Polish). Prison Service, Poland (Służba Więzienna) (June 2006). Retrieved on 2007-10-07.

References

Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: the Birth of the Prison, New York: Random House 1975.
Peter Kropotkin, "In Russian and French Prisons". Online book. This is a criticism of the existence of prisons.
James (Jim) Bruton, Big House: Life Inside a Supermax Security Prison, Voyageur Press (July, 2004), hardcover, 192 pages, ISBN 0-89658-039-3.
George Jackson, Soledad brother, ISBN 978-1556522307.
Paula C. Johnson, Inner Lives: Voices of African American Women in Prison, New York University Press 2004.
Marek M. Kaminski (2004) Games Prisoners Play. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-11721-7. http://webfiles.uci.edu/mkaminsk/www/book.html
Ted Conover. Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing. Knopf, 2001. Trade paperback, 352 pages, ISBN 0-375-72662-4.
Mark L. Taylor. The Executed God: The Way of the Cross in Lockdown America. Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 2001. ISBN 0-8006-3283-4.
Wil S. Hylton. "Sick on the Inside: Correctional HMOs and the coming prison plague". Harper's Magazine, August 2003.
World Prison Population List (fourth edition) UK Home Office, 2003. ISSN 1473-8406.
Jorge Franganillo. "Blogs in prison libraries", 2006. Summary of a cultural extension workshop in a juvenile detention facility.
Dillon, Read & Co. Inc. and the Aristocracy of Prison Profits.

External links

Prison Statistics - US Bureau of Justice Statistics
Home Office, UK - Justice & prisons
Prison abolition

Internment is the imprisonment or confinement^[1] of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary (1989) gives the meaning as "The action of ‘interning’; confinement within the limits of a country or place".
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Freedom
By concept
Philosophical freedom Political freedom Liberty
By form
Assembly Association Body: clothing, modifying From government Movement Press Religion and beliefs Speech & expression Thought
Other
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Institutions are structures and mechanisms of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of two or more individuals. Institutions are identified with a social purpose and permanence, transcending individual human lives and intentions, and with the making and enforcing of
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Criminal justice is the system of legislation, practices, and organizations, used by government or the state, which are all directed to maintain social control, deter and control crime, and sanctioning those who violate laws.
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A state is a political association with effective dominion over a geographic area. It usually includes the set of institutions that claim the authority to make the rules that govern the people of the society in that territory, though its status as a state often depends in part on
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The word crime comes from the Latin crimen (genitive criminis), from the Latin root cernō and Greek κρινω = "I judge". Originally it meant "charge (in law), guilt, accusation.
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suspect is a known person suspected of committing a crime.

Police and reporters often incorrectly use the word the suspect when referring to the actor, or perpetrator of the offense (perp for short).
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In law, an offence is a violation of the penal law. An offence can range from a simple misdemeanor (e.g. a traffic violation) to a felony (e.g. capital murder).

Ancient times

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Corrections refer to one of the components of the criminal justice system that serves to punish criminal offenders. Sentences given to offenders range from probation to serving time in prison, with intermediate sanctions including sentences to a halfway house or community
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prison escape or prison break is where a prisoner leaves their prison through unofficial or illegal ways, and almost always results in an effort to recapture them by their original detainers.
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developed country, or advanced country, is used to categorize countries with developed economies in which the tertiary and quaternary sectors of industry dominate.
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A castle is a defensive structure seen as one of the main symbols of the Middle Ages. The term has a history of scholarly debate surrounding its exact meaning, but it is usually regarded as being distinct from the general terms fort or fortress in that it describes a building
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chapel is a holy place or area of worship, sometimes small and attached to a larger institution such as a large church, a college, a hospital, a palace, a prison or a cemetery, sometimes large and unattached to another building.
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mosque is a place of worship for followers of the Islamic faith. Muslims often refer to the mosque by its Arabic name, masjid Arabic: مسجد — pronounced: /ˈmæsʤɪd/ (pl.
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chaplain is typically a priest, pastor, ordained deacon or other member of the clergy serving a group of people who are not organized as a mission or church, or who are unable to attend church for various reasons; such as health, confinement, or military or civil duties; lay
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Psychotherapy is an interpersonal, relational intervention used by trained psychotherapists to aid s in problems of living. This usually includes increasing individual sense of well-being and reducing subjective discomforting experience.
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library is a collection of information, sources, resources, and services: it is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual. In the more traditional sense, a library is a collection of books.
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