Victimization of Prisoners
Victimization of prisoners involves four systems, according to Bowker:
the biological, the psychological, the economic, and the social, Biological Victimization Included in biological victimization are acts of murder, rape, and assault.
These are more likely to characterize relationships between inmates than guard-inmate relationships.
However, recent discussions of prison life have spoken of a "trench warfare climate" and have taken special note of the physical intimidation of guards by inmates. Inmates are often prepared for violence, as evidenced by the routine carrying of assaultive devices such as knives and iron bars, called "head knockers" .
Homosexual rape and other sexual assaults have long been associated with prison life, and the reasons are not hard to find. The problem may be even worse in jails.
Bowker suggests that there may be even more violence in juvenile institutions than in adult ones.
If true, one explanation could be that youths are still in that period of life of proving themselves, especially their masculinity. Life in the detention home and reformatory is an extension of life on the street, but a more intense one.
The opportunities for asserting one's manliness are probably more frequent, and the constant surveillance by adult keepers merely increases the likelihood that demonstrations of "coolness," "toughness," and independence will be highly valued in interpersonal relationships.
Psychological Victimization Combined with other forms of victimization, psychological victimization primarily consists of manipulation and intimidation for the purposes of achieving status, prestige, authority, and power.
The new prisoner (often called a "fish") is likely to be scared, confused, and vulnerable to demands made by more experienced cons.
There are various ways in which guards and other staff members victimize prisoners through manipulation and intimidation.
It is the guards who control the flow of information and materials inside the prison. (1)
(1) National Institute of Justice, Michael N. Castle, Alternative Sentencing: Selling it to the Public , Washington. D.C.: Government Printing Office. September, , U.S.A,1991. p:2.
Economic Victimization Material deprivation leads to the development of a "hidden economy."
Economic transactions between inmates and between inmates and guards involve all sorts of goods and services, from sex to drugs to books to wages. The use of inmates for drug research as an aspect of the tyranny of imprisonment was mentioned.
In addition, there is constant thievery of personal possessions whenever inmates' backs are turned, and simply getting commissary purchases back to one's cell may entail running a gauntlet of would-be robbers.
Those inmates who give up any attempt to protect their economic rights become fair game for exploitation and harassment.(1)
The Cost of the Prison System :
Prisons are big business, spending millions of pounds, and employing thousands of people.
In a period of economic austerity and severe public expenditure cuts, the spiraling costs of the prison service have provoked much hostile public criticism.
In 1979, in England and Wales, £206,731,000 was spent on male prisons and remand centers, and women's establishments, of this, £152,473,000 was for staffing, including Headquarters staff.
In Scotland, the adult prison service cost £19,641,000 of which £15,054,000 was staff costs. In 1978/1979, the average weekly cost of keeping a male prisoner inside was £113. This average conceals important variations.
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(1) Michael C. Musheno et al. , Community Corrections as an Organizational Innovation: What Works and Why," Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, U.S.A, May 1989 , p:163.
- Arleen Smigel Leibowitz, "Does Crime Pay: An Economic Analysis" (unpublished Master's thesis, Columbia University, 1965 , p:67 .
For example, the weekly costs of keeping a man in a maximum security dispersal prison was £232, compared with £80 for a man in an open prison. The average cost of keeping a woman in prison during the same period was £140. (1)
At the end of 1976, it was estimated that the cost of building each cell in a new topsecurity prison was £31,600.
Wymott prison, a short-term institution with 816 places, which opened in 1979, cost £10,650,000 to construct. A major new program of prison building, recommended by the May Report is being planned for the mid-1980s.
Types of Prison Sentences :
There are three types of sentences that are imposed upon defendants who have been found guilty, or have pleaded guilty, and who are to be incarcerated: the definite, the indeterminate, and the indefinite sentence.
However, a judge may. not have a choice among the three, as he may be circumscribed by legislative mandate. In addition, the maximum sentence that may be imposed is set by the state legislatures, and differs depending on the crime.
Finally, the judge has a choice, where there is guilt on multiple counts, between consecutive and concurrent prison terms.
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(1) Gregory Zilboorg, M.D., op. cit , p. 97. - Ernest van den Haag, op. cit , pp. 14-15.
- Gary Becker, op. cit. , pp. 169-217.
- Karl Menninger, op. cit., p: 206.
- National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice, op. cit. , pp : 125 -130 .
1. The definite Sentence :
In a definite sentence, the judge imposes the precise sentence as established by law for a specific crime. If the judge has no discretion in the matter, the sentence is said to be a mandatory one. In all likelihood this entire sentence will not be served, as there is time deducted there from for "good behavior," usually one-third of the imposed term.
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This time off is itself mandatory, and can be avoided by prison authorities only if the convict has been found guilty of a serious additional crime during the period of incarceration.
Other than the good-behavior reduction, the term can be shortened only by successful appeal, pardon, or executive clemency. (1)
2. The indeterminate definite Sentence :
The indeterminate sentence removes length of sentence from jurisdiction of the court, passing the authority to a parole board of several members, who are ideally supposed to be experienced students of human behavior and of rehabilitation.
The assumptions are made that the judge cannot predict the optimal time needed for rehabilitation when he is called upon to pass sentence; that rehabilitation of offenders is possible, perhaps through participation in treatment programs available within institutions; and that parole personnel will be able to detect offender rehabilitation.
The pronounced sentence is set by law so that it may not go beyond certain limits; in fact it has been known to be as indeterminate as "one day to life." The parole board has the right to order release at any time. What this amounts to in practice is passing the right to impose sentence from the judge to the parole board.
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(1) Gregory Zilboorg, M.D., op. cit , p. 97. - Ernest van den Haag, op. cit , pp. 14-15.
- Gary Becker, op. cit. , pp. 169-217.
- Karl Menninger, op. cit., p: 206.
Critics of the indeterminate sentence argue that it is impossible for anyone to make an accurate prediction of a person's readiness for release.
But by far the most critical argument concerns the administrative abuses of discretionary power by the parole board or releasing authority.
Some critics argue that the assumed treatment programs are nonexistent, that the atmosphere of prisons is not conducive to rehabilitation, that inmates change for the worse in prison, and that custody requirements outweigh treatment programs and their impact.
Inmates themselves condemn the system for its capriciousness, lack of coherence, and irrationality and for the psychological problems that it creates for them.
It has built into it inherent difficulties for achieving impartiality insofar as race and ethnicity are concerned, and favors those inmates who have been psychologically "broken" by the system, who have become sycophantic and have lost their sense of mastery over their own lives.
Finally, convicts tend to develop techniques for dissimulation, and the system favors those who are most adept at such procedures.
3. consecutive and concurrent sentences :
A further important element in sentencing is the authority of the judge to impose consecutive or concurrent sentences when more than one offense is involved.
If an offender is found guilty of two separate acts of breaking and entering, for example, the judge may opt for consecutive sentences, such as three years for each offense, giving a total of six, or for two concurrent sentences of three years each, for a total of three.
Under consecutive sentencing the complete sentence for the first offense (except for mandatory time off for good behavior) must be met before the offender begins serving time for the second offense.
While the specter of consecutive sentences is used by prosecutors in plea bargaining to hold over the head of the defendant the possibility of extremely long imprisonment, in actual fact most multiple sentences are served concurrently. (1)
Consecutive sentencing is generally considered a punitive act on the part of a judge, invoked perhaps because of an offender's refusal to negotiate a plea.
In some instances it is designed to appease the public, as in a case that has attracted attention and caused an outcry from politicians, press, and others to "throw away the keys." Thus one will occasionally read of a judge sentencing a defendant to several consecutive prison terms, amounting to a total of several hundred years, in which he will not be eligible for parole, it is emphasized, for seventy-five or a hundred years or more.
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