PRISON SYSTEM

Annotated Bibliography on Prison System

Annotated Bibliography on Prison System

Reisig, M. (2001), “The champion, contender, and challenger”, Top-ranked books in prison studies”, Prison Journal.

Reisig talks about the success of prison process that depends not only on the instrument used to assess risk but also on the resources and different environments available for placement. Reisig has found that properly designed, validated, and implemented instruments can reduce inmate disciplinary problems, which include violence. Reisig, however, point out that the overall effectiveness of classification instruments in reducing prison violence will likely be limited as long as the environments to which inmates are sent are violence prone.

Espejo, R. (2002) “America's prisons: opposing viewpoints”. San Diego, Calif.: Greenhaven Press

Espejo describes the prison is the product and is part of a social reality based on economic and political inequality. The prison is constituted as violence itself, and such is also a violent space resulting in violent relationships, and violent existence. A place where everyday life is manifested based on violence, that violence in turn is expressed in all its harshness in the everyday life. Espejo Focus on the Prison system in relation with gangs and sub-groups and provide a detailed research based analysis on the sub-groups and gang violations.

Hanrahan, C. (2006), “America's prisons”, Detroit: Greenhaven Press

Hanrahan identifies the features of American prison system. Criminal justice denotes the government agencies charged with enforcing adjudicating crime, law, and correcting proscribed conduct. In recent years with the proliferation of technology, environmental issues and trade all in US have a developed system of law that works and protects the various aspects of civil and criminal justice systems. Furthermore, incarceration has largely failed to disrupt violent activities by gang-affiliated inmates. He also highlights the sub-groups and gangs in the prison system, who reflects the various aspects of a society that enable its members to coexist in the same geographic area in relative harmony.

Useem, B. and Goldstone, J. A. (2002) “Forging social order and its breakdown: Riot and reform in U.S. prisons”, American Sociological Review

Useem and Goldstone defines contentious body of research that has considered how management styles and administrative regimes can influence levels of violence within a prison. Although a wide variety of leadership and management approaches are available, for the current purpose, it is sufficient to conceptualize these differences based on a continuum that ranges from a strict control model to a more open, participatory model of prison management. In the former model, staff members are discouraged from the use of discretion and prisoners are treated to control with little input into prison practices and routines.

Liebling, A. (2004), “Prisons and their moral performance: A study of values, quality, and prison life”. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press

Liebling discusses about the other end of the continuum are management strategies that allow varying degrees of prisoner input into prison operations and routines and encourage staff to develop positive, but limited, relationships with prisoners in an effort to establish legitimacy and ...