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The road stretches into the dim future, far beyond the possible accomplishments of any single lifetime, but if in this I have been able to point the direction and inspire others to carry on from the point where I have left off, I shall consider my efforts worthwhile." Robert F. Stroud (The Birdman of Alcatraz) June 1, 1937 Stroud's Digest on the Diseases of Birds
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Punishment
At least 95% of all State prisoners will be released. Prisons are long-term state or federal operated facilities. Jails are short-term, holding, and detention facilities operated by local government. People in jails are frequently awaiting trial and are legally innocent. Some are awaiting sentencing others are convicted but serving short sentences for relatively minor crimes. There were less than 200,000 US inmates in state and federal prisons in 1971. The state and federal population by the end of 1996 was 1.2 million. Local jails brought the total number of inmates up to nearly 1.7 million. The growth rate of the prison population more than quadruples the overall growth of general population. From 1991 to 1996, the increase of prisoners in Texas out of a population of 18 million was 80,000; equal to Germany, a nation of over 80 million people. Criminal Offenders Statistics Incarceration rates since the sharp increases of the 1980s and 1990 are rising at a slower rate. In 2004:
Department of Justice Prisons/Corrections Resources, Facilities, and Organizations. MegaLaw The Federal Bureau of Prisons Library offers services and resources covering corrections, criminology, sociology, psychology, and business. Federal Bureau of Prisons Library Corrections Statistics. Bureau of Justice Statistics Prison Legal News. Prison Legal News Guantanamo Bay News. Scotsman Prisons in the UK. Guardian Unlimited Innocence Project provides representation and investigative assistance to convicted prison inmates who claim to be innocent. Truth in Justice Prison Activist Resource Center (PARC). Progressive information on prisons and the criminal prosecution system. Prison Activist Resource Center US notches world's highest incarceration rate. By 2010, the number of Americans in prison or with prison experience is expected to jump to 7.7 million, 3.4 percent of all adults. Christian Science Monitor The Land of the Jailed. Will the prison population peak? Time The Real Price of Prisons. There are more people behind bars in the US today than before. Since 1980, the inmate population has more than quadrupled to two million -- an unprecedented explosion incurring unprecedented costs. Foundation for National Progress - Mother Jones Petty criminals doing hard time. The US has the largest incarcerated population on earth, incarcerating over one fifth of the world's prisoners. San Francisco Chronicle Marijuana Incarceration in the US. There were more than 700,000 marijuana arrests in 1997. Of these, 87% were for simple possession (not sale or manufacture). For more than a decade, the percentage of possession arrests was 80% but has risen sharply since 1992. Bureau of Justice Statistics estimates that 59,300 prisoners charged or convicted of marijuana violations cost taxpayers $1.2 billion a year. FAS Drug Policy Analysis Bulletin Social Work, Corrections, and the Strengths Approach. The shift from social work to custodial care in the criminal justice system parallels the move from rehabilitation to punishment. Katherine van Wormer Professor of Social Work and Mary Boes Associate Professor of Social Work University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls The Sentencing Project promotes reform in sentencing laws, practice, and incarceration alternatives by working for a fair and effective criminal justice system. Sentencing Project Backfire: When Incarceration Increases Crime. Three crime-enhancing effects of imprisonment: 1) Recruitment of young people in criminal careers. 2) After people experience prison life, the power to deter crime through the fear of prison diminishes. 3) Broken families, discrimination, and social disorder increase criminality and imprisonment rates. Todd R. Clear, Ph.D., Florida State University. ACLU's National Prison Project advocates for justice policy reform and increased awareness of the social and fiscal ramifications of increased incarceration and decreased rehabilitation. American Civil Liberties Union Society of Professional Journalists’ guide to state media access policies governing correctional facilities and inmates. Society of Professional Journalists Prison massacres. The deplorable conditions pass unnoticed at the majority of prisons. Human Rights Watch America's brutal prisons are where inmates are savaged by dogs, electrocuted with cattle prods, and burned by toxic chemicals... Information Clearing House Florida prisoner beaten. Due to his refusal to submit to anal sex, he suffered a serious eye injury after an inmate assaulted him with a knife. He chronicled unsuccessful efforts to get authorities to protect him. After 6 months of threats and attacks he attempted suicide. He wrote: "The opposite of compassion is not hatred, it's indifference." Human Rights Watch The Federal Bureau of Prisons is responsible for 185,000 Federal offenders -- 85 percent are in Federal prisons, others are in state, local, or private correctional facilities. Federal Bureau of Prisons. Private Prisons: Profits of Crime. Privatized prison systems raise ethical, legal, and practical arguments. Covert Action Quarterly New Orleans: Prisoners Abandoned to Floodwaters. Officers deserted a jail building, leaving inmates locked in cells. Human Rights Watch Rikers Island jail is a temporary home to 80% of NYC's 14,600 inmates, has 9 jails for men and 1 for women. Two-thirds of the inmates are legally innocent detainees, awaiting trial. One-third are sentenced and serving a less than a year or are waiting for a bed in a prison. Rikers daytime population, of prisoners, employees, and visitors is nearly 20,000. CBS Broadcasting A Prison Where Detainees Disappear -- The Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), has an attrocious reputation for violations of constitutional and human rights. It is the high-security federal prison where Arabs and South Asians are taken after being nabbed from taxis, mosques, and their homes. For months immigrants disappear into isolation, accused of no crime that justifies their jail time or treatment. Village Voice Last Resort. Estelle High Security Unit is home to Texas' most violent criminals and may be the next battle ground over prisoner civil rights. Houston Chronicle Stateville Correctional Center - Joliet Prison. In an attempt to gain freedom, prisoners dug tunnels, built ladders, braided ropes, poisoned guards, smuggled guns, and took hostages. Only a few succeeded. Suburban Chicago News The Rock. Alcatraz penitentiaryfrom the mid 1930's through the mid 1960's, held the most incorrigible inmates. Brief narratives on their famous inmates. Alcatraz History Richmond, Va Civil War Prisons and places used as prisons. Civil War Richmond Union and Confederate Civil War Prison Camps. (Census Diggins) Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System. CWSS database contains facts about soldiers on both sides of the Civil War. The Names Index Project enters 6.3 million soldier records in the National Archives Civil War documents. National Parks Systems Out of Sight, Out of Mind. The men inside California's sprawling San Quentin State prison are absent from the public's consciousness. About 174 African Americans have been executed for killing a white person, while only 12 whites have been executed for killing a black person. University of California Berkeley The crime of black imprisonment. Rather than devoting resources to proven failed strategies like massive imprisonment, we should pursue strategies to build a human society and prevent crime. The Committee to End the Marion Lockdown 3/27/95 California prisoners face poor health care and neglect despite their right to medical treatment. San Diego Union-Tribune Telemedicine treatment for prisoners is a giant step into the future due to amazing technology. The Chronicle of Higher Education WHO Health in Prisons Project. The HIV/AIDS epidemic, tuberculosis, and communicable diseases have a high prevalence in prisons. HIPP was formed in 1995 to address prison health. World Health Organization Stop Prisoner Rape. SPR ends sexual violence in detention through institutional accountability, attitude changes toward prisoner rape, and resources for sexual assault victims behind bars. Stop Prisoner Rape Suicide in Prisons and Jails. Suicide is the leading cause of death in jail and the third leading cause of death in prison. From 1984 to 1993 the prison suicide rate was 1.5 times higher than the general population. The suicide rate is 9 times higher in detention facilities than the community. Holding facilities accounted for 30% of jail deaths and detention facilities accounted for 70% in 1986. Tony Salvatore Montgomery County Emergency Service,
State prison suicide/homicide rate rates drop in 2002. Suicide was the leading cause of inmate death in 1983. In 2002 the death rate from illness or natural causes increased while local inmate homicide rates of fell slightly. Bureau of Justice The National Institute of Justice estimates 80% of prisoners, probationers, and parolees have substance related problems. Public Broadcasting System Families Left Behind: The Costs of Incarceration and Reentry. More than half of the 1.4 million incarcerated adults in state prisons have minor children; over half are under 10. Parents are incarcerated an average of 100 - 160 miles from their children. More than half receive no visits from their children. The telephone company surcharge costs make collect calls expensive. The Urban Institute The Children of San Quentin. Fatherless families are stigmatized with "guilt by association." Children of incarcerated fathers can cycle into the same vicious antisocial behavior. A huge percentage of children with a father in prison will end up there themselves. Pacific Sun Newspaper Prisons, Prisoners & Outlaws Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet From Prison to Home. The effect of incarceration and reentry on children, families, and communities. US Department of Health and Human Services The Urban Institute Bearing the Burden. Most prison inmates come from and return to disadvantaged, minority communities. US Department of Health and Human Services The Urban Institute Post Incarceration Syndrome. PICS contributes to relapse and high recidivism rates among addicted and mentally ill offenders released from correctional institutions. Terence T. Gorski Highly structured behavioral treatment that targets high risk offenders' criminal attitudes, values, and behaviors reduce re-offense rates by 30 percent. Alive & Free A Profile of Murderer Escapees. Between 1990 and 1995, 35 murderers escaped from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections; 100 murderers did not escape. Oklahoma Department of Corrections Physician Mary Solander the first female inmate #60 in the Colorado State Penitentiary. Museum of Colorado Prisons At a 1987 libel trial, after being found guilty of perverting the course of justice, by lying and besmirching other's reputations Lord Jeffrey Archer, was sentenced to 4 years work in the theater at Old Bailey, an open prison. He still attended the House of Lords, made laws; went home every weekend, maintained his social life and signed a book deal worth 10 million. Scotsman Puppies Behind Bars. Inmates train puppies to be guide dogs for the blind and explosive detection canines for law enforcement. Puppies Behind Bars Kari & Associates Copyright Kari Sable Burns 1994-2006 |
Doing Time on the Outside: Incarceration and Family Life in Urban America Go Directly to Jail: the Criminalization of Almost Everything. Due to federalization and mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines, the centralized American criminal justice system is punitive. Go Directly to Jail examines proposes reform, fairness and common sense. Convict Criminology by Jeffrey Ian Ross, Stephen C. Richards -- The book includes provocative discussions of rehabilitation, recidivism, drug addiction, life inside different prison systems, transincarceration, discrimination against felons, fathers in prison, and children in adult jails. The book merges autobiographical stories with criminological research to introduce a convict perspective that includes new ideas, vocabulary, and policy recommendations. Inside Rikers: Stories from the World's Largest Penal Colony by Jennifer Wynn -- Rikers Island penal colony, a world unto itself, has its own power plant, schools, hospital, even a tailor. But the 16,000 people forced to live there, unlike free worlders, are "usually known by their single worst deed." How can NYC, home to the sharpest business minds in the country, spend $860 million a year on inmates with a 75% rate of return to prison after release. Aging Prisoners: Crisis in American Corrections Imprisoned Intellectuals: America's Political Prisoners Write on Life, Liberation, and Rebellion by Joy James The US has the highest incarceration rate in the industrialized world, over 2 million people in jails, prisons, and detention centers; over 3 thousand on death row, one of the few developed countries that continues to deploy the death penalty. Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover became a New York State corrections officer: "I wanted to hear the voices one truly never hears, the voices of guards--those on the front lines of our prison policies, the society's proxies." Conover with other new recruits, undergo 7 weeks of pseudomilitary preparation at the Albany Training Academy. Then off to Sing Sing. Conover details how the guards experience confinement at the hands of the inmates. Instead of feeling like a big, tough guard, the gallery officer at the end of the day often feels like a waiter serving 1,800 inmates convicted of violent felonies: murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery, assault, kidnapping, burglary, arson.
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by David Novak This 7th edition 2005 reflects the latest changes in Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) policy and procedure is written for: legal professionals, individuals facing federal incarceration and their family to inform, educate, and illustrate the challenges of incarceration in a Federal Prison facility. The focus of is on the inmate, but several sections are for the inmate's family. Information about the Bureau of Prisons, leading to and including initial incarceration, release from prison, and initiation of supervised release. 
