This is a case study of a fairly new correctional institution
that greatly increased its emphasis upon security during its first
five years of operation. According to the employees, who
perceived the increase in security as a shift in the institution's
role, the new prison began as a minimum-security institution
for model prisoners and later, because it received prisoners
transferred to relieve crowding in an older institution, was
forced to tighten security. Actually, however, the new institu
tion was built to ease the overcrowding in the old prison.
Initially it was most expedient to reduce the congestion by
sending the new facility the most cooperative prisoners. The
changes that occurred in this new institution cannot be attrib
uted to pressures from the community, the institutional staff, or
the inmates. The only adequate way to account for them is to
consider the Department of Correction's influence on the
institution.
