A Theor of Prison System's

Abstract

This paper suggests that scholars and practitioners in correction should turn their attention to the prison system as a crucial unit of analysis. Almost every state has a centralized correctional depart ment with jurisdiction over a variety of institutions ranging from traditional custodial maximum-security warehouses to community- based innovative halfway houses and treatment centers. How pris oners and resources should be distributed among these institutions is the key problem.

The central thesis of this paper is that any prison system can be described and analyzed according to the functional relationships among its institutions. The "hierarchical" system is based on a highly elaborated punishment-reward structure that holds out the incentive of minimum-security living conditions in exchange for cooperation with administration. In this system social control is shifted frcm the individual institution to the system as a whole. The "differentiated" system is designed for the delivery of treat ment services, but it requires a degree of autonomy that correction al systems currently do not enjoy. Finally, the "autonomous" sys tem is made up of small, functionally independent institutions with heterogeneous populations; though attractive because of low cost and moral neutrality with respect to the etiology and treat ment of crime, it is also unstable because the type of institution that evolves depends largely on the warden and the natural his tory of the particular institution.