Correctional Policy and the Long-Term Prisoner

Abstract

Long-term prisoners present correctional policy makers with for midable problems. These problems are rooted in the varied member ship of the population of long-term prisoners and in the seriousness of crimes for which these offenders are imprisoned. A new perspec tive for the administration of prison systems containing such inmates is offered. In terms of the loss associated with imprisonment, it is assumed that removal from society is perceived by most prisoners as the principal punishment inherent in incarceration. Since this pun ishment bears most heavily on long-term prisoners, special efforts must be made to ameliorate the secondary sanctions that accompany imprisonment.