Doing Good and Looking Bad: A Case Study of Prison/Community Relations

Abstract

Research studies find that the objective impacts of prisons on their host communities are largely favorable. At the same time, residents of these communities often hold unfavorable attitudes toward their prison and community relationships with the institution may be poor. Using examples from an in-depth study of a new prison in a small town, one source of this disparity is sought in usual practices that would be found elsewhere as well. Corrections/community relations are likely to be influenced by the processes involved in prison siting and operations, and by differences in the premises underlying the judgments of local residents and corrections officials.