The Inmate Volunteer

Abstract

This study attempts to determine whether the act of volun teering by an inmate for a constructive prison program was a discriminative factor in his postinstitutional behavior. Two paradoxical assumptions underlying volunteering are described: (1) that the volunteer is more highly motivated to change than the nonvolunteer; (2) that the volunteer in a correctional setting is not more highly motivated to change. A scale was developed to measure the postrelease success of parolees and expiration-of- sentence releasees. Results support the hypothesis that volunteers tend to identify with a noncriminal reference group in the be ginning and terminal phases of incarceration. During the middle phase of imprisonment, the significant inverse relationship be tween volunteering and postrelease success suggests these volun teers identify with the values of a criminogenic reference group.