Changes in the Nature and Perception of the Long-Term Inmate Population: Some Implications for Prison Management and Research

Abstract

In this paper it is argued that a need exists for correctional administrators and researchers to examine their thinking about long-term confinement and long-term inmates if they are to advance the understanding of long-termers and improve the management of this segment of the prison population in the future. Specifically, three areas merit greater attention. First, the ways in which concepts such as long terms and long-term inmates are operationalized need to be appraised. Our knowledge of long-termers and long-term imprisonment is hampered by amnbiguous definitions and vague conceptualizations regarding these sentences and the inmates who are serving such terms. Second, research is challenging conventional wisdom about the impact of prison environments upon those who are confined for prolonged periods and about long-termers' ability to adapt to extended imprisonment. Views that extended years of confinement gradually wear away at the long-termers' physical and mental capabilities are giving way to models that stress individual strategies for successfully coping with long-term imprisonment. Third, recent correctional research suggests that substantial changes are occurring in the makeup of the long-term inmate population, particularly as to sentence lengths, offense types, and racial composition. These changes are accompanied by changes in the behavior of this population that require different approaches to managing these sentences. Collectively, the circumstances associated with these three areas complicate the efforts of prison administrators and researchers to learn which management approaches and program strategies work best with long-term inmates and under what conditions.