Prisons are small self-contained societies that are sometimes described as total institutions. Studies of prison life have detailed the existence of prison subcultures, or inmate worlds, replete with inmate values, social roles, and lifestyles. New inmates who are socialized into prison subculture are said to undergo the process of prisonization. This involves, among other things, learning the language of prison, commonly called prison argot. Prison subcultures are very influential, and both inmates and staff must reckon with them. Given the large and often densely packed inmate populations that characterize many of today’s prisons, prison subcultures are not easily subject to the control of prison authorities. Complicating life behind bars are numerous conflicts of interest between inmates and staff. Lawsuits, riots, violence, and frequent formal grievances are symptoms of such differences.
For many years, courts throughout the nation assumed a “hands-off” approach to prisons, rarely intervening in the day-to-day administration of prison facilities. That changed in the late 1960s, when the U.S. Supreme Court began to identify inmates’ rights mandated by the U.S. Constitution. Rights identified by the Court include the right to physical integrity, an absolute right to be free from unwarranted corporal punishments, certain religious rights, and procedural rights, such as those involving access to attorneys and to the courts. The conditional rights of prisoners, which have repeatedly been supported by the U.S. Supreme Court, mandate professionalism among prison administrators and require vigilance in the provision of correctional services. The era of prisoners’ rights, however, was sharply curtailed in 1996 with the passage of the Prison Litigation Reform Act, spurred on by a growing recognition of the legal morass resulting from unregulated access to federal courts by inmates across the nation. The legislation, in concert with other restrictions sanctioned by the U.S. Supreme Court, has substantially limited inmate access to federal courts.
Today’s prisons are miniature societies, reflecting the problems and challenges that exist in the larger society. Women, HIV-infected inmates, geriatric offenders, and the mentally ill constitute special groups within the inmate population that require additional attention.
In recent years efforts to combat terrorism have presented new security challenges for America’s prisons. Concerns over the spread of ideologies supportive of terrorism have expanded as the number of imprisoned terrorist sympathizers grows. Some believe that terrorist groups might use radical forms of Islam to actively recruit prisoners who see themselves as alienated from the wider society. The opportunity exists for corrections administrators to take a proactive role, however, in monitoring communications and in observing behavior that might indicate potential terrorist activity.
