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FORMAL SOCIAL CONTROL IN PRISONS: AN EXPLORATORY EXAMINATION OF THE CUSTODY CLASSIFICATION PROCESS

NCJ Number
147720
Journal
American Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 17 Issue: 1 Dated: (1992) Pages: 63-88
Author(s)
Date Published
1992
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This study explores inmate classification in terms of its role as an ongoing process of formal social control within the correctional system.
Abstract

Prior research on classification has generally consisted of two types of behavior prediction: studies of clinical classification systems and studies of objective systems. Since Federal courts now require prisons to extend civil rights to inmates, prison administrators have been forced to establish a formal classification system and present it as a rational, consistent, and equitable method of formal social control. Using a sample of 4,622 male felons admitted to North Carolina State institutions in 1980, this study included two analyses, one dealing with reclassification decisions and one with rule violations. The results of the study show that reclassification decisions, in which inmates were promoted from medium-to-minimum security custody could not be described exclusively as a social control decision, particularly as space constraints appeared to be the most important factor in those decisions. However, promotion from maximum to close or from close to medium-security did seem to be prompted by social control concerns. It also did not appear that promotion from medium- to minimum-security could be correlated to an inmate's improved behavior, as measured by the number of institutional rules the inmate violated. 6 tables, 1 note, and 35 references

Date Published: January 1, 1992