Questions for Hallinan: Chapters 13, 14, 15, 17 on the business connection to prison and privatization of prisons.
13. Prison Business Gone Wild.
Give some examples of the services and products sold to prison and costs and size of the business. Explain the role played by the ACA in the business of prisons.
What are the political dynamics of the business of prisons?
What are prisons doing to reduce the costs of some of big ticket items?
14. Birth & Growth of Private Prisons
Describe the birth and growth of private prisons.
Are privates cheaper?
What are the conflicts of interest involved with privates, especially the political dynamics?
What ancillary companies develop from privates?
What was the Vitapro scandal in Texas?
15. Privates Gone Bad.
CCA’s Folly. in Youngstown, Ohio and the tragic case of Richard Johnson What are the consequences of privates trying to build and run maxes on the cheap? Use the case of the CCA and Youngstown Prison. How did it get built? How was it filled? How was it run? And what was issue with Robert Johnson?
17. Supermaxxed to the Limit.
What is the problem with private supermaximum prisons such as Wallens Ridge and Red Onion in VA & W. Virginia? What are the positive aspects of the existence of supermaxes like Wallnes Ridge?
What are Hallinan’s comments on the state of the prison system?
What does he mean by habilitation versus rehabilitation?
Is there a light at the end of the tunnel?
I guess the ultimate question about privatization is: Are they worth it? Do the benefits of building privates outweigh the costs to society?
Lecture for October 18, 2007 Penology
Chapter 9. Is Prison a Country Club or a Hell Hole?
What is the perception of prison life in the public and why does it exist, what roles did Willie Horton and Robert Bidinotto play in creating the perception of the country club prison?
What were some of the immediate effects of the “get tough” ideology on prisons and punishment in Alabama, Minnesota, Virginia and Georgia?
Did the get tough policy breed more violence in prison?
What is holding jiggers (describe Randy Payne’s predicament)?
What did guards do at Hays prison in Georgia?
Describe Corcoran prison in California and “gladiator days”?
Chapter 10. The Ultimate Supermax, Pelican Bay.
What is the main purpose of supermaxes such as Pelican Bay prison, Tamms prison and the supermax at Walpole?
Describe some of the precautions taken to control inmates at Pelican Bay, especially describe the more extreme measures?
What does the researcher Stuart Grassian say about the psychological effects on inmates at Pelican Bay?
Why would some inmates actually desire to be sent to the SHU unit at Pelican Bay?
Does the society need supermax prisons?
Do the benefits of ultimate control over the recalcitrant inmate to the corrections system outweigh the consequences of extreme social isolation on the inmates?
Supermax is a term that is used to describe either a ultra secure, highly restricted, low privilege prison or wing of a prison, or section of a wing in which there is solitary confinement or restricted with few or no congregate activities such as work, education, religious services nor contact visits. It is also referred to as: an adjustment center; administrative segregation or administrative maximum (AD SEG or AD MAX); a special housing unit or segregated housing unit (SHU); a violence control unit or violence housing unit (VCU or VHU); a restricted housing unit (RHU); management control unit (MCU); punitive segregation unit (PSU—not Penn State University!); control unit (C-MAX).
Most of the inmates refer to separate units as “the hole.”
Most state prisons have a supermax area of a prison or a single prison dedicated to the worst prisoners or protected prisoners. During the 1990’s states began to establish units devoted to ultra high security; the first was California’s Pelican Bay Prison’s SHU and VHU, following that model was Tamms C-MAX in Illinois, the Estelle Unit in Texas and the Walpole SHU in Massachusetts.
See Pelican Bay
http://www.sfbappa.org/Awards/picturestory/picstory28.ex2.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5584254
In 1992 Vaughn Dortch an inmate at Pelican Bay brought suit against Pelican Bay for torture, he was burned by hot water when guards tried to wash feces from his body. He settled for about a million dollars. The next year inmates filed a cruel and unusual punishment suit against Pelican Bay in Madrid v. Gomez 1994, a special master was assigned to oversee the prison and prevent excessive violence, a lack of medical care and the maltreatment of mentally ill inmates who could no longer be confined to SHU.
Inmates are transferred to a segregated unit for two main reasons: administrative segregation or disciplinary or punitive segregation. In administrative segregation, the correctional staff determines that an inmate has high potential for troublemaking or is a security risk or is fomenting trouble and disorder, threatening a guard, etc. The most common inmate in this category is the gang member. In disciplinary or punitive segregation an inmate has committed serious infractions or misconduct that warrant a severe punishment; these infractions could be fighting, attacking a guard, trying to escape, having drug or weapon contraband, etc. Usually inmates are supposed to receive notice of their transfer and a hearing. In the Wolff v. McDonnell 1974 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that prisoners had some due process rights in disciplinary hears similar, but not as extensive as the due process rights in parole and probation suspension hearings that the Supreme Court had decided in the previous two years in Morrissey v. Brewer 1972 and Gagnon v. Scarpelli, 1973 where written evidence had to be presented and was challengeable by the parolee or probationer. But later in Sandin v. Conner 1995 the Supreme Court decided that if punitive segregation is not untypical of what an inmate can expect when he is incarcerated that prison rules for segregation need not always specify when SHU transfers are mandated.
Chapter 11: What Works?
What are the most effective prison programs?
Evaluate the following programs: work release; life skills; family visitation programs; conjugal visits; religious training.
What is the paradox of a lifer like Grady Mitchell?
Can a person like Grady Mitchell ever be rehabilitated?
What problems does Andre Flowers face?
Why would some victims want to work with offenders and others want to eliminate all rehabilitation programs?
What does Matthew House do?
Chapter 12: Factories in Prison and Prison Labor for Private Companies
(I call them “Con for a Day” or “Rent a Con” Programs.)
What are the most successful private prison labor programs: especially evaluate Prison Blues, Kwalu, Diamond Crystal and the PIE federal program?
Also evaluate some of the less desirable work
(The federal government has its own “Unicor” work program: http://www.bop.gov//inmate_programs/unicor.jsp
What is Measure 17 in Oregon?
Why don’t more states have work programs similar to Oregon and Iowa?
What do organized labor and business organizations have to say about prison industries?