crim chapter 14 key words

total institutions

A regimented, dehumanizing institution, such as a prison, in which like-situated people are kept in social isolation, cut off from the world at large.

no frills policy

inmates receive the bare minimum of food, services, and medical care required by law to convince them that prison is no place to be, and they’d better not return.

total institution

inmate subculture

iThe loosely defined culture that pervades prisons and has its own norms, rules, and language.

inmate social code

An unwritten code of behavior, passed from older inmates to younger ones, that serves as a guideline for appropriate inmate behavior within the correctional institution.

prisonization

Assimilation into the separate culture of the prison. This loosely defined culture that pervades prisons has its own norms, rules, and language. The traditional prison culture is now being replaced by a violent gang culture.

make-believe family

In female prisons, substitute family groups with a faux father, mother, and siblings.

History of Prior Violence

Those who have history of violence maybe be more likely to be agrressive behind bar and have a bigger chance of reoffending

Psychological malady

Many inmates suffer from personality disorders.

Prison conditions

The prison experience itself causes people to become violent. Inhuman conditions, including overcrowding, depersonalization, and the threat of sexual assault, are violence-producing conditions.

Lack of dispute-resolution mechanisms

Many prisons lack effective mechanisms for fairly and equitably handling inmate grievances against either prison officials or other inmates

Basic survival

Inmates resort to violence in order to survive.

Inmate-balance theory

Riots and other forms of collective violence occur when prison officials make an abrupt effort to take control of the prison and limit freedoms.

Administrative-control theory

Collective violence is caused by prison mismanagement, lack of strong security, and inadequate control by prison officials.

Prison overcrowding theory

As the prison population continues to climb, unmatched by expanded capacity, prison violence may increase.

anger management

Programs designed to help people who have become dependent on anger as a primary means of expressing themselves and those who inappropriately use anger or the threat of violence to get their way.

work release

A prison treatment program that allows inmates to be released during the day to work in the community, returning to prison at night.

furlough

A correctional policy that allows inmates to leave the institution for vocational or educational training, for employment, or to maintain family ties.

hands-off doctrine

The legal practice of allowing prison administrators a free hand in running the institution, even if correctional practices violate inmates’ constitutional rights; this practice ended with the onset of the prisoners’ rights movement in the 1960s.

substantive rights

Civil rights that include the right of inmates to receive mail and medical benefits and to practice their religion.

jailhouse lawyers

An inmate trained in law, or otherwise educated, who helps other inmates prepare legal briefs and appeals.

cruel and unusual punishment

Physical punishment or punishment that far exceeds that given to people under similar circumstances and is therefore banned by the Eighth Amendment. The death penalty has so far not been considered cruel and unusual if it is administered in a fair and nondiscriminatory fashion.

qualified immunity

legal doctrine that protects government officials from liability from civil damages, such as lawsuits.