Prisonization and Institutional Misconduct: Testing Theory in a Juvenile Setting

• In Event: Juvenile Institutions: Issues and Concerns

Abstract

Studies of adult prisonization and violent misconduct have shown that the early years of incarceration establish a pattern of behavior. What has yet to be studied is how theories of prisonization can be translated into a juvenile correctional setting. The juvenile system has the unique characteristic of having two distinct groups of youth; youth who are adjudicated through the juvenile court system and those sentenced through the adult court system. Since youth waived to adult court are incarcerated with juvenile court youth prior to their transfer to adult prison, it is important to test the ways in which their behavior within the facility differs from or is similar to those youth retained under juvenile court jurisdiction. This paper is aimed at examining data collected from California's Division of Juvenile Justice to test prisonization theories as they relate to the relationship between the youth’s court of commitment and their institutional misconduct.

Authors

• Shannon Elizabeth Reid, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

• Darin Haerle, University of California, Irvine