Prison as a Turning Point in the Era of Mass Incarceration

• In Event: Posters I

Abstract

The experience of confinement is now an ever-more-frequent life event for U.S. residents. Some scholars argue that the prison experience serves as a barrier to the change process, while others posit that our nation’s prisons now offer a significant window of opportunity for transformation. Relying on eight waves of interviews with 112 randomly sampled incarcerated male sexual offenders and a matched group of male non-sexual offenders (N=224), the current study examined whether the prison experience can serve as a turning point in the change process for some prisoners. First, between group analyses examined whether in-prison change processes were conceptualized differently for sexual as compared to the non-sexual offenders. Differential findings were then compared within sexual (e.g., child molestation, rape) and non-sexual (e.g., violent, property) groups. Implications are considered as they relate to correctional practices and policies.

Authors

• Channing Carpenter, Sam Houston State University

• Cristal Hernandez, Sam Houston State University

• Brandy L. Blasko, Sam Houston State University