Research From the Inside: Critical Analyses of Crimes in the Prison Institution

• In Event: The Pains of Imprisonment, Prisonization, and the Prison Subculture

Abstract

Definitions of crime focus disproportionately on street crimes, which assumes that standard for determining crime necessitates violence, property damage or theft, and drug use or sales. What is lacking in conceptualizations of crime is critical analyses of the treatment of so called offenders in penal institutions. Critical criminology challenges mainstream definitions of crime, but this study goes one step further in positioning inmates in a maximum security prison in New Jersey to offer their critical perspectives, definitions, and explanations of crimes in carceral settings. Theorists conducted interviews and observations to collect data on crimes in the prison institution, including substandard housing, poor nutrition, price gouging of commissary items, correctional officer use of excessive or unjustified force, treatment of individuals with mental illness, unnecessary frisks, abuse of discretion in parole hearings, and questionable handling of recorded rules violations. This study argues for a critical analysis of the ways in which inmates are treated in prison and how this treatment counteracts attempts towards rehabilitation. Implications for future research and policy will be discussed.

Authors

• Douglas N Evans, Mercy College/John Jay College

• Jason Szkola, The Graduate Center, John Jay College / CUNY