It's More Than Just a Box Check: Measuring Prison Climate in Three Correctional Facilities

• In Event: Institutional Environment and Sentencing Innovations in Prisons and Jails

Abstract

The imperative to heed social environment and power of the situation, particularly as applied to prison settings, dates back to the classic 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment; the widely-cited study concluded that situational factors, not personality, created the damaging conditions observed. Despite critical need for research on prison climate, measurement has met stiff challenges, and little systematic research on prison culture exists in the U.S. This study tests the Essen Climate Evaluation Scheme, an instrument recently validated in Australia, Germany, and the U.K.; it holds promise as a reliable measure of social context at multiple levels. The 17-item scale was administered to staff and inmates in three correctional facilities in the U.S. Midwest. Survey results demonstrate a higher level of cohesion at the medium-security facility, but multivarite analysis suggests a much more complex relationship between facility and environment, varying particularly in response to inmate threat. Qualitative data suggest that understanding these relationships is vital to building socially adaptive conditions and prosocial change. This research demonstrates that prison climate is meaningful in targeting both positive and problematic areas, identifying common and divergent issues between staff and inmates, and targeting facility-level attributes.

Authors

• Susan Williams, Kansas State University

• Edward L.W. Green, Roosevelt University

• William A. Chernoff, Kansas State University