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Autonomy and self-Governance in reward systems in prison
Fri, September 8, 8:00 to 9:15am, Palazzo Affari, Floor: second floor, Affari 4Abstract
Dutch prison policy increasingly emphasizes that prisoners should act autonomously. Freedom to act autonomous (objective autonomy), such as access to reintegration activities, has to be earned by showing good behaviour. Policymakers claim that these rewards contribute to a sense of autonomy. Yet prior research shows that prisoners can also experience rewarding as a form of behavioural control, frustrating rather than satisfying their need for autonomy (subjective autonomy). Additionally, there are doubts about the effect of rewards on sense of autonomy, due to the reduced self-governance ability of many prisoners (e.g. cognitive deficits). Prisoners with impaired self-governance ability often have difficulty functioning autonomously, which raises questions about the extent to which they would benefit from even more freedom to be autonomous. This study therefore aims to examine the relationship between objective and subjective autonomy, within the framework of a Dutch reward system in prison. Particular attention is paid to the role of prisoners’ self-governance ability. This quantitative study relies on survey data from a sample (N = 1011) of the Dutch Life in Custody study (wave 2022), in which satisfaction and frustration of the need for autonomy were surveyed, as were self-governance abilities. The results of bivariate and multivariate analyses show that an increase in objective autonomy is a significant predictor of satisfaction (+) and frustration (-) of the need for autonomy. These results do not differ for prisoners who report more or less self-governance ability. This study offers clear implications for the policy theory and application of reward systems in prison.