Explaining the Structure of Prison Bureaucracies in the US, Mexico, India and Honduras

• In Event: States, Institutions, and Market Forces

Abstract

Modern prisons are 19th century humanitarian institutions designed to help societies supersede corporal punishments. Globally there are 6 million prisoners and 1.5 million prison workers (UN). Modern Weberian prison bureaucracies exist in all countries, including the US, Mexico, India and Honduras. Interviews with 124 prison officials and observation in 3 US prisons, 6 Mexican prisons, 3 Indian prisons, and 1 Honduran prison suggest that the performance of prison bureaucracies varies greatly. ‘Institutions matter,’ according to economists and political scientists, and some of the variation is due to institutional structure. For instance, the Mexican prisons studied, which were deficient in performance compared with the US institutions, allocated up to 50% of their personnel to non-security functions in a decentralized corporatist structure, while the US institutions allocated between 20-40% to non-security functions in a fused, or ‘Tudor’ organizational structure. This paper provides context for micro-level analysis of individual prison bureaucracies by describing the structures of the national prison systems in the US, Mexico, India and Honduras, and tracing historical origins. The US possesses a highly institutionalized (Huntington 1968, 12) prison system that balances security and rehabilitation and has high incarceration rates. Mexico possesses a lowly institutionalized system in which rehabilitation concerns dominate and has mid-level incarceration rates. India possesses a highly institutionalized system in which security concerns dominate and has low incarceration rates. Honduras is a lowly institutionalized system oscillating between civilian and military control and has mid-level incarceration rates.

Author

• Brian Norris