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Daniel Dominguez
Professor Wielgos
College Writing 2
December 9, 2014
A Prison Life
Do you ever wonder how the inside of a prison operates? How inmates spend their daily
lives? Even so, what is the process an inmate has to go through when entering prison? I am sure;
we all have a relative or a friend that we know that is been sentenced but have no clue what he or
she had to go through. However, do not worry. In this paper, I will explain what an inmate has to
go through when entering prison and some of the treatment programs they offer. Of course, we
have heard rumors about the violence in prison that every inmate experiences. Like in the outside
world, we have also gangs and rape inside the prison but as time passed, the prison management
took care of it. Although many people feel like the prison management is working well, inmates
feel tortured and against their eighth amendment rights due to overcrowding in prison and jail.
"The mission of the Department of Corrections is to protect the public from criminal
offenders through a system of incarceration and supervision which securely segregates
offenders from society, assures offenders of their constitutional rights and maintains
programs to enhance the success of offenders' reentry into society."
The text on the top is the mission statement of Illinois. It is very self-explanatory saying that the
Department of Corrections will protest us citizens from any criminal offender. The offender is to
go through incarceration, supervised, and treated immediately for a success of offenders reentry
back to society. The term first used to describe secures facilities and use to hold offenders who

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were serving a criminal sentence was known as the penitentiary. The corrections inside the
prison have changed since the early 1800s. The prison had two systems for inmates to take
responsibility on. The Pennsylvania system is known as the separate and silent system of
prison operations. However, this system did not work because it required more staff members
and very expensive. Then in 1817, New York opened a prison that changed the system by calling
it the Auburn System. The Auburn System was congregated and silent operation inside the
prison. This meant that inmates had to work together but silently but had stay separated and
silent at other times. The way prison would work back in the day was based on the Irish system.
This was a four-stage system of graduate release from prison to return to the community; the
stages were solitary confinement, special prison, open institutions, and ticket of leave. Once all
these stages where completed, then the inmate had the chance for the ticket of leave. In the
Reformatory Era, the prisons emphasized reformation and expanded education and vocational
programs and focused on offenders attention on the future. In addition, an Industrial Prison Era
emphasized on having inmates work and produce products to help make the prison selfsustaining. As new eras passed, there was so much improvement made inside the prison that
benefited the inmates. In the Rehabilitative Era, the prison management emphasized the
professionalism of staff through recruitment and training and implementation of many selfimprovement programs of prison management. During that time, as well the medical model was
created, meaning that if an inmate were sick, then the rehabilitative programs would resolve the
offenders problem. The last one that I believe is the best one is the Retributive Era. This era
focuses on holding offenders accountable for their acts and being tough on criminals while
keeping them isolated from citizens and making them serve hard time. As decades passed, the

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mission of prisons were to rehabilitate inmates but where trying to find the hard way to do it but
by following the rules.
The importance of having a good prison management is important. Once an offender
enters the prison, there has to be an internal classification system done. This tool is use to assign
inmates to housing or programs after they are placed in prisons. When entering prison, they
review their Pre-sentence investigation report to see what crimes they are in for. The warden
inside the prison defines what prison security level he should be put in. There is a minimum, low,
medium, and high for different type of offenders. A prisoners custody classification must be
reviewed at least every twelve months and is usually reviewed at the same time as program
reviews. Also, a prisoners security level and custody level will usually be reviewed when a new
sentence is imposed, when a sentence is reduced, when a disciplinary action occurs, or when
there is a change in external factors that might affect the security or custody level.
(Columbian Human Rights Law Review 6) It is important that an inmates classification be done
every year to see whether they have had good behavior. If an offender has committed serious
crimes; then he or she should be put in a maximum prison where supervision is on point. Another
way the prison system organized its management is by a theory called the unit management. It
was first established in 1966 by the BOP at the National Training School for Boys. The whole
point of unit management is to organize a prison into smaller components by decentralizing the
authority to manage the inmate population while making staff more accessible to inmates. This
helps the supervision of inmates and the guards do not have to guard all at once. The unit team
reviews each inmates background, evaluates his or her needs, and determines appropriate
program and job assignments. (Seiter 309) The unit team is in charge to determine what
program and job assignments an inmate should receive. Inmates who are sentenced for an

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alcohol or drug addiction have the chance to mental health services. Groups like Alcoholics
Anonymous (AA) and Narcotics Anonymous (NA) for offenders can support the effort to
intervene in substance abuse by communicating strength and hope to offenders, who are often
pessimistic about their future. (Hills 43) This is how close an alcoholic group is and how people
try to rehabilitate with one another by the help of mentors.
Like in the outside world, there is violence that goes on inside the prison that correctional
officers are not aware. Prison Gangs are groups that are form in prison and use the threat of
violence to intimidate other inmates, control drug sales and prostitution, and gain power and
influence. They were first identified in California in the early 1960s, when prison administrators
realized that they were controlling many of their problems. A recent report indicated that
according to crime victims, 6 percent of violent crimes were committed by gang members
between 1993 and 2003. In addition, the 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment estimates that
there are approximately 1.4 million gang members belonging to more than 33,000 gangs active
in the United States. (Seiter 337) There has been statistics that most gang members are inside
the prison. When entering prison, an assessment is given to determine if an inmate is associated
with any gangs. Identifying, reclassifying, and separating prisoners who are members of groups
that engage in planning or committing unlawful acts of misconduct targets a core threat to the
safety of both prison inmates and officials. (Campbell 10) This article brings out important
points that the prison industry must do in order to have safety for inmates an officials. The three
steps to having a safe prison is to identify, classified, and separate prisoners who shouldnt be
placed in the same facility as them. The primary goal of a prison is to have a safe and productive
facility where they can rehabilitate the inmate. However, of course, there will always be violence
inside the prison that will cause harm. "Once you get to prison, you have to join a gang. You

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have no choice. The term 'gang' has a whole different meaning inside; only eight types of gangs
exist. (Prisoner 2) This was real life prisoner speaking about his life in prison and what he had
seen and experience. I feel like entering a prison many have the fear of being hurt and prefer on
joining a gang to be protected and respected inside. Although the prison management tries to
operate well safety system, there is still danger inside the prison.
Male and female offenders were housed in the same facilities in the early U.S Jails.
However, they were not placed inside in the same cell and had supervision of where they doing.
It was not until 1816, when a Quaker, Elizabeth Fry, she convinced officials that women
prisoners should be separated from male prisoner and that female guards should be hired to
supervise them. This led to so many problems inside the prison that led to more violence and
even death. Two inmates now become jealous and fight over another one, which led to
interpersonal violence. A well-designed study by the federal prison system in the early 1980s
surveyed more than 300 inmates regarding their sexual activity in prison and found that more
than 30 percent admitted some type of homosexual experience. However, less than 1 percent
admitted that they were forced into such activities, and 7 percent stated that inmates who were
nice to them or gave them gifts later seduce them. (Seiter 343) As the research proves that, there
is homosexual behavior inside the prison between inmates. Inmates who are short, funny
looking, and look weak are the ones who were being harassed and bullied the most. In 2003, the
U.S Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act. This act required the collection of
information on the incidence and prevalence of sexual assault within correctional facilities and
the development of national standards for the prevention, detection, and reduction of sexual
violence. PREA has the potential, however, to change the way this litigation proceeds in the
future by providing national standardssupported by extensive evidence based research,

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correctional administrator input, public commentary, and other documentationthat suggest

what governments must do to provide safe environments for inmates. (Henneke 17) The
government must do everything it takes to provide a safe environment for all inmates.
There was a case in 1981, Rhodes V. Chapman, where the U.S Supreme Court made a
decision that overcrowded conditions resulted of two inmates housed in cells designed for one
person was against the eighth amendment. Richard P. Seiter says, If prison officials attempted
to keep inmates locked in their cells without adequate programs and work activities, the Court
would likely reconsider the Rhodes decision. (Seiter 132) Although inmates are incarcerated,
they have all legal rights to their amendments and have no right from being cruel or unusual
punishment. Inmates felt tortured being house in the same cell with another inmate which is why
they brought it up against the prison management. Many wonder what causes prison
overcrowding. The reason why prison is overcrowded is that judges are being harsher to
penalties for criminal activities. A long-term study on prison population density (PPD) in Japan
found that it has a direct correlation with prison violence rates (PVR). This study conclusively
states that the effect of PPD was significant and positive on PVR, even after controlling for the
effects of the proportions of males, age younger than 30 years, less than one-year incarceration,
and prisoner/staff ratio. (Portland State University) Not only is overcrowding going against
inmates rights but also is causing violence inside the prisons. Perhaps the reason why is because
it is easier to fight since more inmates are out while less correctional officers are in the checkout.
The solution to this problem is to re-evaluate inmates sentence and determined whether they
should be sentenced that long.
There is so much information of how a prison system works and how it operates daily.
The management in prison should be handled well because it should not violate the inmates

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rights of feeling cruel and have unusual punishment. This paper was to give a small description
of what inmates had to go through to be set into a prison. Then, they have treatment programs,
which they can take to rehabilitate them for they can reenter society afterwards. But, like there is
violence outside of prison, there is always violence inside the prison that causes problems.
Overall, the prison life is handled in good corrections but overall there would be violence inside
the prison and problems that go against the rights of inmates.

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Citations

Coyle, Andrew. "A Human Rights Approach to Prison Management." <i>Handbook for
Prison Staff</i>. International Centre for Prison Studies, 1 Jan. 2009. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.
&lt;http://www.prisonstudies.org/sites/prisonstudies.org/files/resources/downloads/handbook_2n
d_ed_eng_8.pdf&gt;.
Henneke, Elizabeth. "Prison Rape Elimination Act." Texas"Criminal"Justice"Coalition, 1
Jan. 2003. Web. 9 Dec. 2014. <http://www.texascjc.org/sites/default/files/publications/140520
Handout with PowerPoint Presentation on PREA.pdf>.
Hills, Holly, and Christine Siegfried. "Mental Health Services." Effective Prison. U.S.
Department of Justice National Institute of Corrections, 1 May 2004. Web. 9 Dec. 2014.
<https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.nicic.gov/Library/018604.pdf>.
Liptak, Adam. "Justices, 5-4, Tell California to Cut Prisoner Population." The New York
Times. The New York Times, 23 May 2011. Web. 11 Dec. 2014.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/us/24scotus.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>.
"Managing Prison Gangs/Security Threat Groups." Managing Prison Gangs/Security
Threat Groups. 7 Apr. 2014. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.
<http://www.corrections.com/news/article/35652-managing-prison-gangs-security-threatgroups>.

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"Security Classification and Gang Validation." A Jailhouse Lawyers Manual. Columbia

Human Rights Law Review, 1 Jan. 2009. Web. 9 Dec. 2014.
<http://www3.law.columbia.edu/hrlr/JLM/Chapter_31.pdf>.
Seiter, Richard P. Corrections: An Introduction. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.:
Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005. Print.
"Prison Life: 5 Things Men Should Know." AskMen. Web. 11 Dec. 2014.
<http://www.askmen.com/entertainment/special_feature_3800/3808_life-in-prison.html>.