Prisons (Library in a Book)

U.S. prisons are highly dangerous places for inmates and prison staff alike. Housing a mix of criminal offenders—from drug abusers to murderers—while ensuring the safety of staff members and protecting the rights of inmates is a complex and daunting challenge undertaken each day in prisons nationwide. That challenge is heightened as more prisoners enter correctional facilities. In 2002, some 1.4 million inmates were held in federal and state prisons, an 82 percent increase since 1990. When factored in with jail inmates, that amounted to the highest rate of incarceration in the world. Clear and comprehensive, Prisons examines the state of U.S. prisons and related issues. It focuses on the development of prisons in the United States and how the competing goals of punishment and rehabilitation have shaped the evolution of corrections. An overview presents statistics on U.S. prisons and explores the issues behind those statistics, including racial disparity among prisoners and the causes of recidivism. The financial costs of running prisons and the mixed record of private prisons are examined, and laws and legislation relating to issues of incarceration are reviewed. Appendixes include excerpts from pertinent regulations and statistics in table and graph form.