WASHINGTON D.C. - The Turn of the Century is nearly upon us. All officers, supervisors, department heads, and wardens are speculating about what is ahead in the wild world of institutional management. Criminal justice is rapidly stepping out of the shadows and becoming an area in
which every citizen has an opinion. This is not new.
What is new and remarkable is how much weight public opinion has gained within this new free wheeling style, decisively iinfluencing the political
machinery of government. It is important to recognize that in today's fast moving, information based society, the citizen's viewpoint has taken on new relevance for individuals in public service.
We live in an age in which the public demands responsiveness from
government institutions and elected leaders.
Those of us in corrections today have become significant players
in our rapidly expanding sector of justice administration, and
it has become increasingly important to plan for what tomorrow
will bring our way.
If any of us are to be successful in our endeavors,
we must prepare for the twists and turns of the path we are on
and the many changes we will face in the coming months and years.
All correctional workers are categorically aware of the unbelievable
explosion of the prison population in the United States.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics highlights the fact that federal and state prison inmates now number more than one million, and the prospect
for any reduction in the future is bleak. This will require significant
growth of the nation's prison capacity and this element of increased
size alone portends a big difference in how we do business.
There are no crystal balls or magic mirrors available in this
modern age to help us clearly predict what changes are ahead.
Yet if our past is prologue, we must look for trends today that
will help us piece together new directions with which we will
have to cope.
If we correctional administrators and line staff expect to help shape our own future, we must anticipate what tomorrow may bring. What can we expect in the 21st century?
Nearly every colleague of mine in corrections is predicting a
significant increase in the use of corporate America in our realm
of prison operations. The term "privatization" is generally
used to describe the shift of a government function from the public
arena to the private, profitoriented business sector.
The use of private companies in law enforcement is not new and old names
such as the Pinkerton Company have been active in public affairs
since the early days of the American West. This company found
it profitable in the 1800s to serve warrants and chase down individuals
running from the law.
In our era, examples of private services in security and law enforcement are everywhere: private security in the workplace and shopping malls, private alarm systems on our automobiles and in our homes, armored truck courier services, private bail bond companies to gain release of persons from detention pending trial, private process servers, and the use of private facilities by the courts for treatment of offenders with drug
and alcohol addictions. Private sector interest in prison management
has also become a major force.
Privatization in institutions today takes many shapes: contracting
for specific services like medical and food service; prison industries; design and construction of facilities; and overall management of prisons.
In the last decade there has been phenomenal interest in the latter category, and many companies have become or are seeking to become involved in the management of correctional institutions.
Faced with overcrowded and old facilities, over zealous court masters,
strained budgets, and new conservative sentencing laws, government
authorities are ready to consider different options to relieve
the stress. An easy solution seems to be contraction
with the forprofit sector of private business.
These proprietary institutions are becoming more and more in vogue today, and the administration of prison facilities by private vendors is clearly
a major trend that we will see much more of in the next 10 years.
The numbers of incarcerated inmates continues to spike on our
charts, and prison receiving units are bulging with new and returning
offenders.
Most practitioners in the prison business today will agree that
our clientele is indeed tougher and more dangerous than ever before.
Some disagree. But, according to data, the level of inmate violence against staff has risen. I attribute this simply to the fact that our streets are more violent, and these same offenders are sent to our institutions. The "driveby shooting" mentality has moved from the inner city right into our cell-blocks.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has experienced a series of
institution disturbances over the past three years, with many
concentrated within the last three months. While generally attributed
to tensions over mandatory sentencing issues, crack cocaine laws,
and the perception of an unfair sentencing structure, the incidents
were nevertheless often dominated by members of several street
gangs.
Most visible among these were the Crips, Bloods, District
of Columbia crews, Latin Kings, and emerging coalitions of Hispanic
street gangs. The BOP has seen a rapid influx of street gangs
entering the system, and strategic intelligence indicators suggest
membership numbers will continue this sharp incline.
State correctional systems report this same phenomenon. These new street gangs have less national organization than the traditional prison security
threat groups and do not easily fit into our standard prison gang
categories. This is due to their numbers, less cohesive ties,
and less organized methods of operation.
Whereas the old, traditional prison gangs attempted to get along with prison staff and presented an outward cooperative attitude, today's diverse neighborhoodbased groups have demonstrated no inclination to cooperate with correctional staff. This trend will certainly continue well into the next decade.
In order to cope with this new, more violent, gangaffiliated offender,
many states are designing, constructing, and operating administrative
maximum prison facilities. Institutions such as the California
Department of Corrections' Pelican Bay and Corcoran prisons, the
Arizona Department of Corrections' Florence Maximum Security Unit,
and the Federal Bureau of Prisons' administrative maximum security
operations house the most disruptive and dangerous clientele.
Twenty seven jurisdictions, including the United States government
and Canada, currently operate such facilities. This trend will continue as legislative bodies support correctional jurisdictions and crack down on inmates who continue to demonstrate their violent nature while confined.
The American public is growing impatient with hearing about the
horror stories of crime in our streets. Automobiles are car jacked
at a stoplight in broad daylight, drugs are sold in our elementary
schools, and the Federal Building in Oklahoma City is bombed with
hundreds of citizens murdered at their desks.
All of us are deeply concerned about crime, and the number one subject in every political poll in the land is public safety. Our legislative bodies are reacting to public opinion-voices are really being heard, and
elected representatives are creating our future in the prison
business.
Amanda Wunder forecasted in Corrections Compendium (1995)
that the nation's prison population will rise 51 percent by the
turn of the century. If we can believe the statistics of other
nations, the United States already has the highest per capita
rate of confinement in the world. The latest available edition
of The Corrections Yearbook noted that the national rate of incarceration was 370 out of 100,000,
an increase of 27 since 1993.
Our offenders are serving longer terms in prison. Legislative bodies nationally have declared war on crime and tightened sentencing laws considerably in the last ten years. Politicians have responded to the national fear of crime, and they have embraced the "get even tougher" sentencing proposals at the national, state, and local level.
Public officials have also found a responsive electorate when
they attack "country club" prisons, amenities for inmates,
and "weak kneed prison staff who run give away programs to
appease the convicts." Unfortunately, many politicians define
amenities as recreational equipment, television, vocational training,
and other prison programs that fall short of the legislator's
preferred practice of "making little ones out of big ones."
While we in the business of operating prisons must respect the
separation between politics and administration, it seems many
elected officials strive to micro manage those experienced in
daily institutional management. Given the present public desire
to cut back the perceived "luxuries" associated with
prison life, this trend forebodes our future.
Federal and state sentencing practices have changed substantially
in the 1980s and 1990s. Federal laws ratcheted down often the
passage of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984: Congress created
the U.S. Sentencing Commission with new guidelines for sentencing,
canceled parole, and significantly cut back on federal 'good time'
awards for good behavior.
Mandatory sentences have become very common for many narcotic charges and crimes of violence in federal court, and this has created yet another trend: state law enforcement officers and prosecutors often pass prosecutions from state to federal courts in order to take advantage of the tougher, mandatory
prison terms.
This has created a dynamic shift in the population of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In 1985, 46 percent of the population was confined on narcotics offenses-in 1995, this figure leap frogged to 61 percent.
First time offenders in federal court are imprisoned much more often, females continue to be sentenced to incarceration at much higher rates, and criminals serve much longer terms of confinement. The impact on the growth of prison population due to the harsher laws and increased federalization of criminal sanctions has been dramatic, and will
continue for the foreseeable future. State prison growth will parallel the federal boom.
The taxpayer's increasingly conservative opinions also will pose
burdens for state and federal budgets. We live in an era of breathtaking
change and we are in a new environment that demands institutions
squeeze ever more bang out of every buck.
The American public is fed up with public scandal, waste, fraud and abuse, and stories about government workers getting paid too much while they do too little. Public opinion will not tolerate much more "bad news" about dysfunctional service delivery from our public servants, and this leads to political responses of less funding for our agencies.
Our legislative bodies will continue to demand conservative fiscal management efforts and each year will seemingly bring us tighter and tighter budgets. This eventually becomes our daily reality in the cell blocks of
our penal institutions with cots added to cells, chain gangs utilized
in the community, less program availability and other signs of
less monetary resources available to our staff and inmates.
Corrections trends in the 21st Century are not easily
predicted, and even less easily channeled in different directions.
Yet if we are to have any influence on our own future, we in the
business of prison operations and management must do what we can
to steer our own course and prepare for future challenges.
Crime and punishment are truly subjects on everyone's mind today, and
it is absolutely imperative that the professionals of the business educate our friends, neighbors, legislatures, and future contacts on the importance of an effective, efficient, and well trained staff in the trenches of tomorrow's correctional institutions.
Public opinion is increasingly relevant to our work, and the opinion
of America is dependent on our taking the time to educate those around us, especially as we head into the uncharted waters of our future.
[Peter M. Carlson is an assistant director for the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, DC.]
