Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-m9pkr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-11T18:21:27.190Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Disruption of Prison Administration: An Investigation of Alternative Theories of the Relationship Among Administrators, Reformers, and Involuntary Social Service Clients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

G. David Garson
G. David Garson*
Affiliation:
Tufts University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Interest in contemporary disruptions of human services administrations by involuntary clients, from welfare recipients to draft inductees, warrants an empirical investigation of prison rioting for two reasons. First, interest derives from a crisis of normal services involving such key foci of recent administative research as informal organizational behavior, the nature of professionalization of roles, and the ambiguities of clientelism. Second, the prison, while certainly not a microcosm of society, is a self-contained unit more amenable analysis than more diffuse social service milieus such as “the ghetto,” another prime locale of involuntary clientelism. The present exploratory study reviews alternative theories of the disruption of prison administration in the light of data collected on over a hundred inmate disturbances in the period from 1863-1970.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , May 1972 , pp. 531 - 561
Copyright
Copyright © 1972 The Law and Society Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Prepared for delivery at the 1971 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois, September 7-11, 1971. Copyright 1971, the American Political Science Association. This research was partially supported through grants from the National Science Foundation and from the Joint Center for Urban Studies of M.I.T. and Harvard University. Although full responsibility for errors is my own, I am indebted to James Q. Wilson and to Lloyd Ohlin for their comments on the manuscript, which is revised and abridged section of a doctoral dissertation titled “Collective Violence in America, 1863-1963” (Harvard University, Department of Government, 1969).

References

ALGER, George W. (1930) “The Revolt of the Convicts,” 145 Atlantic Monthly 688–697.Google Scholar
AMERICAN PRISON ASSOCIATION (1952). Proceedings of the 82nd Congress of American Prison Association. New York: APA.Google Scholar
BACON, Corinne, Ed. (1917) Prison Reform. White Plains, New York: H. W. Wilson Company.Google Scholar
BAKER, J.E. (1964) “Inmate Self-Government,” 55 Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science 39–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BARNES, Harry E. (1930) The Story of Punishment. Boston: Stratford.Google Scholar
BATES, Sanford (1957) “Penal Institutions,” 3 National Probation and Parole Association Journal 361–373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BATES, Sanford (1936) Prisons and Beyond. New York: The Macmillan Company.Google Scholar
BENNETT, James V. (1951) Federal Prisons: Annual Report of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Leavenworth, Kansas: U.S. Penitentiary.Google Scholar
BENNETT, James V. (1950) Federal Prisons: Annual Report of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Leavenworth, Kansas: U.S. Penitentiary.Google Scholar
BENNETT, James V. (1949) Federal Prisons: Annual Report of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Leavenworth, Kansas: U.S. Penitentiary.Google Scholar
BENNETT, James V. (1947) Federal Prisons: Annual Report of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Leavenworth, Kansas: U.S. Penitentiary.Google Scholar
CANTOR Nathaniel, F. (1932) Crime, Criminals and Criminal Justice. New York: Henry Holt and Company.Google Scholar
CLEMMER, Donald (1958) The Prison Community. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.Google Scholar
CODDING, J.K. (1917) “The Ideal of Kansas,” in Bacon, Corinne (ed.) Prison Reform. White Plains, New York: H. W. Wilson Company.Google Scholar
COMMITTEE ON RIOTS (1953) Prison Riots and Disturbances. New York: American Prison Association.Google Scholar
DICKSON, Fred R., Norman, FENTON, and Alma, HOLZSCHUH (1955) “The Inmate Advisory Council,” Proceedings of the American Correctional Association, New York.Google Scholar
DORNER, Frederick A. (1917) “The Prison Officer,” in Jaffray, Julia K. (ed.) The Prison and the Prisoner: A Symposium. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company.Google Scholar
EASTMAN, Max (1915) “Riot and Reform at Sing Sing,” 6 Masses 5–6.Google Scholar
ELLIOTT, Mabel (1952) Crime in Modern Society. New York: Harper and Brothers.Google Scholar
ETZIONI, Amitai (1969) “A Basis for Comparative Analysis of Complex Organizations,” in Etzioni, Amitai (ed.) A Sociological Reader on Complex Organizations. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.Google Scholar
EVJEN, Victor H. (1957) “A Chronology of Corrections,” 3 National Probation and Parole Association Journal 413–468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FLYNN, Frank T. (1956) “Corrections Today,” 2 National Probation and Parole Association Journal 393–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FOX, Vernon (1956) Violence Behind Bars. New York: Vantage Press.Google Scholar
FOX, Vernon (1950) “Michigan's Experiment in Minimum Security Penology,” 41 Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 150–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GARRETT, Paul N., and MacCORMICK, Austin H. (ed.) (1929) Handbook of American Prisons and Reformatories. New York: National Society of Penal Information Incorporated.Google Scholar
GARSON, David (1969) Collective Violence in America, 1863-1963. Unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, Harvard University.Google Scholar
GLASER, Daniel (1964) The Effectiveness of a Prison and Parole System. Indianapolis, Indiana: Bobbs-Merill Company, Inc.Google Scholar
HARTUNG, Frank E., and Maurice, FLOCH (1956) “A Social-Psychological Analysis of Prison Riots,” 47 Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science 51–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HAYNES, Fred E. (1939) The American Prison System. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company.Google Scholar
HENDERSON, C.R. (ed.) (1910) Correction and Prevention, Volume I. New York: Russell Sage Foundation and the International Prison Congress.Google Scholar
HUBBARD, Howard (1968) “Five Long Hot Summers and How They Grew,” 12 Public Interest 3–24.Google Scholar
JOHNSON, Elmer (1963) “The Present Level of Social Work in Prisons,” 9 Crime and Delinquency 290–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LANG, Kurt, and Gladys Engel, LANG (1961) Collective Dynamics. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company.Google Scholar
LEFCOURT, Herbert M., and Gordon, LADWIG (1966) “Alienation in Negro and White Reformatory Inmates,” 68 Journal of Social Psychology 153–157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LUNDBERG, Horace W. (1954) “Post Riot Changes in Utah State Prison,” 34 the Prison Journal 31–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MARTIN, John B. (1954) Break Down the Walls. New York: Ballantine Books.Google Scholar
McCLEERY, Richard H. (1961) “The Governmental Process and Informal Social) Control,” in Cressey, Donald (ed.) The Prison: Studies in Institutional Organization and Change. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.Google Scholar
McCLEERY, Richard H. (1960) “Communications Patterns as Bases of Systems of Authority and Power,” in Social Science Research Council Pamphlet 15, Theoretical Studies in the Organization of the Prison. New York: S.S.R.C. 49-77.Google Scholar
McGRAW, Peg, and McGRAW, Walter (1954) Assignment: Prison Riots. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, Incorporated.Google Scholar
McKELVEY, Blake (1968) American Prisons: A Study in American Social History Prior to 1915. Montclair, New Jersey: Patterson Smith.Google Scholar
METH, Sidney and Russel, ROZEA (1954) “What's Wrong at Trenton Prison?” 34 The Prison Journal 13–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NATIONAL SOCIETY OF PENAL INFORMATION (1925) Handbook of American Prisons. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons.Google Scholar
NEW YORK STATE COMMISSION OF CORRECTION (1930) Fourth Annual Report. Ossining, New York: Sing Sing Prison.Google Scholar
NEW YORK STATE COMMISSION OF CORRECTION (1929) Third Annual Report. Ossining, New York: Sing Sing Prison.Google Scholar
NEWSWEEK (1970) “Prisons In Turmoil,” 14 September, Newsweek 36–46.Google Scholar
OHLIN, Lloyd E. (1960) “Conflicting Interests in Correctional Objectives,” in Social Science Research Council Pamphlet 15, Theoretical Studies in Social Organization of the Prison. New York: S.S.R.C. 111-129.Google Scholar
OHLIN, Lloyd E. (1956) Sociology and the Field of Corrections. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
OSBORNE, Thomas Mott (1916) Society and Prisons. New Heaven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
THE PRISON JOURNAL (1952) Volume 33, Number 1, pp. 14–15.Google Scholar
SCHNUR, Alfred C. (1958) “The New Penology: Fact or Fiction?” 49 Journal of Criminal Law, Criminolgy, and Police Science 331–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SMELSER, Neil J. (1962) Theory of Collective Behavior. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
SURVEY [Note] (1914) “The New Kansas Way in Prison Reform,” 31 Survey 539–540.Google Scholar
SUTHERLAND, Edwin H., and Donald R., CRESSEY (1970) Criminology, Eighth Edition. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott.Google Scholar
SUTHERLAND, Edwin H., and Thorsten, SELLIN (1931) “Forward,” 157 The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences v.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SYKES, Gresham M., and Sheldon L., MESSINGER (1960) “The Inmate Social System,” in Social Science Research Council Pamphlet 15, Theoretical Studies in the Social Organization of the Prison. New York: S.S.R.C. 5-19.Google Scholar
SYKES, Gresham M., and Sheldon L., MESSINGER (1958) The Society of Captives: A Study of a Maximum Security Prison. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
TALLACK, William (1889) Penclogical and Preventive Principles, With Special References to Europe and America. London: Wertheimer, Lea and Company.Google Scholar
TANNENBAUM, Frank (1938) Crime and Community. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
THEODORSON, George A., and Achille G., THEODORSON (1969) Modern Dictionary of Sociology. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company.Google Scholar
TIME [Note] (1971) “The Shame of the Prisons,” 18 January, Time.Google Scholar
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE (1970) Statistical Abstract of the United States 1970. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE (1960) Historical Statistics of the United States. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE (1929) Prisoners in State and Federal Prisons: 1926. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE (annual series) Prisoners in State and Federal Prisons: 1930-31. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE (annual series) Prisoners in State and Federal Prisons: 1920. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE (1932) Prisoners in State and Federal Prisons: 1930. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (annual series) National Prisoner Statistics. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
VILLAGE VOICE [Note] (1971) “Rage in the Tombs: Politics of a Riot,” 22 Village Voice 6.Google Scholar
WILSON, J.G., and M.J., PESCOR (1939) Problems in Prison Psychiatry. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WINES, F.H. (1919) Punishment and Reformation. New York: Thomas Crowell Company.Google Scholar
ZELLER, George, et al. (1917) “A Study of Prisoners at the Joliet Penitentiary,” in Bacon, Corrinne (ed.) Prison Reform. White Plains, New York: H.W. Wilson Company.Google Scholar