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Prison Environment

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Prison Environment A prison environment is a place where inmates are physically confined and deprived of a range of personal freedoms. It is a cold and unfeeling place to be. There are many levels of conflict and tension (Foster, 2006). The prison environment influences the institutional management and custody by the growing population and the gangs within the facility. Overcrowding aggravates the natural conflicts that rely within the prisons walls which then escalate violence. When working with criminals on an ongoing basis it may cause corruption to occur with some of the inmates within the institution that ends up allowing drugs and weapons into the facility degrading its performance. The internal environment of a prisons primary influence towards management and custody include the following: the inmate social culture, the prisons physical environment, and prison staff culture. Then the external environment interacts with the internal environment that also influences management and custody by the following: the civil service department, which makes the rules for employees, employee organizations, and unions, which represent their member's interests, rehabilitation advocates, such as those sponsoring particular behavioral science, educational, or religious interventions inside the prison. Prison environment changes can be in the rational and economic view, in which material rewards controls are provided in the direction people are in need of it. Some secure custody methods include counting inmates to know their whereabouts, having a sally port (double gate) to control the traffic into the prison, the control of contraband, searches of the inmates from their clothes to a full body cavity search, shakedowns of their area and having them on lockdown. The prison environment affects secure custody in many ways. There are various differences among the inmates that may cause conflicts to arise and disturb the safe and orderly environment prisons attempt to maintain. Inmates may have cultural differences, gang conflicts, age and the prevalence of serious personality disorders. An inmate may have direct control of other inmates in which can make them attack a fellow prisoner as instructed to do so. Therefore secure custody needs to be improved by keeping a closer eye on the inmates and making sure they are all separated for their own safety.

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Foster, B. (2006). Corrections: The fundamentals. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

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