Moore, E. (1989). Prison Environments

Moore, E. (1989). Prison Environments and Their Impacts on Older Citizens. Journal of Offender Counseling, Services and Rehabilitation, 13(2), 175-191

Prison environments and their impact on older citizens

Author(s) Name: Ernest O. Moore

Country of Study: United States

The study was conducted to investigate the influence of environmental factors on the frequency of health service demands or attendance at sick call which is an indirect measure of stress.

The study hypothesis is that the prison environment has huge impact on the welfare and health care of elderly inmates.

DESIGN CRITERIA

The study looked at the design features of the State Prison of Southern Michigan (SPSM) in Jackson, Michigan. The study tried to check if change in prison environment has any impact on the health of older inmates.

RESEARCH METHOD

The research was conducted in SPSM which has about 6,000 inmates inside one of the largest walled prisons in the U.S. Data was gathered at the facility. However, since the time schedule for relocating the older men to the Ionia facility was short, it was not possible to do a pre-move test. Structured interviews were conducted in private with only inmate and author present. 52 men who were over 50 years old were interviewed based on a voluntary basis. Data that was incomplete and unreliable from 11 inmates was discarded as a result of their mental impairment. Demographic information such as age, marital status, race and number of children was collected. Information regarding the time served, length of sentence, location of residence and crime of conviction was also collected. The author also spent time in the facility and ate with the inmates in order to experience the quality of food being served and the eating environment.

KEY FINDINGS

51% of the respondents were in prison for the first time and 72% of them had been in prison for less than 5 years. Therefore, most of the men had not grown old in prison. The average age of the elderly inmates was 60.5 years. The group requires intensive medical care ranging from pharmacy, dietary, x-ray, surgery, infirmary and skilled nursing care. Changes in the inmate's prison environment led to 3 major issues. The first was that their welfare changed. Secondly was that their perception of the environmental changes changed and the last is that the inmates had different perceptions of the influences of the change.

69% of the inmates felt an improvement in mood level while only 9% has a decrease in mood level. 25% of the inmates experienced fewer incidents of confrontations after their move and 9% experienced more incidents of confrontations. 75% of the inmates were generally satisfied with the move to Ionia. There was an increase by 100% of the health care demands of the inmates. There was no significant change to the inmate's perceptions of changes in the environment such as jobs, activities, usage of spare time, staff satisfaction, and medical care. However, there was some improvement in the food, general relationship and satisfaction with the cell/room/ward. Additionally, there was a negative change in the attendance of religious activities and the number of visits as a result of the move.

LIMITATION

The schedule of the move from the department of corrections did not allow a pre-move test to be conducted therefore it was not possible to relate the data from the research to any baseline which would have been formed by the pre-move test.

COMMENTARY