Abstract

The coercive nature of prisons is a longstanding topic of academic inquiry. Although correctional staff help incarcerated individuals adjust to prison by enforcing prison rules and providing guidance, incarcerated individuals are confined against their will. Most research on this topic typically does not focus on the role that time served in prison and in-prison experiences may have on perceptions of fairness by correctional staff. In this study, we examine whether in-prison experiences vary in their effect across different lengths of time served on perceptions of procedural justice. The findings from a nationally representative sample of incarcerated individuals reveal that most in-prison experiences, such as confinement in restrictive housing, decreased perceptions of procedural justice and fairness. As correctional agencies develop strategies to help incarcerated individuals adjust to prison, it is important to recognize that the coercive nature of prisons creates difficulties for individuals to perceive treatment by staff as procedurally just.

摘要

监狱的强制性质是学术研究的一个长期话题。尽管惩教人员通过执行监狱规则和提供指导来帮助被监禁者适应监狱，但被监禁者被监禁是违背他们的意愿的。大多数关于这个主题的研究通常不关注在监狱服刑时间和监狱经历可能对惩教人员对公平的看法的作用。在这项研究中，我们检查了监狱经历是否在不同时间长度对程序正义感知的影响上有所不同。来自全国有代表性的被监禁者样本的调查结果表明，大多数监狱经历，例如被限制在限制性住房中，降低了对程序正义和公平的看法。