Token economy in Oregon prisons

[Janus]

BBC News

Oregon's prison system in the US is turning to computer games to help rehabilitate felons.

Inmates who have a clean disciplinary record for 18 months are being given a chance to buy a small handheld game console.

The gadget has 50 simple games onboard that can be played through small TVs fixed in cells.

The Oregon state prison system said the gadgets also help to stem some of the trouble incarceration often provokes.

Time trial

The game gadgets, made by technology firm DreamGear, have been introduced to Oregon's correctional system as part of a larger incentive system that starts to help prepare prisoners for life outside jail.
The escalating system of non-cash incentives rewards those prisoners that stay out of trouble.

After six months of clean conduct, inmates get the chance to buy a 7-inch LCD screen with a cable hook-up for their cell. Inmates earn the money for the tiny TV, which costs $300, via the wages they earn doing jobs while in jail.

In 2004-2005, almost 2,400 LCD TVs were bought by inmates of Oregon's jails. The state has a prison population of approximately 13,000 people.

Six months of good conduct also grants the right to buy CD players and discs, and gives access to social groups and clubs.

After 18 months, inmates are offered further incentives, such as more visiting hours and get the chance to buy ice cream.

They are also given the chance to buy the game gadget which costs $35. The graphics in the 50 games stored on the gadget resemble those seen in mid-1980s consoles.

The titles of games on the DreamGear gadget include Star Ally, Smart Escape, Dragon Poker and Space Castle.

Troubled times

Perrin Damon, communications manager for the Oregon Department of Corrections, told the BBC News website that it had sold 809 consoles to inmates that had earned them between November 2005 and January 2006.

The games date from the Pac-man era of gaming
He played down media suggestions that the console and other incentives were being used to tackle unrest in the state's prisons.

"Oregon's prisons are among the safest in the nation and have been for some time," he said.

Instead, he said, the TVs, music players and game gadgets were part of a larger programme that tried to modify prisoner behaviour and make rehabilitation easier.

This was important, said Mr Damon, because 95% of the state's prisoners will eventually return to the community.

The game gadgets were part of the so-called quality of life incentives that try to make prisoners "gravitate toward the pro-social behaviours critical to successful transition back to the community".

Statistics show that trouble in Oregon's state prisons has declined following the introduction of the gadget incentives.

Over the past three years the incidence of misconduct reports, assaults on warders and fights between inmates has declined, even though the numbers of prisoners has increased.

The non-cash incentive system was introduced following legal changes that introduced minimum sentences for some violent crimes.

This meant that 40% of the state's prisoners could no longer earn time off their sentence for good behaviour.
Quite interesting. Now, rewards may help improve behavior while they're in the correctional institutions but the problems may begin to recur once they leave the facilities. So I'm not sure about how this type of rehabilitation will work in the long run.

[JKP]

Are you supporting prisons?

[Janus]

Originally posted by JKP
Are you supporting prisons?
No, I don't support the US prison system at all. I don't think that prisons are very successful at "reforming" and rehabilitating inmates. The justice system in the US is also extremely unfair and is biased against those of lesser economic means. Furthermore, prison institutions tend to spawn abuse as shown in the Staford prison experiment conducted in 1971.

I just found this article interesting since I have studied token economies in psychology and their successes and failures. They fail once the inmate leaves the institution and are no part of this operant conditioning.

[razboz]

The Stanford Prison experiment i think was interesting in the way it can be applied ot other situations. It shows us the way humans will automatically assume the roles they are told to assume , prisoner or guard in thsi case but it could be anything : revolutionary counter-revolutionary, oppressor oppressed.

[dislatino]

Originally posted by [email protected] 26 2006, 04:43 PM
The Stanford Prison experiment i think was interesting in the way it can be applied ot other situations. It shows us the way humans will automatically assume the roles they are told to assume , prisoner or guard in thsi case but it could be anything : revolutionary counter-revolutionary, oppressor oppressed.
Yeah i agree this experiment was very interesting, though i may not agree with the experiment in the first place due to ethics and such, it was very interesting to see how people played thier role of authority against those with none.

[Communism]

What has a token economy got to do with Zimbardo's social role theory?

[Janus]

What has a token economy got to do with Zimbardo's social role theory?
Nothing, I think that we were discussing prisons and Zimbardo's Stanford experiment popped up.


The Stanford Prison experiment i think was interesting in the way it can be applied ot other situations. It shows us the way humans will automatically assume the roles they are told to assume , prisoner or guard in thsi case but it could be anything : revolutionary counter-revolutionary, oppressor oppressed.
Yes, the experiment was very interesting but there were many factors that Zimbardo might not have accounted for. Also, there has been no follow-up experiment and Zimbardo pulled the plug on the actual experiment before the end.

It's mildly amusing that Zimbardo argued for one of the Abu Ghraib guards at his/her trial and provided his research as evidence. However, the judge did not agree with Zimbardo's arguement and gave the guard the maximum sentence.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

I think that prisons are very sucecesful at "reforming" and rehabilitating inmates.

You're joking right?

[Janus]

You're joking right?
My mistake, it was a typo though you should've been able to tell from the context. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Originally posted by [email protected] 5 2006, 10:12 PM

You're joking right?
My mistake, it was a typo though you should've been able to tell from the context. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
My apologies. I got the impression that you had no problem with the actual prisons, simply with the US justice system. Obviously I was wrong.

[Janus]

Like I said, I don't support the US prison system or the justice system at all. The former spawns abuse and doesn't rehabilitate at all while the later is unfair and biased.

I think that the Stanford prison experiment was a good indicator of the inherent problems within the prison system. I invite members to check out the research gathered by Philip Zimbardo (he is the host on a TV psychology program as well).

[dusk]

In Holland the prisons use to be pretty luxurious.
You had one cell for yourself with T.V. ,refrigerator, radio,microwave,shower etc
And it was possible to let visitors bring a playstation dvd and stuff.

It does't help shit.
Prisoners where always *****in'and moanin'.

Now they put people in a 6 person cell.
22 hours a day.
Letting it brew inside there.

[Cheung Mo]

Be ruthless against the real criminals: The rapists, the murderers, the White collar frauds, and the armed robbers. (No killing, torture, or castration though: Irreversible punishments ignore the fact that human justice can never be perfect.)

But legalise all consensual and victimless behaviour.

[Janus]

Article concerning the US prison system


Originally posted by BBC News

The Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons (CSAAP) issues its final report in about eight weeks time, but the testimony of violence, abuse and over-crowding it has already heard has shocked few familiar with the largest documented prison system in the world.

More than 2.1 million people are in jail in the US at any one time; that is about one in 140 Americans, or as many people as live in Namibia, or nearly five Luxembourgs - and it is a number that continues to rise.

One of the biggest drivers of the expanding population are the tough policies brought in over the last 20 years to tackle high crime rates - like the "three strikes" laws that hand out long, mandatory sentences to repeat offenders.

They are tactics the US government says are working - as recent figures have shown violent crime and murder falling.

But critics say that such policies have skewed the US system away from rehabilitation, storing up problems for the future.

End of the road

The most secure prisons in the US are the notorious Supermax facilities, like the correctional complex in Florence, Colorado that houses shoe bomber Richard Reid, and which is also known as the Alcatraz of the Rockies.
Tightly controlled, technologically advanced and utterly dispiriting, such facilities - and smaller blocks within general prisons - have been a source of controversy for many years.

Bland, bureaucratic phrases like management control or secured housing unit describe regimes where solitary confinement is an almost permanent way of life, with prisoners locked in spartan cells for at least 23 hours each day.
Built in 1994 at a cost of about $190m, the Supermax in Florence is said to be equipped with 1,400 remote-controlled steel doors, motion detectors, pressure pads and gun towers with perfect sightlines across the complex.

Supermaxes are the end of the road for those in the prison system - transfer to an even marginally less restrictive environment can require several years of good behaviour.

To supporters they are the most appropriate way to house the worst of the worst in the prison population, especially those criminals who attacked or killed guards and other prisoners.

To critics, they are a breeding ground for monsters, an affront to human rights tantamount to torture.

'Dehumanizing'

Gary Harkins, is an officer at the maximum security Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, and also a member of Corrections USA, a group which represents about 120,000 prison guards and opposes the growing number of private prisons.
Mr Harkins says OSP works on a "direct supervision" basis, encouraging officers to have interpersonal contact with inmates.

This, he says, reduces the threat of violence and makes for a safer institution for both inmates and staff, who are armed with only a radio, a whistle, and a pair of handcuffs.

He told the CSAAP inquiry: "Unfortunately, new prisons are being built to minimize the number of staff, both in architectural design and by using technologies such as remote cameras and sensor systems.

"This dehumanizes the inmates and staff alike.

"I also believe that you need to take the effort of actually walking among the inmates and engaging them in conversation.
"Unfortunately, with the drastic cutbacks in educational and vocational programs we are currently experiencing, this is becoming a harder task."

Prisons in the US are run on federal, state and local levels.

The US Department of Justice says it "protects society by confining offenders in the controlled environments of prisons and community-based facilities that are safe, humane, cost-efficient, and appropriately secure".

"Each federal prison provides services to help prepare inmates to return to their communities as productive citizens," it adds in a statement on its website.

Examples include educational, occupational and vocational training, work programmes and substance abuse treatment.

Roots of problem

America currently stands accused of acting as the world's jailer in its War on Terror. It is under fire for allegedly running secret jails in other countries, far from public scrutiny.
From Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, to Abu Ghraib in Iraq and Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, activists say the US is trampling on human rights in its pursuit of terror suspects.

But the roots of the problem may be closer to home, as suggested by words attributed to former Pennsylvania prison guard Charles Graner - ringleader of the Abu Ghraib abuses - which came out during court testimony.

"The Christian in me says it's wrong, but the corrections officer in me says, 'I love to make a grown man piss himself.'"

No one would suggest Graner represents of the vast majority of prison officers.

But Alexander Busansky, executive director of the CSAAP, told the BBC the US public was largely ignorant of the real state of America's prisons.

"We have to get away from the idea that what happens in prisons stays in prisons. Prisons are public institutions and they must be held accountable."

He said the CSAAP would be recommending expansion of the prison accreditation scheme, increased use of direct supervision in jails and tighter regulation over the use of weapons like pepper spray and stun guns in a bid to end abuses.

"There has been a hardening of attitudes," Mr Busansky said.

"People believe there is nothing they can do about it, they don't pay any attention to the consequences the treatment of prisoners has when they come out, and they don't participate in the debate.

"But prison is a place of opportunity, and it can have a positive impact on people's lives."



World prison populations