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Doing Good and Looking Bad: A Case Study of Prison/Community Relations

NCJ Number
135969
Journal
Crime and Delinquency Volume: 38 Issue: 1 Dated: special issue (January 1992) Pages: 56-69
Author(s)
K A Carlson
Date Published
1992
Length
14 pages
Annotation
Research studies indicate that objective effects of prisons on their host communities are largely favorable, but that residents often hold unfavorable attitudes toward prisons, and community relationships with institutions may be poor.
Abstract
In Clallam Bay, Washington, a small and remote community, residents sought a prison to replace the jobs and population lost when a large timber company closed down its local operations. Predominant impacts of the prison on the community were generally positive, but the relationship between the community and the prison was frequently negative. Such unwelcomed interpersonal outcomes were not due to a prison administration that ignored community relationship issues nor to a particularly inept or insensitive administration relative to corrections generally. The opposite was more often the case. Local residents were less organized in their efforts to develop positive linkages between the prison and their unincorporated community, but many did make individual efforts in this direction and were open and receptive to institutional initiatives. Clallam Bay residents often seemed almost overly eager to feel good about the facility, an eagerness clearly linked to their need to make the best of a situation which they could not change. If an effective partnership between prison locales and institutions is to be established, knowledge of each other's premises and of concerns by both residents and corrections representatives is essential. 31 references

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