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Limitations on Citizen Involvement in Correctional Programs

NCJ Number
97062
Journal
Prison Journal Volume: 64 Issue: 2 Dated: (Fall-Winter 1984) Pages: 56-67
Author(s)
D E Duffee
Date Published
1984
Length
12 pages
Annotation
A number of avenues are reviewed by which citizens may attempt to influence the punishment process without accepting the roles established for volunteers in the public system.
Abstract
Research was conducted over a 6-year period (1979-84). All the data derive from participant observation conducted in five citizen groups interested in influencing local corrections. In each group, from 1 to 12 graduate student observers were accepted as active participants in the group activities. The common mode of data collection was the maintenance of a journal. The study concludes that prospects for making greater or very different contributions to the punishment process from outside rather than inside the public system are not great. One explanation is that basically the same processes which shape citizen activity in the system are replicated in the ways that public organizations interact with outside groups. To the extent that citizens are required to engage the public organizations in order to influence them, their own leadership cadre, strategies for influence, and programs will be shaped and controlled by the ways in which public organizations are put together. Cooptation of groups is no less likely than cooptation of individuals. (Author summary modified)