U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

National Institute of Justice

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

OFF ICE OF JUSTICE PROGRAMS

BJA NI J OJJDP BJS OVC

Update Jeremy Travis, Director May 1995

“Lines for everything are longer: inmate canteen, inmate

meals.... Sentence length and distant parole eligibility (if

at all) build a central core population. This core population has probably quadrupled in the last several years.”

This comment from a warden who participated in the

National Institute of Justice (NIJ) 1994 National Assessment Program (NAP) survey aptly summarizes one of the

key issues the survey brought to light. A total of 361

wardens (77 percent of the 470 surveyed) and 43 State

commissioners of corrections (84 percent of the 51

surveyed) responded. Prison crowding led the list of

workload problems that wardens and State commissioners of corrections said they faced.

Workload problems

Prison crowding. Wardens were asked to indicate the

extent to which crowding was a problem in their facilities.

About 54 percent reported their facilities were full; that is,

at 101 to 110 percent of the rated capacity of the inmate

population. A substantial, though lower proportion (37

percent) said their facilities were crowded; that is, greater

than 110 percent of rated capacity. Wardens who oversee

crowded prisons cited several reasons for this condition.

A large proportion (88 percent) cited the increased

number of drug offenders as the primary reason; one

warden commented that drug offenders serving heavy

sentences filled about 75 percent of the available cells.

The second most frequently noted cause (cited by 80

percent of the wardens) was the growth in number of

violent crime offenders. Other causes of crowded conditions included longer sentences and insufficient alternatives to prison (mentioned by 78 percent and 71 percent,

respectively).

Gangs. Identifying gang members and controlling gang

activity within their facilities were other problems identified by wardens. Although a large proportion of the

NIJ Survey of Wardens and State

Commissioners of Corrections

The National Assessment

Program Survey

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) conducts the

National Assessment Program (NAP) survey approximately every 3 years to identify the needs and

problems of State and local criminal justice agencies.

The survey asks participants about their workload

problems and initiatives to solve them as well as

about special concerns and needs. NIJ uses the

results to plan its research, evaluation, and demonstration programs.

For the 1994 survey, questionnaires were sent to

more than 3,300 criminal justice professionals in 13

types of agencies in 411 counties nationwide. A total

of 211 counties having populations greater than

250,000 were surveyed, along with a random sample

of 200 counties having populations between 50,000

and 250,000. Responses were received between

October 1993 and February 1994 from 2,585 people

(for a response rate of 69 percent).

The complete report of the survey, National Assessment Program: 1994 Survey Results, by Tom

McEwen, can be obtained free from the National

Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS), Box

6000, Rockville, MD 20849–6000. Call 800–851–

3420 or e-mail askncjrs@ncjrs.aspensys.com. Ask for

NCJ 150856. Also available from NCJRS are other

individual summaries of responses from the following

groups: police chiefs and sheriffs; prosecutors;

probation and parole agency directors; judges, trial

court administrators, and State court administrators;

and jail administrators.
U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

National Institute of Justice

Washington, D.C. 20531

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wardens (83 percent) had classification procedures to

identify gang-affiliated inmates, fully 71 percent indicated

that these procedures needed improvement. One warden, who was satisfied with his classification procedures,

indicated nevertheless that the real need was to develop

effective programs to discourage gang activities in prison.

Here too, the need for improvement was felt to be great.

Of the 300 wardens who reported having staff training

programs to control gang activity, a large proportion (71

percent) said these programs needed improvement.

Other staffing and program needs. Seventy-four

percent of the wardens indicated a need for more program staff, especially to deal with alcohol and substance

abuse, mental health, parenting, and vocational education. Wardens were especially concerned about treatment

programs for sex offenders; one warden noted that only

10 to 15 percent of classified sex offenders were in

treatment at any given time, because the facility he

supervised did not have enough mental health professionals to oversee the complex treatment required.

Agency initiatives

Alleviating prison crowding. Because overcrowding

adversely affected the classification of inmates for

program needs, wardens were especially eager to

alleviate these conditions. One warden noted that as the

number of inmates increased, the emphasis shifted from

treatment and programming to containment and that

resources normally allocated to programs were diverted

to security.

In an effort to alleviate overcrowding, some State commissioners of corrections embarked upon prison expansion programs. The survey revealed that prisons reporting

crowded conditions had built an average of 107 new cells

during the previous 3-year period, in contrast to the

average of 69 new cells built by jurisdictions with uncrowded prisons. Construction alone has not solved the

problem. Recognizing this, the States have also launched

other initiatives, such as revising sentencing guidelines to

assign offenders to the least restrictive confinement

option and streamlining the release process for nonviolent offenders to ensure that cell spaces are available for

the most serious offenders.

Research and evaluation priorities

Wardens and State commissioners of corrections considered the effect of various programs on recidivism as a key

topic for further NIJ research and evaluation. They

wanted specifically to know the extent to which boot

camp programs, gang intervention, and sex offender

programs are effective. In addition, wardens of prisons for

women wanted research targeted to identifying successful programs for these offenders.