NCJ Number
106056
Journal
Criminal Justice Review Volume: 11 Issue: 2 Dated: (Fall 1986) Pages: 37-46
Date Published
1986
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Data were collected from the daily reports of the prison disciplinary committee (PDC) of an Indiana maximum security facility for an 11-month period in 1980-1981.
Abstract
Analysis of these reports suggests that the discretionary decisionmaking powers of the PDC have not been weakened by court decisions requiring minimum due process safeguards in inmate discipline. The dispositions available, the possibility of combining dispositions, and the authority to set the duration of each sanction provided a broad base for the exercise of discretion. The double sanction of in-cell restriction coupled with loss of privileges appeared to be an effort to assign a penalty as severe as punitive segregation. Although a hierarchy of penalties was available, the PDC often used duration of penalty as a means of equalizing lesser penalties. This suggests that the PDC was influenced to a greater degree by overcrowding than by external pressures to provide a just disciplinary process. A list of disciplinary violations is appended. 5 notes and 26 references.