ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the challenges of prison management and operations and the history and evolution of institutional corrections at both the state and federal levels. It explains the differences in the types and functions of prisons, penitentiaries, and other correctional institutions for long-term confinement. The chapter also describes how the efforts of prison personnel are intended to reduce violence within a facility and recidivism once released. Prisons are total institutions, where correctional officials exert control over every aspect of a prisoner’s day-to-day activities. Inmates are told when and where to eat, work, exercise, and sleep. Dynamic security, by contrast, refers to the actions correctional staff take in order to reduce misconduct, including searches of the facility and inmates, and inmate counts. Medium-security prisons are more restrictive and regimented than minimum-security institutions. Maximum security is the highest security level found in most but not all prison systems, as some systems have developed super-max units or prisons.
