This article reviews arguments for and against the siting of a correctional facility in a community. Arguments for siting are usually based on the economic benefits for the community. However, the appeal of these benefits varies with different communities and among various groups in the communities. Opposition may result from many reasons: fear of escapes, decline in property values, prisoners' families, quality-of-life concerns, and feelings of inefficacy. Future siting will probably continue to take place near existing facilities and in small, economically depressed communities in which the economic benefits of the siting can make the most difference.

The prestige of professional journals is an important element in the academic world because of the relationship of journal prestige to the careers of individuals and to the reputations of academic institutions. This study investigates the system of journal prestige in the field of criminology and criminal justice, using the ratings of professional journals obtained from a sample of respondents who are members of professional associations in criminology and criminal justice. The results show that there is a relatively high degree of agreement about the relative prestige of journals in the field, despite the fact that criminology and criminal justice is a multidisciplinary field involving professionals from a wide variety of occupational settings.

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This article analyzes the theoretical principles of the recently legislated “three strikes and you're out” laws. In many respects, these are related to the “new penology” that shifted the focus of criminological and penological interest from the individual offender toward the control of aggregates. Furthermore, the analysis relates the three-strikes measures to the cultural model of the “McDonaldization” of society in which the principles of the fast-food restaurant dominate many aspects of American society. These principles include efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control mainly by non-human technology. The analysis in this article, which focuses especially on the three-strikes law in California, suggests that three-strikes laws can be viewed as a part of the McDonaldization trend.

This article deals with several conceptual issues concerning the privatisation of prisons. The focus is on the private operation rather than the financing and the construction of facilities. Typically, the issue of correctional privatisation is debated on utilitarian grounds, the main supporting argument centring on cost effectiveness, while such issues as ethics, symbolism, motivation, and accountability are neglected. The article highlights problems of separation between the determination and administration of punishment, the adoption of the free market model to the provision of human services, the symbolic messages of private prisons, corporate ethics, and organisational accountability.