The public sector needs to monitor the performance of the private prisons, and it is necessary to conduct the monitoring as objectively as possible. This article demonstrates that an often overlooked source of data, surveys of inmates, can be used to differentiate prisons on such Was a gag activity, and security, sanitation, and food service delivery. Hierarchical line models were used to generate the prison performance measures. We also show that inmates and staff largely agreed in in their assessments of conditions at the prison. Finally, we demonstrate that although there is considerable consistency for different measures within the topical areas that we examined, there is no necessary correspondence in performance across the different topical areas of gang management, safety and security, sanitation, and food service delivery. Although survey will never and should never replace operational reviews and audits, we demonstrate that they can be effectively used to obtain information about operational differences between prisons.

This analysis focuses on misconduct rates and inmates’ perceptions of safety at 10 low-security prisons. Performance measures derived from two different data sources, inmate survey data and agency records of inmate misconduct, are compared. The findings demonstrate that the rankings of the prisons with performance measures derived from inmates’ perception of safety correlate with measures obtained from official misconduct rates. These findings provide evidence regarding the validity and reliability of inmate survey and official misconduct data when assessing conditions of confinement.

Research Summary: The current research investigates the faith, sociodemographic, psychological, and criminal history factors associated with the decision to volunteer for a faith‐based program. Operational records were combined with data collected from self‐administered surveys. The results of the logistic regression model were successful in identifying factors related to program participation, including factors not included in previous studies. The findings suggest that program participants are motivated to make changes in their lives and are seeking their way in a religious sense. For example, program participants scored higher on average on the motivation for change scale used here, had higher rates of attendance in religious services since incarceration, and were more active in reading sacred scripture. Conversely, inmates who claimed higher levels of knowledge about their faith were less likely to participate in the Life Connections Program examined here. Policy Implications: The results of the analysis suggest that certain religious characteristics are associated with participation in a faith‐based program. The implication is that religious program providers need to pay attention to the match between the program content and the charactertistics of their potential program participants. The results also demonstrate the need to capture differences between participants and comparison subjects on dimensions not usually included in evaluations of faith‐based programs. Without knowledge of the selection process, there is no way to determine whether observed differences between program participants and “comparisons” are due to actual program effects or are an artifact of preexisting differences between the groups.

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From the moment of their admission to prison, offenders with mental illness represent a population with special service needs. From this services perspective, the present study draws population estimates of mental illness indicators for newly committed offenders using operational data sources available within a correctional system. In a cohort of 2,855 male and female offenders across three security levels and five regions of the United States, several indicators of mental illness (e.g., diagnosis of serious mental illness, inpatient psychiatric care) were aggregated. Findings suggest that 15.2% of newly committed offenders at low-, medium-, and high-security facilities may require some level of mental health services to address a need related to mental illness. Prevalence rates differed between gender and between lower versus medium or high security levels. Implications informing the work of clinicians, administrators, and policy makers are discussed. Future research developing additive models estimating service need among other components of corrections populations is recommended.