The image portrayed in literature is that communities express strong resistance to and negative attitudes about the introduction of a prison. Such claims, however, have not been supported with systematically collected data. A survey was administered to 3,795 residents of a county in which the construction of a new prison had just begun. Residents from throughout the county were asked to indicate their expectations about the impact of the prison on their community. Contrary to the literature, it was found that the majority of the 1,659 respondents were, at worst, neutral in their overall perceptions about the prison's likely impact. This article describes the results of this survey and examines them within the context of the literature on locally unwanted land use (LULU) and the not in my backyard (NIMBY) syndrome.

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Recent increases in prison populations and growth in prison construction have brought issues related to prison siting to the forefront. Although the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) syndrome is often discussed in literature pertaining to prisons and community development, relatively little empirical research has been devoted to this topic. Based on a survey of residents of a county in which construction of a new prison was just beginning, this article focuses on the perceived impact of the new prison on future property values, the economy, and the cost of living. Consistent with the literature, proximity to the prison and several demographic variables were found to be significant predictors of perceptions of prison impact. However, concerns about prison visitors coming into the community and expectations about future crime and safety had the strongest impact on these perceptions.

Although it is true that inmates in U.S. prisons are experiencing high rates of HIV disease, it also is true that incarceration affords a meaningful opportunity to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS through education. Consequently, providing effective education programs for inmates is an important corrections and public health concern. In an attempt to assess our current efforts in this area, a survey of all 50 state departments of corrections was conducted. As part of that survey, descriptions of inmate AIDS education programs were obtained from 27 states. These programs were analyzed using themes garnered from a variety of published recommendations concerning effective AIDS education. The results of the content analysis for the 27 descriptions were then specifically compared with the National Commission on AIDS recommendations for AIDS education programs for inmates.

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