PRISONERS' COPING SKILLS AND INVOLVEMENT IN SERIOUS PRISON MISCONDUCT AND VIOLENCE A Dissertation Presented by Ann Marie Kelley Rocheleau to The College of Criminal Justice In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the field of Criminology and Justice Policy Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts April, 2011 1 PRISONERS' COPING SKILLS AND INVOLVEMENT IN SERIOUS PRISON MISCONDUCT AND VIOLENCE by Ann Marie Kelley Rocheleau ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Criminology and Justice Policy in the College of Criminal Justice of Northeastern University, April, 2011 2 Abstract Prison misconduct and specifically prison violence generate serious problems in prisons across the United States. Most of the research on prison misconduct has focused on static rather than dynamic characteristics of prisoners. This study examined a dynamic personal attribute, prisoners‘ ability to cope. The research tested whether prisoners‘ ways of coping affect their involvement in serious prison misconduct and violence. The study also examined the traditional predictors of serious prison misconduct and violence and their relationship to ways of coping. The research used a mixed methods design and a concurrent data collection strategy. The quantitative data collection, which was the dominant approach, included self-report surveys administered to a random sample of 312 prisoners stratified by involvement in serious misconduct and residing in the medium and maximum security facilities, and extraction from the prison system‘s database. The qualitative research included in-depth interviews with staff and prisoners, and observation of classification and disciplinary hearings. The study yielded a number of findings about serious prison misconduct and violence. First, five out of the eight ways of coping in the study were directly related either to violence alone or serious misconduct and violence. Prisoners who learned to elicit both emotional and instrumental support from loved ones, fellow pro-social prisoners, and staff were less likely to be disruptive. Those who coped through venting their emotions, and bravado, and who charged into reacting to stressors were more likely to be disruptive and to misbehave. Second, trait emotions did affect misconduct. That is, when the personal predictors and coping were taken into consideration, prisoners who were angry were less likely to be involved in misconduct and violence, while those who were anxious were more likely to be involved in serious misconduct. 3 Third, the study yielded at least five categories of prisoners that were more apt to be involved in serious misconduct and violence: prisoners with mental health problems, young prisoners, weak prisoners, gang members, and those prisoners, usually more well-behaved, who fought back when victimized by others. The study also found that policies, practices, and the level of staff skills affected serious prison misconduct and violence. Finally, it was concluded that a reconceptualization of the predictors of serious prison misconduct and violence into static and dynamic predictors would be useful to focus future research and policy recommendations. 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are many people without whom this dissertation would not have been completed. I would first like to thank Rhode Island Department of Corrections Director Ashbel T. Wall, II and Jake Gadsden, former Assistant Director of Institutions & Operations, for valuing research despite the risk and allowing me to conduct my study in the Rhode Island Department of Corrections. Thanks also to Jeff Renzi, Associate Director of Planning & Research, and his staff for all of their help in the application and data collection process. Special thanks to Greg McCarthy who spent innumerable hours extracting data, explaining details about the INFACTS system and RIDOC policies, and ensuring I connected with the appropriate administrators within the facilities. I am also grateful to Donna Collins, Deputy Warden, who helped me navigate and understand the RIDOC system and to all the facility administrators who provided access and facilitated my data collection. However I could not have completed this study without the participation of over two dozen staff and over 300 prisoners who were willing to bare their souls and share their ideas, their experiences, and their thoughts amid the general peer pressure not to get involved in such endeavors. I would like to give a heartfelt thanks to Donna Bishop who started out as my advisor at Northeastern but played multiple roles including teacher, dissertation chair, and mentor. Thanks for your wise advice and direction and your kind words and support during those particularly challenging times. Thanks to Carlos Cuevas and Natasha Frost for serving on my committee, providing statistical advice, and commenting on my rather lengthy drafts. Special thanks to my outside committee member and mentor Robert Johnson from American University. Your work on prisons, especially your concept of mature coping, was the inspiration for the focus of this research. I know my dissertation was much improved as a result of my committee‘s feedback 5 and suggestions. Thanks also to Jack McDevitt for his unending support and guidance from the application stage through the seven years in this doctoral program. I am also grateful to all of the College of Criminal Justice faculty who contributed to my learning, either formally through class and research projects or informally in discussions. Of course none of this would have been possible without the constant support and encouragement from my friends and family. The experience would have been quite lonely, less fun, and even more challenging without the backing, friendship, and collaboration among the doctoral students from the program‘s first cohort (oh and yes some of you from the second and third cohorts—you know who you are). Thanks for allowing an ―old lady‖ to join you in both your studies and your fun. Thank you also to Laurie Mastone for your friendship and assistance throughout these years in the program. I would also like to thank Susan Guarino for literally decades of friendship and immeasurable guidance throughout the years at Boston College, in state correctional agencies, and now at Stonehill College. You were literally my cheerleader during this dissertation process. I am extremely grateful for the unending support and love of my family, including my parents Bob and Velma, sister Sandra, brother Bobby, and sister-in-law Trisha. However, the biggest thanks must go to my husband, Michael Kelley, and my children Caitlin and Paul. Thanks for all of your understanding and patience, especially whenever I was in my writing mode (which was often); this frequently led to taking over whole rooms with wires, papers, and books, take-out and Trader Joe‘s dinners, and long spans of times away from all three of you. Mike, thanks for all the wonderful fires you made for me to study by; Caitlin and Paul, somehow you both managed to grow up to be wonderful adults of whom I am most proud. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract of Dissertation ................................................................................. 2 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................... 5 Table of Contents .......................................................................................... 7 Introduction ................................................................................................... 9 I. Conceptual Model and Hypotheses ................................................... 11 II. Literature Review .............................................................................. 17 III. Research Setting ................................................................................ 50 IV. Methodology, Data, and Analytic Strategy ....................................... 63 V. Disciplinary Reports, Disciplinary Process, and Sanctions ............ 109 VI. Individual Predictors of Serious Misconduct and Violence ............ 132 VII. Multivariate Analysis of Prison Misconduct ................................... 191 VIII. Staff and Prisoner Feedback on Prison Misconduct ....................... 230 IX. Discussion ....................................................................................... 282 X. Future Research and Policy Recommendations .............................. 343 Appendix A – RIDOC Disciplinary Severity Scale .................................. 365 Appendix B – Prisoner Self-Report Survey .............................................. 371 7 Appendix C – Prisoner Interview Schedule .............................................. 383 Appendix D – Staff Interview Schedule ................................................... 387 References ................................................................................................. 389 8 INTRODUCTION Prison misconduct and specifically prison violence generate serious problems in county, state, and federal prisons in the United States. While the collective prison unrest of the 1960s to 1980s has subsided (Colvin, 1992), individual-level and gang-related prison violence have increased (Gaes, Wallace, Gilman, Klein-Saffran, & Suppa, 2002; Edgar, O‘Donnell, & Martin, 2003; McCorkle, 1992). Prison violence poses a threat both to staff and prisoners alike, and generates high monetary and political costs for prisons and high