An Analysis of Reinforcers and Punishers in Three New Zealand Prisons*
| DOI | 10.1177/000486587801100105 |
| Author | F G Masters,G R Wardlaw |
| Published date | 01 March 1978 |
| Date | 01 March 1978 |
AUST &NZ JOURNAL
OF
CRIMINOLOGY (March 1978) 11 (19-22) 19
AN ANALYSIS
OF
REINFORCERS
AND PUNISHERS
IN
THREE
NEW
ZEALAND PRISONSo
F G Masters]
and
G R
Wardlaw]
Wardlaw, Masters, Millier, Rowley,
and
Temple
(1976)
employed
a
quasi-experimental design to retrospectively analyze changes in offending
against prison regulations as a function
of
policy changes.
They
showed
that
offences against prison regulations
were
significantly increased or decreased by
the
use of particular punishers at
the
disposal
of
superintendents,
and
suggested
that the selection
of
appropriate
(effective) punishers should
be
placed
on an
empirical basis.
Of
more
importance, it was suggested that these techniques
should
be
applied
to
the
task of choosing
appropriate
reinforcers in a penal
setting.
The
present
study
used asimple survey technique in an
attempt
to ascertain
what
officers
and
inmates of three
New
Zealand
penal institutions considered to
be
both present
and
potential reinforcers
and
punishers.
Method
Subjects and setting
During May 1975, 157 inmates
and
98 officers
from
three
separate
penal
institutions (a borstal, a
medium
security prison,
and
amaximum security prison)
participated.
The
borstal institution housed male inmates 17-21 years old
who
had
been
sentenced
to borstal training.
This
sentence
had
a
maximum
of
two
years,
but
the majority
of
trainees
were
released
before
this time, their actual
date
of release
being
contingent on a
parole
board
assessment of their response
to
the
institutional
programme.
The
medium
security prison
housed
adult
males,
the
nature of whose offences, or previous institutional history,
indicated
them
to
be
asecurity risk to
some
degree. It also
contained
a large
number
of
inmates
recently incarcerated,
who
were
classified
and
sent to
other
(mainly minimum
security) institutions.
The
maximum
security prison
catered
for
adult
males
who
were
considered to
be
a
danger
to the community. Virtually all
types
of
offences
and
lengths of
sentence
are
represented
in this study, although the
great
majority
of inmates
were
serving sentences in excess
of
six months.
oWe wish to express our thanks to the Superintendents of the three institutions involved in this
study, and to the inmates and staff who participated. We
~6
thank the staff of the Auckland
Region Psychological Services who collected these data. This is amodified version of a
paper
originally presented "at the Justice
Department
Psychologists' Conference, Wellington, New
Zealand, July 1975. /
tRegional Senior Psychologist, Department of Justice,
C/
-District Probation Office, Private Bag,
Wellesley Street, Auckland, New Zealand.
tSenior Research Officer, Australian Institute of Criminology,
P.O.
Box 28, Woden, A.C.T. 2606.
All correspondence to be addressed to Mr G R Wardlaw.
To continue reading
Request your trial