Search Guides
Criminal Justice and Legal Studies
Library Resources on Corrections
The Corrections page is intended to be used in tandem with Criminal Justice Essentials. Essentials includes the resources most relevant to criminal justice overall. This page links to databases, books, and websites to help you explore the various elements specific to the Corrections Emphasis.
Database links are followed by an "info" icon--hover over the icon to see how the database is relevant to research in corrections.
Image: Mississippi State Penitentiary (Parchman Farm)
Managing Inmates & Correctional Facilities
Image: A mock solitary confinement cell at the Brown University Center For Public Humanities.
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Business Source Complete This link opens in a new windowRelevance: management of prisoners, juveniles, prison administration, jurisdictional issues, probation & parole; general management skills and styles.
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EconLit This link opens in a new windowRelevance: citations and linked full text to economic literature. Use descriptive subject headings like "state and local government: other expenditure categories" after a basic search, like prison.
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Political Science Complete This link opens in a new windowRelevance: research articles on many policy areas relevant to corrections and prison management.
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PsycINFO This link opens in a new windowRelevance: articles about the psychology of inmates including inmates with mental health issues.
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SocINDEX with Full Text This link opens in a new windowRelevance: sociology; cultural attitudes, perceptions and beliefs of COs, inmates, and the public.
Podcast
Ear Hustle brings you the stories of life inside prison, shared and produced by those living it in San Quintin.
Government Agencies
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BOP - Federal Bureau of PrisonsRelevance: a DOJ website specifically related to corrections. Click on the RESOURCES tabs to browse by type of publication or audience.
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Corrections, National Institute of JusticeRelevance: as the research and evaluation arm of the Department of Justice, NIJ is committed to empirically exploring issues of interest for the field of corrections.
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Crime Solutions.govRelevance: provides evaluation information of a wide variety of criminal justice policies and programs. Topics are in upper left-hand corners. Funded by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ).
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Department of Justice (DOJ)Relevance: the DOJ is the epicenter for government research and news publications on criminal justice. Peruse the site to become familiar with the various agencies, publications, legislative histories, and resources related to corrections.
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Mississippi Department of CorrectionsRelevance: find a local topic by skimming the news, proposed legislation, and the death row sections on the site.
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National Institute of Corrections (NIC)Relevance: a DOJ institute that provides services, training, projects, and research related to corrections. There is even a section called "Ask NIC" to uphold their mission of "learning, innovation and leadership that shapes and advances effective correctional practice and public policy."
Corrections Rehabilitation / Counseling
Image: inmate trainer in a therapy dog training program.
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SocINDEX with Full Text This link opens in a new windowRelevance: many articles on mental illness and drug use in prison and research on rehabilitation.
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MEDLINE (via Ebsco) This link opens in a new windowRelevance: includes articles on medical, counseling, and health issues in prisons. Ability to limit results by age group, gender, and geography.
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Correctional Health - CDC websiteRelevance: Information on correctional health care issues from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) such a health related state corrections information and reports, health data and statistics, scientific reports on correctional health matters, and research regulations regarding prisoners.
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Substance Abuse & Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA)Maintains a registry of mental health and substance abuse interventions that have been reviewed and rated by independent reviewers.
Looking for Topics?
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360 Degrees: Perspectives on the U.S. Criminal Justice SystemRelevance: a unique collection of first-person stories from inmates, correctional officers, lawyers, judges, parole officers, parents, and victims. Includes, Prisoners’ interviews and audio diaries, and other exceptional features e.g., a timeline (601 to present) that explores the creation of prisons as know them today.
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ACA: American Corrections AssociationRelevance: a professional organization comprised of both public and private individuals and groups coming together with the stated purpose of improving the justice system. The site includes announcements about professional development and conferences, information on correctional healthcare standards, and global corrections. Members have additional access.
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Center for Court InnovationRelevance: information about evaluations and materials about new court programs, including drug courts. Jump by Topic on top left-hand side. A DOJ grant-funded website that is a public/private partnership with New York Unified Court System.
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Prison Activist Resource CenterRelevance: progressive information on prisons and the prosecution system from the perspective of students, educators and organizers concerned with human rights and social justice.
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Prisoner Reentry, Probation and ParoleExplore this John Jay guide using the tabs for Statistics and Internet Sources
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Rand CorporationRelevance: a non-profit think tank that studies issues in order to help policymakers make decisions based on evidence-based research, including issues related to corrections.
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World Prison BriefRelevance: information on prison systems around the world. The site provides statistics on prison systems and incarceration rates in over 200 countries. This web site is hosted by the Institute for Criminal Policy Research (ICPR) supports evidence-based development of prison policy and practice globally and provides access to some of their international publication, reports and speeches.
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Are Prisons Obsolete?
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Esteemed civil rights activist Angela Davis argues for a radical rethinking of prisons and our rehabilitation programs. Originally published in 2003; print copy.
Specific Inmate Populations
Image: from A History of Women's Prisons featured in JSTOR Daily.
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Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples in North America This link opens in a new windowRelevance: covers all aspects of native North American culture, history, and life including Native Americans in corrections.
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Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new windowRelevance: newspapers and magazines published by the ethnic and minority press; generate topic ideas by searching any corrections related topic to see the variety of ideas on an issue.
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LGBTQ+ Source This link opens in a new windowRelevance: articles and full text books on LGBT adults and juveniles in the correction system and on probation & parole.
Working with Inmates
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The Myth of Prison Rape: Sexual Culture in American Prisons
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The Myth of Prison Rape is a major contribution to the existing literature on prison sexuality and, more specifically, to the sexual culture surrounding rape inside prisons. It contains very rich data, and is more than useful for those who are interested in studying subcultural norms or how sexual culture can shift entirely once an inmate enters prison. It is a fairly easy read. -
Games criminals play: How you can profit by knowing them
A bestseller for over two decades, this fascinating resource exposes how criminals try to control the behavior of correctional personnel--how to recognize, prevent, and stop manipulation. Learn how inmates observe and select victims. Also, see how they gain their confidence and sympathy and make demands. -
Prison Management, Prison Workers, and Prison Theory
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Stephen C. McGuinn demonstrates that effective managers prioritize prison workers in order to meet external social demands of imprisonment and internal demands of daily operation. The exploration of current power structures and their opportunities for improvement provides insight for those interested in criminology, criminal justice, prison theory and reform, policy studies, and labor studies. -
In This Timeless Time: Living and Dying on Death Row in America
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Jackson's original black-and-white images from the 1970s show mealtime, exercise rituals, and inmates socializing in the dayroom and passing time in their cells, with detailed captions about the procedures and inmates' lives.
