Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T14:12:20.927Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

RACE, GRIEVANCE SYSTEMS, AND PRISONERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF JUSTICE IN THREE CALIFORNIA PRISONS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2018

Kitty Calavita  and
Valerie Jenness
Kitty Calavita*
Affiliation:
Department of Criminology, Law and Society University of California, Irvine
Valerie Jenness
Affiliation:
Department of Criminology, Law and Society University of California, Irvine
*
*Corresponding author: Professor Kitty Calavita, Department of Criminology, Law and Society, University of California, Irvine, 3305 Social Ecology II, Irvine, California 92697–7080. E-mail: kccalavi@uci.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A large body of social science consistently documents race differences in the U.S. criminal justice system and in related perceptions of justice. It is now beyond dispute that the criminal justice system is racialized in a plethora of ways that have consequences for how people perceive justice. Another vast body of literature documents the importance of perceptions of procedural justice in people’s satisfaction with dispute management and outcomes. Informed by these two well-established literatures, we draw on original quantitative and qualitative data, including a random sample of interviews with 120 men in three California prisons, to present an empirical analysis of prisoners’ experiences with the prisoner grievance system, their level of satisfaction with the process and outcomes of that system, and their perceptions of fairness. We find an absence of race effects regarding how fairly they say they have been treated in the past by the criminal justice system and in how they assess justice in the prisoner grievance system in particular. Specifically, we find that: 1) male prisoners’ perceptions of whether the overall criminal justice system has been fair to them in the past does not vary by race in statistically significant ways; and 2) the dominance of substantive grievance outcomes over procedural elements in prisoners’ satisfaction holds regardless of racial self-identification. We explain these findings by arguing that prison may perversely level the attitudinal gap among those who are subject to this profound experience of state power.

Keywords

RacePrisonPrisoner GrievancesPerceptions of JusticeProcedural JusticeFairnessMixed-Methods
Type
Policies, Politics, and the Plight of Race and Ethnic Groups
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , Spring 2018 , pp. 153 - 165
Copyright
Copyright © Hutchins Center for African and African American Research 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Alexander, Michelle (2010). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, Jill K., and Hayden, Robert M. (1980–1981). Questions of Validity and Drawing Conclusions from Simulation Studies in Procedural Justice. Law & Society Review, 15(2): 293–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, Thomas, Pickett, Justin T., Amin, Dhara M., Golden, Kristin, Dhungana, Karla, Gertz, Marc, and Bedard, Laura (2015). Shared Race/Ethnicity, Court Procedural Justice, and Self-Regulation Beliefs: A Study of Female Offenders. Law & Society Review, 49(2): 433–465.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baldassare, Mark, Bonner, Dean, Kordus, David, and Lopes, Lunna (2016). Californians & Their Government. San Francisco, CA: Public Policy Institute of California Statewide Survey.Google Scholar
Beckett, Katherine, and Herbert, Steve (2010). Banished: The New Social Control in American Cities. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Berrey, Ellen, Hoffman, Steve G., and Nielsen, Laura Beth (2012). Situated Justice: A Contextual Analysis of Fairness and inequality in Employment Discrimination Litigation. Law & Society Review, 46(1): 1–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown v. Plata (2011). 563 U.S. 493.Google Scholar
Calavita, Kitty, and Jenness, Valerie (2013). Inside the Pyramid of Disputes: Naming Problems and Filing Grievances in California Prisons. Social Problems, 60(1): 50–80.Google Scholar
Calavita, Kitty, and Jenness, Valerie (2015). Appealing to Justice: Prisoner Grievances, Rights, and Carceral Logic. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Carman, Christopher (2010). The Process is the Reality: Perceptions of Procedural Fairness and Participatory Democracy. Political Studies, 58(4): 731–751.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casper, Jonathan D., Tyler, Tom, and Fisher, Bonnie (1988). Procedural Justice in Felony Cases. Law & Society Review, 22(3): 483–507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epp, Charles R., Maynard-Moody, Steven, and Haider-Markel, Donald (2014). Pulled Over: How Police Stops Define Race and Citizenship. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fagan, Jeffrey, and Geller, Amanda (2015). Following the Script: Narratives of Suspicion in Terry Stops in Street Policing. University of Chicago Law Review, 82: 51–88.Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving (1961). Asylums: Essays on the Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Goodman, Philip (2008). “It’s Just Black, White, or Hispanic”: An Observational Study of Racializing Moves in California’s Segregated Prison Reception Centers. Law & Society Review, 42(4): 735–770.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodman, Phillip (2014). Race in California’s Prison Fire Camps for Men: Prison Politics, Space, and the Racialization of Everyday Life. American Journal of Sociology, 120(2): 352–394.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harris, David A. (1999). Driving While Black: Racial Profiling on Our Nation’s Highways. An American Civil Liberties Union Special Report. June, 1999.Google Scholar
Hasisi, Badi, and Weisburd, David. (2011). Going Beyond Ascribed Identities: The Importance of Procedural Justice in Airport Security Screening in Israel. Law & Society Review, 45(4): 867–892.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heinz, Anne M. (1985). Procedure v. Consequences. In Talarico, Susette (Ed.), Courts and Criminal Justice: Emerging Issues, pp. 13–34. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Hickman, Laura J., and Simpson, Sally S. (2003). Fair Treatment or Preferred Outcome? The Impact of Police Behavior on Victim Reports of Domestic Violence Incidents. Law & Society Review, 37(4): 607–634.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollander-Blumoff, Rebecca, and Tyler, Tom R.. (2008). Procedural Justice in Negotiation: Procedural Fairness, Outcome Acceptance, and Integrative Potential. Law & Social Inquiry, 33(2): 473–500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, Geoffrey, Riegel, Stephanie, Morales, Thomas, and Waldorf, Dan (1993). Changes in Prison Culture: Prison Gangs and the Case of the “Pepsi Generation.” Social Problems, 40(3): 389–409.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurwitz, Jon, and Peffley, Mark (2005). Explaining the Great Racial Divide: Perceptions of Fairness in the U.S. Criminal Justice System. The Journal of Politics, 67(3): 762–783.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobs, James B. (1979) Race Relations and the Prison Subculture. Crime and Justice, 1: 1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, Jonathan, Bradford, Ben, Hough, Mike, Myhill, Andy, Quinton, Paul, and Tyler, Tom R. (2012). Why Do People Comply with the Law? Legitimacy and the Influence of Legal Institutions. British Journal of Criminology, 52(6): 1051–1071.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenness, Valerie (2017). The Feminization of Transgender Women in Prisons for Men: How Prison as a Total Institution Shapes Gender. Under review.Google Scholar
Jenness, Valerie, and Calavita, Kitty (2018). “It Depends on the Outcome”: Prisoners, Grievances, and Perceptions of Procedural Justice. Law and Society Review, 51(x): xx-xx (In Press).Google Scholar
Johnson, Devon, Maguire, Edward R., and Kuhns, Joseph B. (2014). Public Perceptions of the Legitimacy of the Law and Legal Authorities: Evidence from the Caribbean. Law & Society Review, 48(4): 947–978.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levi, Margaret, Sacks, Audrey, and Tyler, Tom (2009). Conceptualizing Legitimacy, Measuring Legitimating Beliefs. American Behavioral Scientist, 53(3): 354–375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levine, Harry G., and Small, Deborah Peterson (2008). Marijuana Arrest Crusade: Racial Bias and Police Policy in New York City, 1997–2007. New York Civil Liberties Union Report, April, 2008.Google Scholar
Lind, E. Allan, and Tyler, Tom R. (1988). The Social Psychology of Procedural Justice. New York: Plenum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meares, Tracey L. (1997). Charting Race and Class Differences in Attitudes Toward Drug Legalization and Law Enforcement: Lessons for Federal Criminal Law. Buffalo Criminal Law Review, 1(1): 137–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meares, Tracey L. (2014). The Law and Social Science of Stop and Frisk. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 10: 335–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Reuben (2014). Devolving the Carceral State: Race, Prisoner Reentry, and the Micro-Politics of Urban Poverty Development. Punishment & Society, 16(3): 305–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peffley, Mark, and Hurwitz, Jon (2010). Justice in America: The Separate Realities of Blacks and Whites. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Penner, Andrew M., and Saperstein, Aliya (2008). How Social Status Shapes Race. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(50): 19638–19630.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peterson, Ruth D. (2017). Interrogating Race, Crime, and Justice in a Time of Unease and Racial Tension. Criminology, 55(2): 245–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prison Litigation Reform Act (1996). 42 U.S.C. Section 1997e[a].Google Scholar
Rios, Victor M. (2011). Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Saperstein, Aliya, and Penner, Andrew M. (2010). The Race of a Criminal Record. Social Problems, 57(1): 92–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schlanger, Margo (2003). Inmate Litigation. Harvard Law Review, 116: 1555–1706.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schlanger, Margo, and Shay, Giovanna E. (2008). Preserving the Rule of Law in America’s Jails and Prisons: The Case for Amending the Prison Litigation Reform Act. Journal of Constitutional Law, 11(1): 139–154.Google Scholar
Skarbek, David (2014). The Social Order of the Underworld: How Prison Gangs Govern the American Penal System. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thibaut, John, and Walker, Laurens (1975). Procedural Justice: A Psychological Analysis. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Trammell, Rebecca (2012). Enforcing the Convict Code: Violence and Prison Culture. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Travis, Jeremy, and Western, Bruce (Eds.) (2014). The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.Google Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. (1984). The Role of Perceived Injustice in Defendants’ Evaluations of their Courtroom Experience. Law & Society Review, 18(1): 51–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. (1988). What is Procedural Justice? Criteria Used by Citizens to Assess the Fairness of Legal Procedures. Law & Society Review, 22(1): 103–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. (1994). Governing amid Diversity: The Effect of Fair Decisionmaking Procedures on the Legitimacy of Government. Law & Society Review, 28(4): 809–831.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyler, Tom R. (1997). The Psychology of Legitimacy: A Relational Perspective on Voluntary Deference to Authorities. Personality & Social Psychology Review, 1(4): 323–345.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tyler, Tom R. (2003). Procedural Justice, Legitimacy, and the Effective Rule of Law. Crime & Justice, 30: 283–357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vidmar, Neil (1990). The Origins and Consequences of Procedural Fairness. Law and Social Inquiry, 15(4): 877–892.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wacquant, Loic (2010). Class, Race & Hyperincarceration in Revanchist America. Daedalus, 139(3): 74–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Western, Bruce (2006). Punishment and Inequality in America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar