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Case Study – The Making of an Institutional Crisis: The Mass Release of Inmates by a Correctional Agency
Author(s) -
Useem Bert,
Pacholke Dan,
Mullins Sandy Felkey
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of contingencies and crisis management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.007
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1468-5973
pISSN - 0966-0879
DOI - 10.1111/1468-5973.12146
Subject(s) - agency (philosophy) , prison , criminology , state (computer science) , political science , state agency , psychology , law , sociology , administration (probate law) , social science , algorithm , computer science
A US state correctional agency inadvertently released a large numbers of inmates before expiration of their sentences. This created an institutional crisis, for three reasons. First, the correctly timed release of inmates is unequivocally central the agency's core mission. Second, the early releases were consequential, in that serious crimes were committed by those only out of prison because of early release. Third, a citizen alerted the agency of an early‐release calculation for a particular offender, but the agency failed to act on this information. The correctional agency responded to this crisis by changing both its operating procedure and its culture.