Women adjusting to prison: disciplinary behavior and the characteristics of adjustment.

Although studies over the years have measured the prison adjustment of male prison inmates by examining the frequency and severity of their disciplinary infractions, there is much less similar research on the adjustment of female inmates. While there is evidence that female inmates commit more, but less serious, infractions than do male inmates, it is not clear how these infractions affect the adjustment of women to prison. This article includes a study of the disciplinary behavior of a sample of 222 women released from a large maximum security prison. The sample is divided into different disciplinary groups based on the seriousness of behavior. Logistic regression analysis is utilized to assess the implications of disciplinary behavior. The study attempts to delineate the circumstances and conditions that provide the best opportunity for a woman's adjustment to prison. The findings indicate that the majority of women inmates do not commit infractions or engage in only minor infractions. However, there is a core group of chronic offenders who engage in violent infractions, and whose characteristics can be used to determine prison placement and programming for all inmates.