Introduction to the Special Issue—Many Paths Through the Forest: The Complex Realities of Prison Research and Innovation in the Modern Era

• Published date: 01 November 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10439862241272316
• Author: David Pitts
• Date: 01 November 2024

https://doi.org/10.1177/10439862241272316

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

2024, Vol. 40(4) 572 –575

© The Author(s) 2024

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/10439862241272316

journals.sagepub.com/home/ccj

Editorial

Introduction to the Special

Issue—Many Paths Through

the Forest: The Complex

Realities of Prison Research

and Innovation in the

Modern Era

David Pitts1

Over the past 50 years, prisons have become an increasingly important part of the

American landscape. In 2023, an estimated 1.2 million people were incarcerated

across over 1,600 state and federal prison facilities (Sawyer & Wagner, 2023). Research

suggests that 7% of all individuals in the United States will be incarcerated during

their lifetime, a number that reaches 11% for all U.S. males and a staggering 32% for

all Black males (Bonczar, 2003). Add to those numbers the 300,000 individuals

employed as correctional officers1 and the countless family members of both incarcer-

ated people and prison staff, the impact of prisons on American society becomes clear.

Despite prisons’ reach and impact, they are among the least-studied and understood

institutions of American government. While data on other public policy functions—

public education, for example—can be easily accessed by the public via online data

dashboards, data on prisons are often scarce, outdated, or difficult to interpret.

Departments of Corrections (DOCs) understandably limit transparency to protect the

safety of their facilities, but there are important social benefits to more openness about

how individuals experience incarceration.

What we do know about prisons is that they are often bureaucratic institutions in

which innovative change is challenging to accomplish. DOCs are typically highly cen-

tralized, hierarchical organizations where staff have little input into day-to-day deci-

sion-making (Ferdik & Smith, 2017; Lambert et al., 2006). Even systems with

relatively strong employee feedback mechanisms are often constrained by scarce

funding, staffing shortages, and physical plant limitations that prevent meaningful

1Urban Institute, Washington, DC, USA

Corresponding Author:

David Pitts, Urban Institute, Washington, DC 20024-2274, USA.

Email: dpitts@urban.org

1272316CCJXXX10.1177/10439862241272316Journal of Contemporary Criminal JusticePitts

editorial2024