Gender differences in prison program involvement and inmate misconduct

The majority of current literature surrounding prison program involvement and inmate behavior focuses on recidivism, this study adds to the current literature by exploring the impact that involvement in different types of programs have on inmate misconduct. The limited research on the relationship between types of programs (e.g. educational, parenting, and religious programs) and inmate misconduct has yielded inconsistent findings and a majority of them were conducted on samples of male inmates only. This study aims to fill the gap in the existing literature centered on prison program involvement and inmate misconduct by utilizing samples of both male and female inmates (housed in federal and state prisons) to assess the gender differences in relation to program involvement and inmate misconduct. The Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities 2004 data were used to generate a sample of approximately 13,000 male and 3,500 female inmates. The results of multiple logistic regressions indicate that prison programs do significantly impact inmate misconduct; however, the direction of impact differs according to specific programs and gender.