What Makes Prisons Safer? Examining the Relationship Between Misconduct and Involvement in Structured Activities

Using both survey and administrative data, we examined the relationship between prison misconduct and involvement in structured activities, which include programming, work assignments, education classes and homework, and religious services, as well as unstructured activities such as physical recreation, prayer, and watching television. The results showed that greater involvement in structured activities significantly predicted both general and violent prison misconduct. Participation in structured activities not only decreased the risk of time to first general and violent misconduct, but it also led to significantly fewer misconducts overall. Additional analyses revealed that greater involvement in work assignments significantly reduced general misconduct, while more time spent on homework significantly decreased violent misconduct. The overall measure for unstructured activities did not significantly affect misconduct, although time spent in prayer reduced violent misconduct, while the amount of time writing “kites” (messages directed to staff) increased both general and violent misconduct.