Participation in the Prison Economy and Likelihood of Physical Victimization

The prison economy provides an outlet for inmates to secure goods and services not formally available to them while incarcerated. While having access is beneficial, participation in the economy may increase people's chances of being victimized. The current study seeks to elaborate on the linkages between participation in the prison economy and violent victimization by drawing from survey data collected from 208 recently released male parolees in a Midwestern state. The results show that several measures of participation in the prison economy significantly predict violent victimizations, net the effect of other relevant independent variables. These findings suggest that engaging and controlling the prison economy may be effective in reducing the overall amount of violence that occurs in correctional facilities.