Social Climates in Prison: An Attempt to Conceptualize and Measure Environmental Factors in Total Institutions

The development and standardization of a testing instrument designed to assess social climates in correctional institutions is described. The Correctional Institutions Environment Scale (CIES) has 86 items, organized in nine scales. The first three scales assess people relationship dimensions, subscales four through six assess institutional program dimensions, and subscales seven through nine measure system maintenance dimensions. The administration of the test to groups takes less than 30 minutes. Norms of a national reference group are presented, and four unit profiles are shown as examples. Various possible uses of the CIES are discussed with special attention to the potential utility of the instrument for the institutional administrator.