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13 J. Contemp. Crim. Just. 3 (1997)

handle is hein.journals/jccj13 and id is 1 raw text is: EDITORIAL COMMENT During the 1960s and early 1970s a plethora of research focusing on the pains associated with confinement was published. A conservative shift in the political winds during the 1980s appears to have also shifted the focus of prison research. Whereas the 1960s highlighted the problems facing prison inmates, research in the 1980s drew attention to the problems faced by institutions, including managing overcrowded prisons, the elderly, and men- tally ill offenders, as well as inmates with deadly, communicable diseases. The articles in this issue shift the focus back to the conditions of confine- ment. The article by Welch examines the conditions of confinement at U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) facilities. The focus of this article is on aspects of INS policy and procedures as they contribute to poor conditions of confinement and lengthy periods of detention. The article by Richards and Jones examines how prisoners experience release from prison to work release centers and halfway houses. In general, the prison system is presented as a perpetual incarceration machine by examining the many structural barriers that contribute to parole failure and recidivism. The article by Terry examines an important, yet overlooked, coping mechanism used by prison inmates. The article looks at the function of humor in the prison environment. In general, prisons are settings that tend to discourage inmates from expressing feelings and emotions. Humor is pre- sented as a coping mechanism in response to this prohibition. The final article is by Bell and examines prison conditions that lead to the closing of two prisons in West Virginia. The primary focus of this article is on judicial intervention to reform conditions in state prisons. Richard S. Jones Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, Vol. 13 No. 1, February 1997 3 @ 1997 Sage Publications, Inc. 3 from the SAGE Social Science Collections. All Rights Reserved.