Psychosocial Climate in Correctional Institutions

Abstract

This article presents an attempt to find out whether supplementing the original nine subdimensions of the widely used Correctional Institutions Environment Scale (CIES) with a few additional ones provides any significant new information about institutional climate. Three new subscales containing 39 items were developed. They were named Judiciary System, Socio-spatial Conditions, and Physical Environment Conditions. The instrument was administered to all 398 male residents in both a maximum and a minimum security correctional facility. The factor analysis showed that the new subscales were related to the same general factor as the original ones. The linear stepwise regression indicated that the Physical Environment Conditions and Socio-spatial Conditions subscales were superior to the six original ones in discriminating between the two very different penal institutions. The proposed nine subdimensions of the CIES seem to be neither the only nor the most distinctive attributes of the correctional social climate.