Correctional literature on determinants of prisoner misconduct is largely focused on the situation in the USA or West European countries. This study expands the research in this field by presenting findings from Romania, an East European country whose prison system faces severe problems, among which overcrowding and poor confinement conditions are of the utmost concern. Therefore a survey was conducted on a sample of 280 adult male inmates in four large Romanian prisons. These exceptional data were supplemented with information from official records drawn from the prison administration's databases. A unique combination of importation and deprivation factors, with a particular focus on several prison deprivations perceived by inmates as problematic, is examined in relation to the prevalence of four types of inmate misbehaviour: total misconduct, contraband infractions, violence and defiance. The findings show a clear relationship between importation and deprivation characteristics and prison misconduct. Also a differential impact of these characteristics is shown, depending on the type of prison infraction examined. The study concludes by advancing a set of policy recommendations to reduce the incidence of institutional misconduct in Romanian prisons.

Starting from the premise that a better understanding of the legal efforts to implement European norms regarding human rights in prisons cannot overlook prisoners’ subjective experiences of rights, this article addresses the issue of prisoners’ complaints in Romania. Using survey data on a sample of 557 prisoners, it first seeks to examine how often prisoners lodge formal complaints and on what grounds, and how their complaints are framed. Second, employing models drawn from the legal mobilization literature, it tries to identify which are the individual and institutional determinants of prisoners’ complaints. Third, based on a unique qualitative (content) analysis of the comments prisoners made at the end of the survey, the article examines how prisoners articulate their discourse on rights’ claims. The article concludes by pointing to the relevance of institutional status variables as determinants of prisoners’ complaints and to the development of prisoners’ discourse embracing legal and procedural languages.

Prior evidence shows that prisoners' beliefs and perceptions have profound implications for their postprison success. This study shows which prisoners are more or less optimistic about their postrelease employment prospects and for what reason. Specifically, this study examines how pessimistic prisoners are about finding a job, finding an unskilled job, and finding a minimum-wage job. It also reveals whether variables drawn from labelling and human capital theories can explain between-individual differences in these perceptions. Using survey data on 154 Romanian prisoners, we find substantial differences in optimism. These differences are partly explained by prisoners' criminal history and human capital, but more so by prisoners' expectations about the importance of these characteristics in the hiring process. Policy implications are discussed.

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Previous research has documented the crucial role that the perceptions and attitudes of prison staff play in everyday prison practice and the treatment of prisoners. The current study follows this contention in order to investigate how prison staff in Romania perceive the outcomes of the recently adopted prison law advocating the principle of humanization and the protection of prisoners' rights. Specifically, drawing from Jacobs' (1980) early study on the impact of the prisoners' rights movement, the effects of the prison law on: (1) prisoners; (2) prison practice and management; and (3) prison staff are investigated from the perspective of a sample of approximately 300 staff members. Whether these perceptions vary across specific sociodemographic groups, occupational categories and groups defined by their level of job satisfaction, punitive attitudes and commitment to custodial role is also examined. We conclude by arguing that, although time is needed to thoroughly assess the prison law's effects, surveying prison staff's opinions and perceptions about its outcomes is nevertheless legitimate, because how staff members feel, experience and perceive these outcomes and whether the balance inclines toward the positive aspects or toward the negative ones are crucial for the success or, on the contrary, the failure of an ongoing implementation of those reforms.