Building on an earlier work (Farrington 1990) that argued that the modern American correctional facility should be viewed as a “somewhat-less-than-total,” as opposed to a truly “total,” institution (Goffman 1961), this article discusses the specific reasons why the contemporary prison is not more fully, more totally, and more effectively separated from the larger social world(s) in which it is situated. It then examines the extent to which the image of the prison as a total institution remains a predominant part of American thinking about prisons and their functions. Finally, it considers the possible ramifications of this apparent disjuncture between objective prison reality and “the myth of the prison as a total institution.”
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.