WITNESS
Barbara Owen is a Professor of Criminology at California State University, Fresno, and is a nationally known expert in the areas of women and crime, prison culture, gender-specific programming, and substance abuse and drug treatment systems.
Dr. Owen was a Senior Researcher with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, where she worked on studies of Prison Social Climate, prison drug treatment, the Cuban detainee riots of 1987, and numerous evaluation studies. She has provided training for the National Institute of Corrections in such areas as operational practices for women offenders, staff sexual misconduct, women and community corrections and improving health care for women offenders. Dr. Owen is the author of over 12 articles and two books, including In the Mix: Struggle and Survival in a Women's Prison. Most recently she is Co-Principal Investigator of a major report for the National Institute of Corrections, Gender-Responsive Strategies: Research, Practice, and Guiding Principles for Women Offenders, and is developing an international Collective for the Study of Women's Prisons. Dr. Owen received her Ph.D. in Sociology from UC Berkeley in 1984.
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STATEMENT
"One of the myths about prison research is that it is impossible to do because 'the system' won't allow researchers access. I have not found this to be the case: accessing prisons and prisoners is often difficult but it is possible. To my knowledge, very few systems actively prohibit research. Instead, the inexperienced or the frustrated researcher confronts obstacles at every step of the way and which accumulate to discourage prison research.
"…The prison community is a complex social system that requires careful investigation. Obtaining information about the inmates, staff and is a difficult and lengthy process that can be fraught with obstacles. Social science research is one approach to painting a picture of this world but it is not the only way to learn what is occurring in the prison. Legal and investigative reporting are other approaches that allow us to draw a complete picture.
"Knowledge is powerful in any domain. I firmly believe that most contemporary managers aim to run a fair and humane system. Few executive managers want to cover up incidents in their facilities. While this principle has not always permeated through every level of the system, most managers want to know the objective facts about their institution. These facts and other data about problem areas allow them to make better-informed decisions. It is my view that professional corrections systems are increasingly turning to data and empirical information to help make their decisions. Partnering with these systems to collect and use social science data is a critical aspect of solving the problems of the contemporary prison."
Excerpted from a written statement submitted to the Commission
Download the complete written statement
Note: Some witnesses submitted documents in addition to the written statement they prepared for the hearing. In most cases, those documents are not available on the Commission's web site.
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