Chapter II

RESEARCH REPORT N0. 46

EXPLORATIONS IN INMATE-FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS

Norman Holt
Associate Social Research Analyst
Southern Conservation Center

Donald Miller
Associate Social Research Analyst
Los Angeles Research Unit

Research Division
California Department of Corrections
Sacramento, California
January 1972

CHAPTER II. MARITAL RELATIONSHIPS OF CALIFORNIA PRISONERS

In this section of the study, attention will be focused on possibly the inmate's most important voluntary social tie, the marital relationship. The specific concern of this chapter is with the prevalence of the various kinds of marital status in California's prison population. Some awareness of the marital status patterns of entering inmates would seem to be useful to an understanding of the chapters that follow dealing with inmate visiting and correspondence patterns and parole outcome. Inmate marital relationships will be examined in terms of how they relate to crime patterns, broader social conditions, and the operations of the criminal justice system.

The population chosen for the investigation of marital relationships was all new commitments to California prisons for the year 1967. Marital status at time of reception as reported by the inmate was recorded without any documentary verification. Marriage was defined to include formal legal marriages and "common-law" marriages at least one year in duration. It is assumed that since admissions ordinarily do not change greatly from year to year in their characteristics, this sample probably is typical of new admissions in California during recent years.

Marital status was tabulated against age at admission, commitment offense, ethnic background, and number of prior commitments in this analysis.

Marital Status
It has long been noted that prisoners as a group tend to be quite different from the general population with respect to their marital status. They are more likely to be single or to have disrupted marriages and therefore less likely to have intact marriages. l/ This general tendency is apparently true for California prisons. The 4,496 new admissions in 1967 were found to be approximately equally divided into three marital groups composed of 1,538 single men; 1,557 married men; and 1,401 men who were either divorced, widowed, or separated.

It is interesting to note that a number of studies indicate that marital status itself plays a role in the screening process used by the criminal justice agencies along with such factors as type of offense and prior record of arrests and convictions. Studies in California 2/ and Wisconsin 3/ point up the fact that the recommendations of probation agencies and the dispositions of the courts tend to result in the placement of married offenders on probation and the commitment of unmarried offenders to prison. Some further understanding of the fact of the relatively small percentage of prisoners who are married will be gained from examining evidence on other characteristics of the prison population.

Marital Status and Age
Some information that seems to throw some light on the question of the low percentage of married admissions to prison is available from arrest statistics. For many serious offenses likely to lead to imprisonment, the peak age of involvement is below 24 years. The offenses referred to are burglary, larceny, auto theft, and certain crimes of violence.4/ To the extent that persons in this age group, 24 years and younger, tend to be unmarried, it might be expected that the prison population would have a greater proportion of single people than the general public without regard to age, since almost half of the new prison admissions are in this particular age range. Table 1 seems to confirm this expectation, since a large majority of these in the age range of 25 and under are single.

TABLE 1
AGE AND MARITAL STATUS
OF CALIFORNIA PRISONERS
(In Percentages)

Marital Status

Age

Single

%

Married

%

Divorced Widowed Separated

%

Total

%

N

-20

74

18

8

100

(482)

21-25

47

31

22

100

(1,713)

26-30

21

41

38

100

(850)

31-35

15

43

42

100

(518)

36-40

15

41

44

100

(391)

41+

11

39

50

100

(542)

In the age range 26-35, the largest proportion consists of those men presently considered married. However, among those over 35 years of age, the combined divorced, widowed, or separated form the largest category.

Clearly, then, the marital patterns of prisoners seem in part a reflection of the relationships between age and the likelihood of arrest for certain crimes.

Marital Status and Commitment Offense
The fact that certain offenses such as robbery, assault, and burglary tend to be young men's crimes would lead to the expectation of a somewhat higher proportion of single men in these offense groups. In Table 2 it can be noted that a larger proportion of single men does indeed appear in these offense groups and that these offense groups constitute a large proportion of the new admissions. All other offense categories have a noticeably smaller percentage of single people. This is in line with what would be expected, inasmuch as murder, manslaughter, and check forgery are offenses of somewhat older men.

TABLE 2
COMMITMENT OFFENSE AND MARITAL STATUS
OF CALIFORNIA PRISONERS
(In Percentages)

Marital Status

Commitment Offense

Single %

Married %

Divorced Widowed Separated %

Total

%

N

Murder - Mans.

29

32

39

100

( 379)

Robb. - Assault

41

33

26

100

(1,207)

Burglary

39

33

28

100

( 723)

Theft - GTA

33

35

32

100

( 525)

Forg. - Checks

19

38

43

100

( 326)

Rape - Sex

27

38

35

100

( 321)

Narcotics

33

38

29

100

( 738)

Other

32

32

36

100

( 277)

Marital Status and Prior Commitments
As mentioned earlier, among the factors considered by the courts in sentencing is the number of prior convictions. Typically, a commitment to prison is the last recourse to be used. This is especially true for the less serious types of offenses. 5/ In Table 3 it can be seen that, as expected, relatively few new prison commitments have a record of no prior commitments; only 674 men or about 15 percent have none. In terms of prior commitments, the largest single group of admissions were those 1,407 men or 31 percent having three or more jail or juvenile commitments.

It can also be seen in Table 3 that those men with one or more prior prison commitments have, as a group, disproportionately fewer single men and more men who are divorced, separated, and widowed than do those admitted with no previous commitments. More will be said of this in later chapters of this report dealing with visiting and correspondence patterns and parole follow-up data. Since these men are probably somewhat older than the others, this may be an indication of a greater opportunity to engage in and fail in marriage and/or the strain of extensive criminality and incarceration on marital ties. It may also indicate a greater tendency for men lacking in marital relationships to recidivate, even after discharge, in much the same fashion as such men tend to recidivate more often on parole as described in Chapter VI. The greater rate of return of these men to prison would tend to increase significantly the number with disrupted marital relations in the total prison population.

TABLE 3
NUMBER OF PRIOR COMMITMENTS AND MARITAL STATUS
OF CALIFORNIA PRISONERS
(In Percentages)

Marital Status

Prior Commitments

Single %

Married %

Divorced Widowed Separated %

Total

%

N

None

36

36

28

100

( 674)

1-2 Jail or Juv.

40

34

26

100

(1,262)

3+ Jail or Juv.

38

33

29

100

(1,407)

1 or More Prison

22

38

40

100

(1,153)

Marital Status and Ethnic Background
In view of what is known from arrest statistics about the relationship between socio-economic status and crime, one should expect an overrepresentation of minority group members in our prison population. Some studies have gone so far as to say the overrepresentation of Blacks among offenders would disappear if economic conditions and opportunity levels were equalized. To quote from the President's Commission "...the picture that emerges from this data is of a group of young adult males who come from disorganized families, who have had limited access to educational and occupational opportunities, and who have been frequently involved in difficulties with the police..."6/

Similarly in the sentencing phase it has been demonstrated that income, education and employment, and residential stability can influence the court's decision. 7/

It can be seen in Table 4 that Blacks constituted about 28 percent of the new commitments in 1967 or over twice their 12 percent representation in the general population. The fact that the largest proportion of Blacks are single (42 percent) may reflect the younger age of this group as well as the fact that Blacks tend to marry somewhat later than do whites. 8/

TABLE 4
ETHNIC BACKGROUND AND MARITAL STATUS
OF CALIFORNIA PRISONERS
(In Percentages)

Marital Status

Single

%

Married

%

Divorced
Widowed
Separated
%

Total

Ethnic Background

%

N

White

31

35

34

100

(2,469)

Mexican-American

33

38

29

100

( 685)

Negro

42

31

27

100

(1,273)

Other

38

33

29

100

( 69)

Summary
This preliminary information on marital status and other selected characteristics of California prisoners revealed the following:

New prisoners are approximately evenly divided into three groups: 1) single men, 2) currently married men (including common-law), and 3) those men currently divorced, separated or widowed.

Roughly half of the new admissions are younger men whose commitment offense tends to be robbery or burglary and who also tend to be single.

The divorced, separated or widowed new admissions are composed largely of older, multiple termers who tend to be minor property offenders.

The marital status and other characteristics of California prisoners seem to be consistent, with or closely related to the social and economic conditions prevailing in the larger society and to general crime patterns as well as to the decision-making apparatus of the criminal justice system itself. The complex process which produces the observed distribution of marital status deserves much further study in order to contribute to a fuller understanding of what kinds of social ties are present upon admission to prison.

_____________

1/ President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society, U.S. Printing office, 1967, p. 45.

2/ San Francisco Project, A Study of Federal Probation and Parole, NIMH Report, April 1969, pp. 18-22.

3/ Babst, D. and J. Mannering, "Probation Versus Imprisonment for Similar Types of Offenders," Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Vol. 2, No. 2, July 1965.

4/ President’s Commission, op. cit., p. 44.

5/ Babst, D. and J. Mannering, op. cit., p. 65.

6/ President's Commission, op. cit., p. 45.

7/ San Francisco Project, op. cit., p. 23.

8/ Farley, R. and A. Hermalin, "Family Stability: A Comparison of Trends Between Blacks and Whites," American Sociological Review, Vol. 36, No. 1, February 1971, p. 3.