An exploration of correctional staff members' views of inmate amenities: a scaling approach.

Today, the number of prisons and the prison population is rising. One of the key challenges accompanying these changes is how prison and staff can handle this increasing number of inmates. One of the issues involved is what products, goods, and services are deemed suitable for inmates. Research has addressed this issue, but has yielded no consensus. Methodological variances are central to the disjuncture between samples and beliefs. Using responses from 554 correctional staff, the Rasch model was used to assess whether perceptions of inmate amenities are part of a larger dimension. Results suggest that twenty-items accurately represent correctional staff perceptions of inmate amenities, with boxing as the most difficult to support and books as being the easiest to support.