The Effectiveness of Communication by Women Inmates in Florida With the Outside World

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of women inmates in maintaining communication with the outside world. Specifically, the investigator sought to determine how certain independent variables affect particular dependent variables. The independent variables used in the study were, (1) race/ethnicity, (2) remaining time to serve in prison, (3) age, (4) number of children, if any, the inmate has, and (5) education. The dependent variables used in the study were, (1) number of people on the outside world, (2) volume of correspondence, (3) number of visitations, and (4) volume of telephone calls. A statistical design was employed using the multiple regression analysis. The significance was set at the .05 level. A sample from two prison facilities were obtain with an N count of 143. The study revealed that the number of people communicating with women inmates was statistically significant. However, some of the independent variables were not statistically significant. The most influential independent variables were number of children and educational level. The volume of correspondence with women inmates was insignificant and low. Women inmates do not get visitations from family and friends since this was statistically insignificant. However, telephone calls by women inmates was statistically significant. Overall, whites did better in maintaining communication than Hispanics, and Hispanics did better than blacks. However, the longer an inmate is incarcerated, then the more communications with the outside world diminishes