Corrections of America Exam #1

On the Eve of Reform

By the middle of the eighteenth century, economic and social factors (particularly with regard to labor), altered political relationships, changes in the power of the church, and the organization of secular authority combined with revolution in the American colonies, liberal ideas about the relationship between citizen and government, and a belief in human perfectibility set the stage for a shift in penal policies. Because each of these forces was in place by 1770, it is arbitrarily designated as the eve of a crucial period of correctional reform on both sides of the Atlantic.

Galley Slavery

Forced rowing of large ships or galleys.

Identify the alternatives to litigation

Four alternatives to litigation are present in the corrections systems of various states. Grievance procedures usually involve a three-step process: (1) an incarcerated person files a complaint, (2) a prison staff member (or grievance officer) investigates the matter, and (3) the investigator issues a decision. Another alternative, the ombudsman, involves an official who receives complaints, investigates, and recommends corrective measures. The effectiveness of this approach is contingent on whether the prison residents respect the ombudsman. Mediation entails a third party reviewing the matter and making a decision that is usually binding on both prison officials and incarcerated persons. This approach is most effective when the complaint involves a problem that requires an administrative solution. Finally, legal assistance by staff attorneys, jailhouse lawyers, and law school clinics can advise incarcerated individuals on the legal merits of their complaints and assist them in framing their complaints in legal terms.

Identify the different forms of the criminal sanction.

Four forms of criminal sanction are used in the United States: incarceration, intermediate sanctions, probation, and death. Incarceration can take place in a jail or prison. A variety of sentencing structures are used (indeterminate, determinate, and mandatory). Intermediate sanctions are penalties that are more severe than probation but less severe than incarceration. Judges use these sanctions in combination in order to reflect the severity of the crime, the characteristics of the person, and the needs of the community. Probation is a sentence that the individual serves in the community. Conditions are imposed specifying how an individual is to behave throughout the sentence. If the conditions are not met, the supervising officer may recommend to the court that probation be revoked. Death is the least frequently used sanction. The death penalty may have more significance as a political symbol than as a deterrent to crime.

Discuss the goals of punishment.

In the United States, criminal sanctions have four goals. Retribution (or deserved punishment) entails punishing a convicted person because he or she deserves to be penalized. Deterrence involves administering punishment to discourage members of the general public (general deterrence) and the convicted person (specific deterrence) from committing future crimes. Incapacitation keeps people from committing future crimes by incarcerating them or putting them to death. Rehabilitation attempts to restore the convicted individual to a constructive place in society through the use of educational or vocational training or therapy.

Discuss the Enlightenment and how it affected corrections.

In the latter part of the eighteenth century, the Enlightenment (Age of Reason) brought changes in penal policy. Rather than stressing physical punishment of the convicted individual, influential Enlightenment thinkers such as Beccaria, Bentham, and Howard sought methods for reforming people who committed crimes. The reforms were first proposed in Europe and later fully developed in America.

selective incapacitation

Making the best use of expensive and limited prison space by targeting for incarceration those people whose incapacity will do the most to reduce crime in society.

Rhodes v. Chapman (1981)

Overcrowding by itself is not cruel and unusual punishment.

Wergild

Payment of money as compensation for a wrong done and to prevent a violent blood feud

Incapacitation

Depriving a person of the ability to commit crimes against society, usually by detaining the person in prison.

House of Correction

Detention facility that combined the major elements of a workhouse, poorhouse, and penal industry by both disciplining individuals who were housed in the facility and setting them to work.

sentencing disparity

Divergence in the lengths and types of sentences imposed for the same crime or for crimes of comparable seriousness when no reasonable justification can be discerned.

Morrissey v. Brewer (1972)

Due process rights require a prompt, informal two-part inquiry before an impartial hearing officer prior to parole revocation. The parolee may present relevant information and confront witnesses.

Elam Lynds

Elam Lynds (1784-1855) A former army officer, Lynds was appointed warden of the newly opened Auburn prison in 1821. He developed the congregate system and a regimen of strict discipline. Prison inhabitants were known only by their number, wore striped clothing, and moved in lockstep. In 1825 he was commissioned to oversee construction at Ossining (Sing Sing), New York.

Amendment 8 (VIII)

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Mempa v. Rhay (1967)

Probationers have the right to counsel at a combined revocation-sentencing hearing.

presentence report

Report prepared by a probation officer, who investigates a convicted person's background to help the judge select an appropriate sentence.

Misdemeanor court

§Hear 90 percent of criminal cases §Only minority of cases end in jail sentences §Judicial decisions mass produced §Most cases result in: -Fines -Probation -Community service -Restitution Combination of above

Rome

§Law of Twelve Tables (450 B.C.E.) §Code of Justinian (534 C.E.) -Laid the groundwork of European law. -As with other ancient societies, Roman lawbreakers were made into slaves, killed, exiled, or imprisoned, and physically brutalized.

Corporal Punishment

§Punishment inflicted on the accused individual's body with whips or other devices that cause pain oMutilation »Removing hand or finger »Slitting the nostrils »Severing an ear oBranding »Accused individuals were publicly branded so that they could be identified oHanging »72,000 people were hanged during Henry VIII's reign

Discuss the problem of unjust punishment

Unjust punishments can occur because of sentencing disparities and wrongful convictions. Sentencing disparity occurs when widely divergent penalties are imposed on people with similar criminal histories who have committed the same offense but when no reasonable justification can be discerned for the disparity. Wrongful conviction occurs when an innocent person is found guilty by either plea or verdict. DNA evidence has helped exonerate innocent people who have been wrongly convicted. To create a system that is more just, reformers want to reduce sentencing disparities and wrongful convictions

Imprisonment

Until the Middle Ages, jails were used primarily for the detention of people awaiting trial. The House of correction concept was born during this time. Bridewell House—Houses of Correction, Milan House of Correction, Maison de Force. §Short terms of imprisonment were used for a variety of crimes in countries ranging from Holland, France, Germany, Italy, and England. §Conditions in jails were appalling as men, women, and children were locked up together, regardless of the crime.

Ruffin v. Commonwealth (1871)

Virginia Supreme Court stated that the inmate was a "slave of the state" with only those rights given to him by the state

Describe "The Great Law" of Pennsylvania and note its importance

With the arrival in 1682 of William Penn, Pennsylvania adopted "The Great Law," which was based on Quaker principles and emphasized hard labor in a house of correction as punishment for most crimes. Death was reserved for premeditated murder.

Elmira Reformatory

Zebulon Brockway was superintendent of first reformatory at Elmira, New York. Believed that diagnosis and treatment were the keys to reform and rehabilitation. Wanted to identify the "root causes" of the accused individual's deviance. Designed for first-time felon accused individuals between ages of 16 and 30

In the mid-1800s, the United States was coming to grips with two forces:

a gradual shift of the population from countryside to the cities and a cultural threat posed by the flood of immigrants.

Corrections affect the community

a lower total cost per offender for supervision, treatment, and other service programs.

crime control model of corrections

a model of corrections based on the assumption that criminal behavior can be controlled by more use of incarceration and other forms of strict supervision

Griffin v. Wisconsin (1987)

a probationer's home may be searched without a warrant

shock probation

a sentence in which the offender is released after a short incarceration and resentenced to probation

Bureaucracy

a system of government in which most of the important decisions are made by state officials rather than by elected representatives. -Street-level bureaucrats -Limited resources

contract labor system

a system under which inmates' labor was sold on a contractual basis to private employers who provided the machinery and raw materials with which inmates made salable products in the institution

U.S. v. Hitchcock (1972)

a warrantless cell search is not unreasonable

The Draconian Code

comes from ancient Greece and was the first code to erase the distinction between citizens and slaves before the law.

Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole v. Scott (1998)

federal exclusionary rule does not apply to parole reconvocation hearings

the four major forms of criminal sanctions

incarceration, intermediate sanctions, probation, and death

A feudal system (also known as feudalism)

is a type of social and political system in which landholders provide land to tenants in exchange for their loyalty and service.

An example of penance

is when you confess to a priest and are forgiven. An example of penance is when you say ten Hail Marys to earn forgiveness. An act of self-mortification or devotion performed voluntarily to show sorrow for a sin or other wrongdoing.

Black Codes

laws passed in the south just after the civil war aimed at controlling freedmen and enabling plantation owners to exploit African American workers

Advances in scientific thinking

led to a questioning attitude that emphasized observation, experimentation, and technological development. The Enlightenment represented a liberal reaction against feudal and monarchial tradition. In the eighteenth century, people in England and America and on the European continent began to rethink such matters as the procedures to be used to determine guilt, the limits on a government's power to punish, the nature of criminal behavior, and the best ways to correct accused individuals. They began to reconsider how criminal law should be administered and how to redefine the goals and practices of corrections.

The Penitentiary Act

originally called for creating houses of hard labor where people who would otherwise have faced transportation would instead be imprisoned for up to two years. The act was based on four principles set down by Howard: (1)a secure and sanitary structure, (2)systematic inspection, (3)abolition of fees, and (4)a reformatory regimen.

rational basis test

Requires that a regulation provide a reasonable, rational method of advancing a legitimate institutional goal.

civil liability

Responsibility for the provision of monetary or other compensation awarded to a plaintiff in a civil action.

Three tests that courts commonly apply to determine constitutionally

Strict Scrutiny- is the most difficult for the government Intermediate Scrutiny Rational Basis- the easiest test for the government

Feedback

Systems learn, grow, and improve based on feedback received about their effectiveness. Corrections has trouble obtaining useful feedback.

Power and responsibility are divided between national and state governments.

That the United States is a representative democracy complicates corrections. Corrections encompasses a major commitment on the part of American society to deal with people convicted of criminal law violations. Spending for corrections has risen more dramatically than for any other state function. Many states now spend more on corrections than on all public higher education. 110 federal prisons and about 1,000 state prisons (jails operated mainly by local governments)

The rise of progressive

The Progressives looked to social, economic, biological, and psychological rather than religious or moral explanations for causes of crime. *Criminal behavior stems from factors over which the individual has no control. -Biological characteristics -Psychological maladjustment -Sociological conditions Accused individuals could be treated so that they would lead crime-free lives. Treatment must be focused on the individual and their specific problem.

Identify the reforms advocated by the Progressives.

The Progressives looked to social, economic, biological, and psychological rather than religious or moral explanations for the causes of crime. They advocated the development of probation, indeterminate sentences, treatment programs, and parole.

totality of conditions

The aggregate of circumstances in a correctional facility that, when considered as a whole, may violate the protections guaranteed by the Eighth Amendment, even though such guarantees are not violated by any single condition in the institution.

Code of Justinian

The collection of laws that were taken from old Roman law and rewritten so that they could be easily understood.

Procedural Due Process

The constitutional guarantee that no agent or instrumentality of government will use any procedures other than those procedures prescribed by law to arrest, prosecute, try, or punish any person.

Equal Protection

The constitutional guarantee that the law will be applied equally to all people, without regard for such individual characteristics as gender, race, and religion.

Utilitarianism

The doctrine that the aim of all action should be the greatest possible balance of pleasure over pain, hence the belief that a punishment inflicted on a person convicted of committing a crime must achieve enough good to outweigh the pain inflicted.

secular law

The law of the civil society, as distinguished from church law. developed in England and Europe in the absence of an organized government. Crime among neighbors took the character of war and public peace was endangered.

Compare and contrast the basic assumptions of the penitentiary systems of Pennsylvania and New York.

The penitentiary ideal, first incorporated in Pennsylvania, emphasized the concept of separate confinement. Residents were held in isolation, spending their time at craft work and considering their transgressions. In the New York congregate system, prison inhabitants were held in isolation but worked together during the day under a rule of silence.

transportation

The practice of transplanting individuals convicted of crimes from the community to another region or land, often a penal colony.

Amendment 4 (IV)

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Benefit of Clergy

The right to be tried in an ecclesiastical court, where punishments were less severe than those meted out by civil courts, given the religious focus on penance and salvation.

Discuss the constitutional rights of incarcerated individuals

The rights of convicted individuals can be summarized in a handful of phrases in four amendments to the U.S. Constitution—the First, Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth. The First Amendment addresses rights related to access to reading materials, noncensorship of mail, and freedom of religious practices. The Fourth Amendment provides protection against government intrusion (searches and seizures). However, people surrender most of their privacy rights when they enter prison. In correctional facilities, the Fourth Amendment concerns searches of cells and searches of persons. The Eighth Amendment protects convicted individuals against cruel and unusual punishments. The federal courts have intervened in states where prison conditions or specific aspects of their operation were found to violate the Eighth Amendment. Finally, the Fourteenth Amendment helps to ensure procedural due process and equal protection. These two clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment are very important when incarcerated individuals are disciplined for violating institutional rules

Describe the forces and events that led to the present crime control model

The rise of crime in the late 1960s and questions about the effectiveness of rehabilitative programs brought pressure to shift to a crime control model of corrections, with greater use of incarceration and other forms of strict supervision.

Uncertain Technologies

The technologies of corrections are not as sophisticated as those of engineering, and their subjects—human beings—are complex. Methods of effectively dealing with offenders are highly uncertain even with the increased knowledge of human behavior during the past century. Various approaches such as group therapy, behavior modification, and anger management remain in doubt

Describe the range of purposes served by the corrections system

The term corrections usually refer to any action applied to individuals who have been accused or convicted of a crime. Corrections also include actions applied to people who have been accused—but not yet convicted—of criminal offenses. Corrections thus encompass all the legal responses of society to some prohibited behavior. Correctional activities are performed by public and private organizations. Three basic concepts of Western criminal law define the purpose and procedure of criminal justice. -Offense -Guilt -Punishment

Corrections

The variety of programs, services, facilities, and organizations responsible for the management of individuals who have been accused or convicted of criminal offenses.

Explain the role of the U.S. Supreme Court in interpreting correctional law

Traditionally, the U.S. Supreme Court maintained a hands-off policy with respect to corrections. Because incarcerated individuals were viewed as not having rights, judges did not interfere with prison operations. In the 1960s, however, this policy was abandoned, and the Court issued a series of decisions that broadly outlined the rights of the incarcerated, including providing people in state and federal prisons with access to the federal courts to sue prison officials for denying them basic rights. Today's Court is comparatively less active in correctional matters, but it occasionally rules on cases to clarify constitutional issues in correctional settings

Beard v. Banks (2006)

prison policies that deny magazines, newspapers, and photographs to the most incorrigible inmates in the prison system in an effort to promote security and rule compliance are constitutional

Johnson v. Avery (1969)

prisoners are entitled to receive legal assistance from another prisoner unless alternative resources are provided. Reasonable limitations were allowed.

The phrase "under some form of correctional supervision" is referring to the following three forms of control:

probation, parole, and community corrections

The twin goals of corrections are

punishment and protection

Probationers may be ordered to:

Undergo regular drug tests Abide by curfews Enroll in educational programs Remain employed Stay away from certain parts of town or certain people Meet regularly with probation officers

Goals of Corrections

retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation

Ruiz v. Estelle (1975)

reversed the "hands off doctrine"

The ideals of Wines and Brockway made major contributions to American corrections:

the indeterminate sentence, classification, rehabilitative programs, and parole were developed at Elmira.

Alexander Maconochie

urged adoption of the mark system where penalties would be graded according to crime and release would be based on good behavior. Father of parole

Courts have recognized three specific interest in Justifying some restrictions on the constitutional rights of incarcerated individual

1. The maintenance of institutional order 2. The maintenance of institutional security 3. The rehabilitation of inmates

Johnson v. California (2005)

1. The use of racial classification is subject to strict scrutiny analysis 2. Segregation potentially leads to stigmatization 3. Segregation may promote race-based violence

Five punishments common in Europe before the 1800s besides fines:

1.Galley Slavery §Forcing men to row ships 2.Imprisonment §Accused individuals were incarcerated in cages, rock quarries, or even chambers 3.Transportation §People who disobeyed the law were often cast out or banished 4.Corporal Punishment and Death §Used extensively in Europe for many years (the Germanic Code of 1532)

Working with People

"People work" is central to corrections since the raw material of the system consists of people (staff and people who have committed a crime). Professional Versus Nonprofessional Staff—probation officers, correctional officers, counselors, and others. Professionals include psychologists, counselors, and administrators (college-educated with at least one degree). Nonprofessional staff include officers and others with a high school education.

William Penn

(1644-1718) English Quaker who arrived in Philadelphia in 1682. Succeeded in getting Pennsylvania to adopt "The Great Law," which emphasized hard labor in a house of correction as punishment for most crimes. This ideology survived until 1718 when it was replaced with the Anglican Code

John Howard

(1726-1790) English prison reformer whose book The State of Prisons in England and Wales contributed greatly to the passage of the Penitentiary Act of 1779 by the House of Commons. County squire; Social activist; Sheriff of Bedfordshire

Cesare Beccaria

(1738-1794) Italian scholar who applied the rationalist philosophy of the Enlightenment to the criminal justice system. First attempt to explain crime in secular, or worldly, terms instead of religious terms. Came up with six principles of classical criminology.

Benjamin Rush

(1745-1813) Physician, patriot, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and social reformer, Rush advocated the penitentiary as a replacement for capital and corporal punishment.

Jeremy Bentham

(1748-1832) English advocate of utilitarianism in prison management and discipline who argued for the treatment and reform of convicted individuals. Came up with the idea of hedonistic calculus. Created a penitentiary based on utilitarian principles, called a panopticon or inspection house

Enoch Cobb Wines

(1806-1879) A guiding force of U.S. corrections starting in 1862, when he became the secretary of the New York Prison Association and served in this role until his death. The organizer of the National Prison Association in 1870 and a major contributor to the Cincinnati Declaration of Principles.

Zebulon Brockway

(1827-1920) Reformer who began his career in penology as a clerk in Connecticut's Wethersfield Prison at age 21. In 1854, while superintendent of the Monroe County Penitentiary in Rochester, New York, he began to experiment with ideas on making prisons more rehabilitative. He put his theories to work as the superintendent of Elmira State Reformatory, New York, in 1876, retiring from that institution in 1900.

Emile Durkheim

(1858-1917) Important French scholar, known as the "Father of Sociology," who argued that criminally involved people and their punishment are functional in society, helping define norms and demonstrating to the public the nature of societal expectations for conformity.

Sanford Bates

(1884-1972) The first director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Bates advocated prison reform throughout his career. After becoming the president of the American Correctional Association in 1926, he also played an important role in the development of programs in New Jersey and New York.

Howard Gill

(1890-1989) A prison reformer in the Progressive tradition, Gill designed Massachusetts's Norfolk State Prison Colony to be a model prison community. Norfolk provided individual treatment programs and included convicted individuals on an advisory council to deal with community governance.

Earl Warren

(1891-1974) The fourteenth chief justice of the United States (1953-1969), Earl Warren began his public career in 1919 as the district attorney of Alameda County, California. He was elected California's attorney general in 1938 and governor in 1942, then twice reelected. President Dwight Eisenhower later appointed him as chief justice. Under his leadership, the Court had a major impact on U.S. law and provided support and impetus for significant social changes.

Identify at least five key issues facing corrections today.

1. Conflicting goals: Some disagreement exists as to whether or not prisoners can be "corrected." Issues exist regarding rehabilitation and employment among other factors. 2. Adequate funding: Competition with other services for funding. 3. Making the bureaucracy of correctional services more effective: Monitoring how workers use their time/energy has to become more effective. 4. Coordinating correctional activity across different agencies: Dispersed decision-making improves interagency coordination.

Four foundations support the legal rights of individuals under correctional supervision:

1. Constitution(basic principles/ procedural safeguards) 2. Statutes(laws passed by legislature at all levels of gov.) 3. Case Law(foundation of legal system, prior rulings establish a legal precedent) 4. Regulations(rules made by federal, state, and local administrative agencies)

The legislature, president, or governor gives agencies the power to make detailed regulations governing specific policy in areas such as:

1. Health 2. Safety 3. Environment

Two-step revocation hearing process

1. Hearing officer: determines whether there is probable cause that a violation has occurred 2. Parolee/ Probationer: Must receive a notice of charges and the disclosed evidence of the violation

Four alternatives

1. Inmate-Grievance Procedures 2. The ombudsman 3. Mediation 4. Legal Assistance

System

A complex whole consisting of interdependent parts whose operations are directed toward common goals and are influenced by the environment in which they function.

Wrongful conviction

A conviction that occurs when an innocent person is found guilty by either plea or verdict.

hands-off policy

A judicial policy of noninterference concerning the internal administration of prisons.

Explain the contribution of Jeremy Bentham and the utilitarians

Best known for his utilitarian theories, often called his "hedonic calculus," Bentham claimed that one could categorize all human actions. His idea of utilitarianism proposed that the aim of all actions was the "greatest happiness for the greatest number." Criminally involved people were somewhat childlike or unbalanced, lacking the self-discipline to control their passions.

Early methods of execution

Boiled alive, broken on the wheel, burned internally, flayed alive, hanged, drawn, and quartered, iron maiden, rack

Felon Disenfranchisement

A term used to describe laws that either temporarily or permanently restrict the voting rights of individuals convicted of felony offenses.

intermediate sanctions

A variety of punishments are more restrictive than traditional probation but less severe and costly than incarceration. §Fines §Home confinement §Intensive probation supervision §Restitution to victims §Community service §Boot camp Forfeiture

Habeas Corpus

A writ (judicial order) asking a person holding another person to produce this person and to give reasons to justify continued confinement.

Factors that influence the sentencing process:

A.The administrative context of the courts B.The attitudes and values of judges C.The presentence report Sentencing guidelines

hulks

Abandoned ships that the English converted to hold convicted people during a period of prison crowding between 1776 and 1790.

Bounds v. Smith (1977)

Access to law libraries and "adequate legal assistance"

Social Control

Actions and practices, of individuals and institutions, designed to induce conformity with the rules and norms of society.

Southern Penology

After the Civil War, southern legislatures passed "black codes" designed to control former slaves through the use of harsh punishments. At the same time, southerners faced the task of rebuilding communities and their economy. Because of the devastation of the war and depression in the agriculturally based economy, there were no funds to construct new prisons, even with an increasing convict population. Faced with those challenges, and coupled with a large African American incarcerated labor force and the states' need for revenue, the lease system, and penal farms were developed.

Positivist School

An approach to criminology and other social sciences is based on the assumptions that human behavior is a product of biological, economic, psychological, and social factors and that the scientific method can be applied to ascertain the causes of individual behavior.

Prisons

An institution for the incarceration of people convicted of crimes, usually felonies.

Reformatory

An institution for young individuals convicted of crimes that emphasized training, a mark system of classification, indeterminate sentences, and parole

penitentiary

An institution intended to isolate individuals convicted of a crime from society and from one another so that they could reflect on their past misdeeds, repent, and thus undergo reformation.

sentencing guidelines

An instrument developed for judges that indicates the usual sanctions given previously for particular offenses.

compelling state interest

An interest of the state that must take precedence over rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Clear and Present Danger

Any threat to security or to the safety of individuals is so obvious and compelling that they need to counter it overrides the guarantees of the First Amendment.

The Emergence of Crime Control

As the political climate changed in the 1970s and 1980s, with the crime rate at historic levels, legislators, judges, and officials responded with a renewed emphasis on a crime control model of corrections. Critique of the rehabilitative model led to changes in sentencing structures in more than half of the states and the outright abolition of parole release in many. New determinate sentencing laws incarcerated convicted individuals for longer periods of time; the thrust was toward incarceration risk containment.

Complexity

As the system grows & matures, it becomes more complex. Thirty years ago, the traditional three Ps—probation, prisons, and parole—dominated correctional practice. Today, all kinds of activities come under the heading of corrections. Correctional clients are supervised by various service agencies operating at different levels and branches of government.

Enlightenment or Age of Reason

A cultural movement in England and France during the 1700s, when concepts of liberalism, rationality, equality, and individualism dominated social and political thinking. §Martin Luther §John Calvin §John Locke §Montesquieu Voltaire

Jails

A facility authorized to hold pretrial detainees and sentenced misdemeanants for periods longer than 48 hours. Most jails are administered by county governments; sometimes they are part of the state government.

determinate sentence

A fixed period of incarceration imposed by a court; is associated with the concept of retribution or deserved punishment.

The Big Three in Corrections

California used to have the largest prison population in the United States, but it has dramatically decreased since a number of reforms were implemented. As of 2012, Texas now has the nation's largest prison system. Due to the threat of federal fines, the Texas prison population has declined each year. Florida makes prison more of a priority in sentencing than other states do. But since a peak in 2010, Florida's prison population has also declined.

Parole

Caught on in the United States in 1920; during that time period, 80% of accused individuals who left prison were placed on parole

What Really Motivated Correctional Reform?

Reform was brought about as much by the emergence of the middle class as by the humanistic concerns of the Quakers and individuals like Bentham and Howard. New industrialists may have been concerned about the existing criminal law because its harshness was helping some accused individuals escape punishment. Politicians wanted swift and certain sanctions, and their demands agreed with the moral indignation of Bentham, Howard, and their fellow reformers. Revisionists suggest that, until 1700, the size of the incarcerated population in England was linked to the economic demand for workers; thus the penitentiary may represent a way to discipline the working class to serve a new industrial society.

prisoners face three problems

Lack legal representation Constitutional standards are difficult to meet Changes in policy or financial compensation can take a long time

Discuss how the law affects correctional personnel.

Law and regulations define the relationships between prison administrators and their staff. All correctional employees working in public prisons are governed by civil service rules and regulations. Civil service laws set the procedures for hiring, promoting, assigning, disciplining, and firing public employees. Such laws protect public employees from arbitrary actions by their supervisors. Workplace rules also develop through collective-bargaining agreements between unions and the government. A second way that the law affects correctional personnel relates to the ability of convicted individuals to sue correctional officials under Section 1983 of the United States Code. Section 1983 provides a means not only for incarcerated individuals but also people on probation or parole to bring lawsuits against correctional officials. The statute says that "any person" who deprives others of their constitutional rights while acting under the authority of law may be liable in a lawsuit. Few of these cases come to trial, and very few correctional employees must personally pay financial awards to plaintiffs

statue

Law created by the people's elected representatives in legislatures.

Lex Talionis

Law of retaliation—the principle that punishment should correspond in degree and kind to the offense ("an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth").

precedent

Legal rules created in judges' decisions that serve to guide the decisions of other judges in subsequent similar cases.

Case Law

Legal rules produced by judges' decisions.

regulations

Legal rules, usually set by an agency of the executive branch, are designed to implement in detail the policies of that agency.

Explain the rights of individuals under community supervision

Like residents of correctional facilities, convicted individuals in the community also have rights, but not the same rights as ordinary citizens. For example, various conditions are placed on individuals on parole, such as limiting their right to associate with their partners in crime and with victims. In instances when parole supervision is being revoked, individuals possess various due process rights. For example, these people have the right to be notified of the charges against them, to know the evidence against them, to speak on their own behalf, to present witnesses, and to confront the witnesses against them. As for the right to counsel, the Supreme Court has ruled that it should be allowed on a case-by-case basis.

Bentham's Views

-Accused individuals were childlike or unbalanced, lacking the self-discipline to control their passions by reason. -Behavior was not preordained, rather an exercise of free will. -Crime is not sinful but the result of an improper calculation. -Criminal law should be organized so that the accused individual would derive more pain than pleasure from a wrongful act.

Felony Courts

-Atmosphere more formal and lacks the chaotic, assembly-line environment of misdemeanor courts -Exchange relationships facilitate plea bargains -Sentencing decisions shaped by relationships, negotiations, and agreements among: §Prosecutors §Defense attorneys §Judges

Funding

-Corrections paid for by tax revenues: §Vie for funding -Conflicts among branches and levels of government. -Per capita spending on criminal justice activities ranges from less than $100 dollars in West Virginia to more than $400 dollars in Alaska & New York.

Truth-in-Sentencing

-Laws that require accused individuals to serve a substantial proportion of their prison sentence before being released on parole. -Three goals: §Providing the public with more accurate information about the actual length of sentences. §Reducing crime by keeping accused individuals in prison for longer periods. §Achieving a rational allocation of prison space by prioritizing the incarceration of particular classes of accused individuals.

Interagency Coordination

-Most correctional systems comprise several loosely related organizations that are themselves bureaucracies. -Decision making dispersed. -Great deal of policy is formally interconnected. -One agency determines the workload of the next. -Isolation of systems makes it more likely that different units will run into problems resulting in lack of cooperation from other units.

Wrongful Convictions

-Occurs when an innocent person is found guilty by either plea or verdict -349 convicted persons have been exonerated by DNA evidence -Why do wrongful convictions occur? §Eyewitness error §Unethical conduct by police/prosecutors §Community pressure §False accusations §Inadequacy of counsel Plea-bargaining pressures

The Decline of Rehabilitation

-Proponents called for longer sentences, especially for those individuals repeatedly accused and those accused of violence offenses -Robert Martinson's "Nothing Works" report -Also challenged unwarranted amount of discretion given to correctional decision makers, particularly that of the parole board

United States v. Booker (2005)

-The Supreme Court returned much of the discretion back to the judges -Stated that sentencing guidelines should be discretionary rather than mandatory

Discuss the elements of the Cincinnati Declaration

A Declaration of Principles was adopted at the 1870 meeting of the National Prison Association, held in Cincinnati. The declaration stated that prisons should be organized to encourage reformation, rewarding it with release. It advocated indeterminate sentences and the classification of imprisoned people based on character and improvement. The reformers viewed the penitentiary practices of the nineteenth century as debasing, humiliating, and destructive.

Technology

A method of applying scientific knowledge to practical purposes in a particular field.

medical model

A model of corrections based on the assumption that criminal behavior is caused by social, psychological, or biological deficiencies that require treatment.

Community Corrections

A model of corrections based on the assumption that reintegrating the convicted individual into the community should be the goal of the criminal justice system.

Exchange

A mutual transfer of resources based on decisions regarding the costs and benefits of alternative actions.

congregate system

A penitentiary system developed in Auburn, New York, in which prison inhabitants were held in isolation at night but worked with others during the day under a rule of silence.

separate confinement

A penitentiary system developed in Pennsylvania in which each convicted individual was held in isolation from other people, with all activities, including craftwork, carried on in the cells.

indeterminate sentences

A period of incarceration with minimum and maximum terms stipulated so that parole eligibility depends on the time necessary for treatment; it is closely associated with the rehabilitation concept.

Turner v. Safley (1987)

A prison regulation that impinges on inmates' constitutional rights is valid if it is reasonably related to legitimate penological interests.

Ombudsman

A public official who investigates complaints against government officials and recommends corrective measures.

retribution

A punishment inflicted on a person who has infringed on the rights of others and so deserves to be penalized. The severity of the sanction should fit the seriousness of the crime. "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth"

specific deterrence

A punishment inflicted on convicted individuals to discourage them from committing future crimes.

corporal punishment

A punishment inflicted on the convicted person's body with whips or other devices that cause pain.

general deterrence

A punishment that is intended to be an example to the general public and to discourage the commission of offenses by others.

good time

A reduction of a person's prison sentence, at the discretion of the prison administrator, for good behavior or for participation in vocational, educational, and treatment programs.

Classical Criminology

A school of criminology that views behavior as stemming from free will, that demands responsibility and accountability of all perpetrators, and that stresses the need for punishments severe enough to deter others.

Probation

A sentence allowing the convicted individual to serve the sanctions imposed by the court while he or she lives in the community under supervision.

presumptive sentence

A sentence for which the legislature or a commission sets a minimum and maximum range of months or years. Judges are to fix the length of the sentence within that range, allowing for special circumstances.

mandatory sentences

A sentence stipulating that some minimum period of incarceration must be served by people convicted of selected crimes, regardless of background or circumstances.

mark system

A system in which prison residents are assessed a certain number of marks, based on the severity of their crime, at the time of sentencing. Individuals could reduce their term and gain release by reducing marks through labor, good behavior, and educational achievement.

Define the systems framework and explain why it is useful.

A system is a complex whole consisting of interdependent parts whose operations are directed toward common goals and influenced by the environment in which they function. It is a useful concept because it helps us understand how the various aspects of corrections can affect the others.

federalism

A system of government in which power and responsibilities are divided between a national government and state governments.

lease system

A system under which people who were convicted of crimes were leased to contractors who provided these individuals with food and clothing in exchange for their labor. In southern states, they worked in mines, lumber camps, and factories, and on farms as field laborers

Amendment 14 (XIV)

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Identify the contribution of Cesare Beccaria and the classical school.

Beccaria applied the rationalist philosophy of the Enlightenment, with its emphasis on individual rights, to the practices of the criminal justice system. Beccaria set forth six principles on which his reforms were based. These principles set the foundation for the classical school of criminology.

Discuss the assumptions of the medical model regarding the nature of criminal behavior and its correction

Beginning in the 1930s, reformers put forward the medical model of corrections, which viewed criminal behavior as caused by psychological or biological deficiencies. They held that corrections should diagnose and treat these deficiencies using a variety of programs and therapies. When "well," the individual should be released.

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Lanza v. New York (1962)

Conversations recorded in a jail visitor's room are not protected by the Fourth Amendment.

Interconnectedness

Corrections can be viewed as a series of processes: sentencing, classification, supervision, programming, and revocation. Processes in one part of the system affect, in both large and small ways, processes in the rest of the system. Processes affect one another because of the flow of people through the corrections process.

Name the various components of the corrections system today and describe their functions.

Corrections consists of many subunits. There are both federal and state corrections systems. Institutional corrections include prisons and jails, and they confine people who have been sentenced by the courts (or, in the case of jails, people who are awaiting trial). Community corrections supervises people who are either awaiting trial or have been sentenced by the court but are living in the community. There are also private organizations that provide various services to people under correctional authority. Important differences exist among subunits of the same general type.

Environment

Corrections has a reciprocal relationship with its environment: Its practices affect the community, and community values and expectations will affect corrections. If the prison system provides inadequate drug treatment, people return to the community with the same drug problems they had when they were locked up.

Illustrate how the community model reflected the social and political values of the 1960s and 1970s.

During the 1960s and 1970s, dissatisfaction with the medical model led to the development of community corrections. Influenced by the civil rights movement, protests against the Vietnam War, and the war on poverty, reformers held that prisons were to be avoided because they were artificial institutions that interfered with the individual's ability to develop a crime-free lifestyle. People should instead receive opportunities for success in the community, and corrections should emphasize the rebuilding of an individual's ties to the community.

Discuss the foundations that support the legal rights of incarcerated individuals.

Four foundations support the legal rights of individuals under correctional supervision. Constitutions not only provide the design of the government but also list the basic rights of individuals. Individuals do not lose all of their constitutional rights after being convicted of a crime. However, some of the rights of incarcerated individuals are outweighed by legitimate government interests (maintaining institutional order, maintaining institutional security, and rehabilitation programs). Statutes are laws passed by elected officials in legislatures. Statutes may provide specific rights to individuals who are incarcerated beyond those conferred by state constitutions or the U.S. Constitution. Case law refers to the legal rules produced by judges. Prior judicial rulings serve to guide the decisions of other judges who must rule on similar cases. Finally, regulations are rules set by agencies in the executive branch of government. For example, a department of corrections may create regulations on the type of personal items that prison inhabitants are allowed to have in their cells.

Describe the major forms of punishment from the Middle Ages to the American Revolution.

From the Middle Ages to the American Revolution, corrections consisted primarily of galley slavery, imprisonment, transportation, corporal punishment, and death

constitutions

Fundamental law contained in a state or federal document that provides a design of government and lists basic rights for individuals.

Principles of classical criminology

Greatest good for greatest number of people. Crime is an injury to society Prevention of crime is more important than punishment for crime. Secret accusations and torture must be abolished. Punishment is crime deterrence. Imprisonment should be more widely employed.

Discuss the work of John Howard and its influence on correctional reform.

Howard investigated conditions in European prisons and jails. He was shocked by what he found in English correctional facilities. He rallied legislative interest in reform and was a major proponent of the penitentiary. Parliament passed the Penitentiary Act of 1779 based on Howard's principles: (1) a secure and sanitary structure, (2) systematic inspections, (3) abolition of fees, and (4) a reformatory regimen.

Cooper v. Pate (1964)

Inmates can sue State officials in federal court without first exhausting state judicial remedies. signaled the end of the hands-off policy

mediation

Intervention in a dispute by a third party to whom the parties in conflict submit their differences for resolution and whose decision (in the correctional setting) is binding on both parties.

least restrictive methods

Means of ensuring a legitimate state interest (such as security) that impose fewer limits to prisoners' rights than do alternative means of securing that end.

Samson v. California (2006)

Police do not need to show reasonable suspicion to search a parolee

Components of CJ

Police, prosecutors, courts, corrections -Goals: Fair punishment & community protection

street-level bureaucrats

Public service workers who interact directly with citizens in the course of their work, granting access to government programs and providing services within them.

Restoration

Punishment is designed to repair the damage done to the victim and community by a person's criminal act.

Beccaria's views

Punishment must be essentially public, prompt, necessary, the least possible in given circumstances, proportionate to the crime, and dictated by laws.

Hutto v. Finney (1978)

Punitive isolation

Western Penology

Settlement in the West was not extensive until the California Gold Rush of 1849. With the exception of California, penology in the West was not greatly influenced by the prison ideologies of the East. Leasing programs were used extensively in California, Montana, Oregon, and Wyoming; "following frontier traditions," the care of convicts was placed in hands of a lessee.

Explain how different factors affect the sentencing process

Several factors influence the sentencing process. First, the administrative context of the courts plays a role in sentencing. Misdemeanor courts are run like an assembly line. Because judges hear a large number of cases on a daily basis, they allocate minimal time to each case. In felony courts the crimes are more serious and the proceedings more formal. Second, sentencing decisions depend on judges' values and attitudes about the convicted individual's blameworthiness, which includes such factors as the severity of the offense, the person's criminal history, and the person's role in commission of the crime. Third, the presentence report, usually prepared by a probation officer, provides background information about the individual that helps the judge select the sentence. Finally, sentencing guidelines provide judges with information on the usual sanctions given previously to particular offenses. Sentencing guidelines are intended to reduce disparity in sentencing people who commit similar crimes, establish truth-in-sentencing, and make the sentencing process more rational.

Rehabilitation

The goal of restoring a convicted person to a constructive place in society through some form of vocational or educational training or therapy.

Discuss what we can learn from the "great experiment in social control."

The growth in the corrections system has resulted mostly from deliberate policies that have increased the severity of sentences. Changes in crime rates have had little effect on this growth.

Code of Hummurabi (1750 B.C.E.)

These codes were divided into sections to cover different types of offenses and contained descriptions of the punishments to be imposed on accused individuals.

The existing three-story Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia

was expanded for the solitary confinement of "hardened and atrocious convicted individuals." The opening of Eastern State Penitentiary in 1829 marked the full development of the penitentiary system based on separate confinement. Cell blocks extended from a central hub like the spokes of a wheel. Incarcerated individuals ate, slept, worked, and received religious instruction in individual cells, and incarcerated individuals did not see or interact with their peers. The Pennsylvania system was based on isolation, reflection upon prior transgressions, and repentance. It adhered to the following principles: Incarcerated individuals would not be treated vengefully but should be convinced that through hard and selective forms of suffering, they could change their lives. Solitary confinement would prevent further corruption inside prison. In isolation, incarcerated individuals would reflect on their transgressions and repent. Solitary confinement would be punishment because humans are by nature social beings. Solitary confinement would be economical because incarcerated individuals would not need long periods of time to repent, and therefore, fewer keepers would be needed and the costs of clothing would be lower.

The main emphasis of criminal law

was on maintaining public order among people of equal status and wealth; the main criminal punishments were penance and the payment of fines or restitution, while lower-class accused individuals received physical punishment at the hands of their masters. The church, the dominant social institution of the time, maintained ecclesiastical punishments; benefit of clergy was eventually granted to all literate persons.

Public execution

was popular because it was believed to deter crime.

The Correction System Today

•Employs more than 700,000 administrators, officers psychologists, counselors, and social workers •Average annual cost of corrections is more than $81 billion •Most criminal justice and correctional activity takes place at state level (e.g., there are 110 federal prisons and roughly 1,000 state prisons)

Introduction

•In 2010, U.S. imprisonment rate exceeded 500 per 100,000. •Almost 3,000 people on death row and 206,000 serving life sentences. 2.3 million people incarcerated in jail or prison - Nearly 3% of all adults under some form of correctional control •Little relationship between prison population and crime rate. •One in six African American males has been to prison. •In 2010, system held fewer people than the year before for the first time in 30 years. •By 2015, the prison incarceration rate had fallen to 480 per 100,000, a 5 percent reduction from the peak just a few years before •More than 6.7 million Americans are now in the correctional system •12% of African American men (ages 20-40) are under some form of correctional control •Nearly one-third of all Americans who have dropped out of high school are now in the correctional system •Corrections cost $80 billion/yr.