How many people are incarcerated?
In 2010, U.S. imprisonment rate has exceeded 500 per 100,000.
Over 3,100 people on death row and 159,000 serving life sentences. No one in Wyoming on death row, although Dale Wayne Eaton was until recently.
Nearly 3% of all adults under some form of correctional control.
Is there a relationship between prison population and crime rate?
Little relationship between prison population and crime rate. Compare U.S. with England and Australia.
-1 in 6 African American males have been to prison.
More Stats on Incarceration.
6.9 million Americans are now in the correctional system
Of today's men in their 30s, 1 in 28 have been sent to prison
11% of male children and 2% of female children born this year will go to prison
What is the purpose of Corrections?
-Protect society by punishing people who break society's rules as method of social control.
-Help define the limits of behavior.
-Durkheim - deviance is natural, even good on some level, and deviance exists even in a society of monks. For instance, some monks would be too loud, too messy, etc.
-The three basic concepts of offense, guilt, and punishment define the purposes/procedures of criminal justice system.
-Central purpose is to carry out the criminal sentence.
Percentage of people in each category of correctional supervision.
21.3% prison
10.4 % jails
12.1% parole
56.2% Probation
5 parts of system of corrections
goals, interconnectedness, environment, feedback, complexity
Goals
Fair punishment & community protection
interconnectedness
A series of processes that have an effect on the rest of the system
environment
#NAME?
FEEDBACK
Systems learn & grow according to outside feedback
COMPLEXITY
As the system grows & matures, it becomes more complex
The Corrections System Today
-Employs more than 700,000 administrators, psychologists, counselors, and social workers
-Average annual cost of corrections is more than $60 billion
-Most criminal justice and correctional activity takes place at state level (e.g., there are 102 federal prisons and 1,719 state prisons)
Correction system today PT 2
-Federalism- A system of government in which power and responsibilities are divided between a national government and state governments.
-All levels of government (state, county, municipal, etc.) are involved in one or more aspects of the correctional system.
-Big Four
-Texas - 170,000 in prison; California - 149,000; Florida - 103,055; New York - 103, 055.
-Wyoming has 2500, and it is a much better place to do time, at least from what inmates have told me.
At what level is most paid for Corrections?
#NAME?
Goals of Corrections
Goals:
-Punishment
-Protection
-When these two functions do not correspond, corrections faces goal conflict.
-Correctional activities make sense when prisoners are punished fairly.
-Conflicts or vagueness between the goals of punishment and protection can cause problems.
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. In tight budgetary times, security always wins out over programming.
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.
5. Dealing with correctional uncertainty - It is impossible to predict how individual choice will impact the system.
Goals as vague generalities:
Protect the public"
"Rehabilitate offenders"
(Rehabilitation/Punishment)
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.
Bureaucracy:
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Interagency Coordination:
#NAME?
Professional Versus Nonprofessional Staff
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Uncertain Technology
Technology:
-A method of applying scientific knowledge to practical purposes in a particular field.
-Validity of approaches for treating offenders remain in doubt:
-Group therapy
-Behavior modification
-Anger management
Exchange:
-Exchange occurs when two parties trade promises or concessions that make each other's work easier or more predictable
-Process leads to an informal enforcement and resolution of problems
-Correctional transactions involve some aspect of worker-offender contact and interaction
Uncertainty About Correctional Strategies
-Greater emphasis on secondary technologies:
-Design of a prison's security apparatus
-Computer-based offender-tracking system for probation
-What happens to offenders?
Great Experiment in Social Control - Increase in prison population
Effects on crime:
No likely effect
Effects on society:
Increase racial inequality, distort electoral politics, and damage families and communities