Introduction to Corrections - Chapter 1

Community corrections

A model of corrections based on the assumption that reintegrating the offender into the community should be the goal of the criminal justice system. (p. 22)

Congregate system

A penitentiary system developed in Auburn, New York, in which inmates were held in isolation at night but worked with other prisoners during the day under a rule of silence. (p.17)

Corrections

The variety of programs, services, facilities, and organizations responsible for the management of individuals who have been accused or convicted of criminal offenses. (p. 8)

Crime control model

A model of corrections based on the assumption that criminal behavior can be controlled by increased use of incarceration and other forms of strict supervision. (p. 23)

Evidence-based corrections

A movement to ensure that correctional programs and policies are based on research evidence about "what works." (p. 24)

Federalism

A system of government in which power and responsibilities are divided between a national government and state governments. (p. 14)

Intermediate sanctions

A variety of punishments that is more restrictive than traditional probation but less severe and costly than incarceration. (p. 14)

Jail

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. (p. 14)

Justice reinvestment

A movement in which money saved by reducing prison populations is used to build up crime-prevention programs in the community. (p. 24)

Lease system

A system under which inmates were leased to contractors who provided prisoners with food and clothing in exchange for their labor. (p. 19)

Mark system

A system in which offenders are assessed a certain number of points at the time of sentencing, based on the severity of their crime. Prisoners could reduce their term and gain release by earning marks through labor, good behavior, and educational achievem

Medical model

A model of corrections based on the assumption that criminal behavior is caused by social, psychological, or biological deficiencies that require treatment. (p. 21)

Parole

A system of supervision of those who have been released from confinement, sometimes including the option of early release from confinement before the expiration of the sentence. (p. 15)

Penitentiary

An institution intended to isolate prisoners from society and from one another so that they could reflect on their past misdeeds, repent, and thus undergo reformation. (p. 16)

Positivist school

An approach to criminology and other social sciences based on the assumption 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 beh

Prison

An institution for the incarceration of people convicted of serious crimes, usually felonies. (p. 14)

Private prison

The operation of a prison by a private company under the contract with a local, state, or the federal government, often as a for profit business. (p. 15)

Probation

An agency that supervises the community adjustment of people who are convicted of crimes but are not sentenced to confinement in prison or jail. (p. 14)

Reformatory

An institution for young offenders that emphasized training, a mark system of classification, indeterminate sentences, and parole. (p. 20)

Separate confinement

A penitentiary system developed in Pennsylvania in which each inmate was held in isolation from other inmates, with all activities, including craft work, carried on in the cells. (p. 16)

Social control

Actions and practices, of individuals and institutions, designed to induce conformity with the norms and rules of society. (p. 8)

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. (p. 9)