Intro to Corrections

Corrections

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

Social Control

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

Components of the Correctional System

Prisons, Jails, Probation, Parole, Intermediate Sanctions

Prison

An institution for the incarceration of people convicted of serious crimes, usually felonies. Most facilities are operated by state governments.

Jail

A facility authorized to hold pretrial detainees and sentenced misdemeanants for longer than 48 hours. Most jails are administered by county governments

Private Prisons

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

Probation

A sentence allowing offenders to serve sanctions imposed by the court in the community.

Parole

The conditional release of an inmate from incarceration to community supervision after serving part of a prison sentence.

Intermediate Sanctions

A variety of punishments that are more restrictive than traditional probation but less severe and costly than incarceration

The Great Law"�Quaker Law (1682)

Outlined by Quaker principles, Most punishment hard labor, Only one capital offense: premeditated murder

The Anglican Code (1718)

Increased to 13 capital offenses, Colonies used fines, banishment and death most frequently, Little thought to reforming offenders because criminals thought to be depraved

Penitentiary

an institution intended to isolate prisoners from society and from one another so they could reflect on their past misdeeds, repent and thus undergo reformation

Separate confinement

Each inmate is held in isolation from other inmates, with all activities, including craft work, carried on in the cells

The Auburn System (New York Model, 1816)

Influenced by "success" of separate confinement in Pennsylvania
Instituted discipline and obedience
-Lockstep
Prison stripes

congregate system

Developed by the Auburn System Inmates are held in isolation at night, but work with other prisoners during the day under a rule of silence

lease system

Inmates were leased to contractors who provided prisoners with food and clothing in exchange for their labor, particularly field labor.

Mark System

offenders are assessed a certain number of points at the time of sentencing based on their crime. These could be reduced by earning marks through labor, good behavior, and educational achievement.

Reformatory

an institution for young offenders that emphasized training, a mark system, indeterminate sentences and parole.

Positivist school

assumption that human behavior is a product of social, economic, biological, and psychological factors and that the scientific method can be applied to ascertain the causes of individual behavior

Medical Model

Criminality is a sickness that can be cured through, psychological intervention, Considered an "era of treatment", Often wore regular clothing, not prison garb
Prisons began to resemble mental hospitals with treatment emphasis

Community Corrections Model

Assumption that reintegrating the offender into the community should be the goal of the criminal justice system

Crime Control Model

Assumption that criminal behavior can be controlled by the more use of incarceration and other forms of strict supervision

Evidence Based Corrections

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

Justice Reinvestment

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

Classical Criminology

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

Hedonistic

maximize pleasure & minimize pain

Utilitarianism

greatest good for the greatest number of people"
Emphasized prevention and deterrence�not vengeance

Hedonic Calculas

Action is a calculation of maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain
Crime is not sinful, but a miscalculation

Retribution

Deserve to be punished

General Deterrence

discourage other ppl from committing crime

Specific Deterrence

deterred from committing future crimes

Incapacitation

Removing ppl from the exposure of committing a crime

Rehabilitation

Restoring an offender so he can go back to society thru vocational, educational training

Restoration

corrects the harms of the victims/community repair the damage done

Reintegrative Shaming

you shame people thru the process of punishing them

Indeterminate Sentences

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

Determinate Sentences

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

Presumptive Punishment

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

Mandatory Sentence

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

Intermediate Sanctions

A variety of punishments that are more restrictive than traditional probation but less severe and costly than incarceration

Sentencing Commissions

Boards commissioned for the purpose of developing sentencing guidelines

Sentencing Guidelines

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

Presentence Report

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

Sentencing Disparity

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

Pretrial Diversion

An alternative to adjudication in which the defendant agrees o conditions set by the prosecutor in exchange for a withdrawal of charges

Absconders

fail to appear to court

Preventive Detention

Detention of an accused person in jail, to protect the community from crimes the accused is considered likely to commit if set free pending trial

Judicial Reprieve

a judge could suspend the imposition or execution of sentence on condition of good behavior on the part of the offender.

Widening the net

Increasing the scope of corrections by applying a program to people charged with offenses less serious than those of the people the program was originally intended to serve

Restitution

Compensation for financial, physical or emotional loss caused by and offender, in the form of wither payment of money to the victim or to a public fund for crime victims as stipulated by the court