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 the rules and norms of society
Emile Durkheim (1858-1917)
Important French scholar, known as the "Father of Sociology", who argued that criminals and their punishment are functional in society, helping define norms and demonstrating to the public the nature of societal expectations for conformity.
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
federalism
a system of government in which power and responsibilities are divided between a national government and state governments
prison
an institution for the incarceration of people convicted of serious crimes, usually felonies.
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.
street-level bureacrats
public-service workers who interact directly with citizens in the course of their work, granting access to government programs and providing services within them.
technology
a method of applying scientific knowledge to practical purposes in a particular field
exchange
a mutual transfer of resources based on decisions regarding the costs and benefits of alternative actions
Describe the range of purposes served by the corrections system.
Corrections is a means of social control. It holds people accused of crimes; carries out criminal sentences imposed by courts, including both confinement and community supervision; and provides services for rehabilitation.
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 cor
Name the various components of the corrections system today and describe their functions.
Corrections consists of many subunits. They 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, who are awaiting tria
Identify at least five key issues facing corrections today.
Corrections faces several issues: dealing with conflicting goals, obtaining adequate funding, making the bureaucracy of correctional services more effective, coordinating correctional activity across different agencies, and dealing with correctional uncer
Discuss what we can learn from the "great experiment of social control
The growth in the corrections system has resulted mostly from deliberate policies that increase the severity of sentences. Changes in crime rates have had little effect on this growth.
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")
secular law
the law of the civil society, as distinguished from church law
wergild
man money" - money paid to relatives of a murdered person or to the victim of a crime to compensate them and to prevent a blood feud.
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
gallery slavery
forced rowing of large ships or gallerys
house of correction
detention facility that combined the major elements of a workhouse, poorhouse, and penal industry by both disciplining inmates and setting them to work.
transportation
the practice of transplanting offenders from the community to another region or land, often a penal colony
hulks
abandoned ships that the English converted to hold convicts during a period of prison crowding between 1776 and 1790
corporal punishment
punishment inflicted on the offender's body with whips or other devices that cause pain.
The Enlightenment / The Age of Reason
the 1700s in England and France, when concepts of liberalism, rationality, equality, and individualism dominated social and political thinking.
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
Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794)
Italian scholar who applied the rationalist philosophy of the Enlightenment to the criminal justice system
utilitarianism
the doctrine that the aim of all actions should be the greatest possible balance of pleasure over pain, hence the belief that a punishment inflicted on an offender must achieve enough good to outweigh the pain inflicted.
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
English advocates of utilitarianism in prison management and discipline. Argued for the treatment and reform of prisoners
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
Understand the major forms of punishment from the Middle Ages to the American Revolution
Corrections at this time consisted primarily of gallery slavery, imprisonment, transportation, corporal punishment, and death.
Discuss the Age of Reason and how it affected corrections
In the latter part of the eighteenth century, the Enlightenment brought changes in penal policy. Rather than stressing physical punishment of the offender, influential Enlightenment thinkers such as Beccaria, Bentham, and Howard sought methods for reformi
Understand 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 foundati
Explain the contribution of Jeremy Bentham and the utilitarians.
Best known for his utilitarianism theories, often called his "hedonistic 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 n
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 A
William Penn (1644-1718)
English Quaker who arrived in Philadelphia in 1682. Succeeded in getting Pennsylvania to adopt "The Great Law" emphasizing hard labor in a house of correction as punishment for most crimes.
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
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
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
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. Inmates were known only by their number, wore striped clothing, and moved in lockstep. In 1
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.
contract labor system
a system under which inmates' labor was sold on a contractual basis to private employers that provided the machinery and raw materials with which inmates made salable products in the institution.
lease system
a system under which inmates were leased to contractors who provided prisoners with food and clothing in exchange for their labor. In southern states the prisoners were used as field laborers.
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 so until his death. Organizer of the National Prison Association in 1870 and a major contributor to the Cincinnati Declaration
mark system
a system in which offenders are assessed a certain number of marks, based on the severity of their crime, at the time of sentencing. Prisoners could reduce their term and gain release by reducing marks through labor, good behavior, and educational achieve
reformatory
an institution for young offenders that emphasized training, a mark system of classification, indeterminate sentences, and parole.
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 rehabilit
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 courses of individual b
medical model
a model of corrections based on the assumption that criminal behavior is caused by social, psychological, or biological deficiencies that require treatment.
Howard Gill (1890-1989)
a prison reformer in the Progressive tradition, Gill designed Massachusetts Norfolk Prison Colony to be a model prison community. Norfolk provided individual treatment programs and included inmates on an advisory council to deal with community governance.
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
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
crime control model of corrections
a model of corrections based on the assumption that criminal behavior can be controlled y more use of incarceration and other forms of strict supervision
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.
Distinguish 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. Inmates were held in isolation, spending their time at craft work and considering their transgressions. In the New York (Auburn) congregate system,
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 sen
Understand 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.
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 o
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 a
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.
null strategy
the strategy of doing nothing to relieve crowding in prisons, under the assumption that the problem is temporary and will disappear in time
construction strategy
a strategy of building new facilities to meet the demand for prison space
Discuss the explanations for the dramatic increase in the incarceration rate.
Five factors have been put forward to explain the growing incarceration rate. First, there has been a nationwide trend for the police to make more arrests and for the courts to impose incarceration on those convicted of committing crimes. This has led not
Explain what can be done to deal with the prison population crisis.
Several strategies have been identified for dealing with prison crowding. The null strategy is to "do nothing". Another approach is simply to build more prisons. However, many people oppose this strategy because of the financial cost involved. Another str
Be familiar with the impact of prison crowding.
The problem of prison crowding has become more pressing as greater numbers of offenders are sentenced to prison. Correctional officials are responsible for providing humane treatment and living conditions for the offenders in their facilities. The federal
Discuss whether incarceration pays.
Supporters of incarceration believe that incarceration lowers the crime rate. They argue that most prison inmates have committed serious crimes, and many of them are repeat offenders. If we do not incarcerate these offenders, society pays the price. Oppon
retribution
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.
general deterrence
Punishment of criminals that is intended to be an example to the general public and to discourage the commission of offenses by others
specific deterrence (special or individual deterrence)
punishment inflicted on criminals to discourage them from committing future crimes
incapacitation
depriving an offender of the ability to commit crimes against society, usually by detaining the offender in prison
selective incapacitation
making the best use of expensive and limited prison space by targeting for incarceration those offenders whose incapacity will do the most to reduce crime in society
rehabilitation
the goal of restoring a convicted offender to a constructive place in society through some form of vocational or educational training or therapy
restorative justice
punishment designed to repair the damage done to the victim and community by an offender's criminal act
indeterminate sentence
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.
determinate sentence
a fixed period of incarceration imposed by a court; it is associated with the concept of retribution or deserved punishment
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 sentence
a sentence stipulating that some minimum period of incarceration must be served by people convicted of selected crimes, regardless of background or circumstances
good time
a reduction of an inmate's prison sentence, at the discretion of the prison administrator, for good behavior or for participating in vocational, educational, and treatment programs.
intermediate sanctions
a variety of punishments that are more restrictive than traditional probation but less severe and costly than incarceration
probation
a sentence allowing the offender to serve the sanctions imposed by the court while he or she lives in the community under supervision
shock probation
a sentence by which the offender is release after a short incarceration and re-sentenced to probation
presentence report
report prepared by a probation officer, who investigates a convicted offender's background to help the judge select an appropriate sentence.
sentencing guidelines
an instrument developed for judges that indicates the usual sanctions given previously for particular offenses
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.
Understand the goals of punishment.
In the United States, criminal sanctions have four goals. Retribution (or deserved punishment) entails punishing an offender because he or she deserves to be penalized. Deterrence involves administering punishment to discourage members of the general publ
Be familiar with 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 mand