III' Corrections in the U'S'

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III. Corrections in the U.S.

• Given an ample supply of apprehended,
  adjudicated, convicted criminal offenders, the
  final question is What to do with them?
• This means the Corrections component of the CJ
  System, considering
• What corrections in the U.S. involves
• How it is set up
• How it seems to work
• How it got this way
• What seem to be the current trend

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What is the Range of Possible Criminal
Punishments?

Imprisonment (Incarceration)
Suspended Sentence
Intermediate Sanctions
Death
Probation
Fines

• Other possibilities?
• -- Banishment
• - Corporal punishment

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Dominant focus is on the use of imprisonment to
punish criminals

• Historically how has that evolved and changed?
• What is happening currently in the use of
  correctional institutions e.g., what types of
  prisons are there and who is in them?
• What seem to be the prospects for future trends?

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Incarceration/Imprisonment

• Use of imprisonment for punishment seems an old
  procedure (e.g., dungeons slave galleys)
• But extensive use of imprisonment for criminals
  is a more recent practice
• Through Middle Ages, reliance instead on
• Corporal punishment execution
• Fines and forfeiture
• Exile/banishment/transportation
• Slavery
• Public humiliation/shaming
• Inspiring fear and dread through brutality

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Incarceration/Imprisonment (cont.)

• In Middle Ages, prisons mainly used to
• Hold persons awaiting trial, punishment, or
  appeal
• Motivate persons to pay debts or agree to terms
• Incapacitate persons who couldnt be executed
• Incapacitate mentally ill persons
• Achieve religious indoctrination
• Punish slaves (rather than common criminals)
• Also, use Prison for problem populations
• Workhouses Poorhouses in 16th-18th centuries
• Contain motivate the poor unemployed

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Incarceration/Imprisonment (cont.)

• Basic goals of punishment in Middle Ages
• Retribution and atonement
• Deterrence
• Incapacitation
• The goal of Reformation/Rehabilitation didnt
  emerge until the Enlightenment in the 18th
  century
• Influence of development in science philosophy
• Emphasis on reason rationality
• Emphasis on human progress improvement

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Major names in the enlightened use of
Imprisonment to correct

• Beccaria elaborated theory of justice as
  rational and human use of punishment
• Emphasize deterrence rather than retribution
• Emphasize loss of freedom over physical brutality
• John Howard Prison reformer
• Emphasize humane conditions of imprisonment
• Emphasize that punishment should improve people
• Jeremy Bentham Utilitarian philosopher/author
• Apply Utilitarian principles to punishment of
  crime
• Apply rational logic to the design of prisons

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Major eras in use of Imprisonment

• Penitentiary Movement (early 19th century)
• Religion-based reform (Quakers)
• Aim at moral reformation of offenders through
• Determinate sentences
• Isolation and silence
• Labor and reflection
• Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia (1790)
• New York and Pennsylvania Systems (1829-30)
• Auburn prison (NY) Congregate system
• Cherry Hill/Western (Penn) Segregate system
• Reformatory Movement (late 19th century)

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Incarceration/Imprisonment (cont.)

• Reformatory Movement (late 19th century)
• Penology-based reform (science-religion mixture)
• Aim at scientific reformation of offenders
  through
• Indeterminate sentences parole
• Classification security levels
• Work, education, and military discipline
• Zebulon Brockway and the Elmira Reformatory (NY)
  as the acme of reformatory philosophy
• Rise of the Big House (early 20th century)
• The prison as a modern institution

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The Big House Prison
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Incarceration/Imprisonment (cont.)

• 20th century prison eras
• Industrial prisons (1900-1930s) (new big house)
• Reformation through productive mass labor
• Prisons as productive/profitable
• Also prison farms chain gangs as related
  variations
• Rehabilitation-oriented prisons (1940-1970s)
• Indeterminate sentences parole
• Classification security levels
• Labor and military discipline
• Post-modern Security-oriented prisons (1980- )
• Post-Martinson (Martinson Report) developments
• Technological advances

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Incarceration/Imprisonment (cont.)

• Post-modern Security-oriented prisons (after
  1980)
• New designs for prisons jails
• 1st generation linear/intermittent supervision
  (the old Big House model adapted)
• Radial design
• Telephone Pole design
• 2nd generation modular/indirect supervision
• 3rd generation modular/direct supervision

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First Generation Prison/Jail Design
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Third Generation Prison/Jail Design
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Incarceration/Imprisonment (cont.)

• Post-modern Security-oriented prisons (after
  1980)
• New designs for prisons jails
• New technologies
• New organization and philosophy (Corporate
  models)
• Professionalization
• Privatization
• More conservative, punitive political context
• Much less emphasis on rehabilitation
• More more emphasis on security and deterrence

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Why the big changes after 1980?

• Dramatic increase in prisoner population
• More determinate, mandatory, and punitive
  sentencing
• The War on Drugs
• Increased incarceration of women
• Boom in construction of new prisons
• Need for greatly expanded capacity
• Need to replace old, outmoded, overcrowded
  facilities
• Increased competition for prison locations
• Emergence of new technologies
• Construction and architecture (faster
  construction)
• Technology and security (better facilities
  services)
• Privatization of corrections

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Emphasize importance of cycles in correctional
practices

• The seductive illusion of the new
• Strong attraction to what looks new and
  innovative
• Ignorance of history means that old ideas look
  new (if they are old enough to be forgotten)
• Very few genuinely new ideas
• Rediscovery Reinvention of old ideas
• We are continually rediscovering the wheel
  repackaged to look like a new program
• CJ/Corrections is ongoing recycling operation
• E.g., boot camp programs, privatization, getting
  tough on juveniles, mandatory sentences

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How much is prison used to punish criminal
offenders?

• In 2005, over 2.3 million persons were in prison
  or jail in the U.S. on a given day (slightly
  under 1.5 million in prison)
• Is that a lot?
• Compared to what?
• Higher or lower than it used to be?
• More or less than occurs in other countries?
• (for some answers, consider the next two slides)

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• Rate of imprisonment was constant over most of
  20th century (until last two decades)

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25 Selected Nations
(jail prison inmates)
U.S. ?
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Notable features of prison use in U.S.

• Incarceration rate is 5 times higher than it used
  to be (pre-1980) higher than other countries
• Persons are in prison for same amount of time
• No change in average sentence since 1920
• Some longer sentences but more people
  incarcerated for lesser crimes
• Imprisonment is used unevenly
• Large regional differences (highest in Southern
  states lowest in Northern states)
• Large racial disparities relative to population
• (40 of prisoners Black 35 white 20
  Latino)
• Large gender disparities
• (93 of prisoners male 7 of prisoners
  female)

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How to explain the large disparities?

• Racial and gender discrimination part of the
  explanation
• But also reflects differences in types (
  seriousness) of crimes committed and in criminal
  records
• In sum Research shows that the best predictors
  of sentencing (imprisonment) offense
  characteristics and prior record of offender
• However, race and gender by themselves still
  explain part of the differences (which reflect
  extra-legal influences on sentencing and
  punishment)

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Forms of incarceration in the U.S. (clarifying
the distinctions)

• Lock-ups
• Jails
• Prisons
• Alternative Institutions
• Farms and camps
• Halfway houses (community residential facilities)
• Medical/mental health facilities

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Lock-up vs. Jail

• Lock-up
• Local (in police custody)
• Hold arrestees until transfer to jail (detention
  only)
• Very short-term (24-48 hrs. maximum)
• Jail
• County-level mostly
• Hold both pre-trial convicted persons
  (detention correction functions)
• Also may hold assorted others
• Separately assigned jail staff

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Jail vs. Prison

• Jail
• County-level (mostly) by sheriff
• Both convicted unconvicted persons
• Incarceration for misdemeanor crimes (less than 1
  year confinement) (exceptions?)
• Few rehabilitative services low priority
• Prison
• State or federal level by separate corrections
  department or system
• Contain only convicted persons (?)
• Incarceration for felony sentences

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Public vs. Private Corrections

• Corrections can only occur legally under
  governmental authorization
• In last 25 years, private companies have entered
  corrections field
• 7 of all prisoners are now in private
  facilities (6 of state 14 of federal
  prisoners)
• How does privatization of prison work?
• Construction leasing of facility
• Management of facility
• Contracting for services
• Entire Institution

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Public vs. Private Corrections

• What are the arguments about privatization of
  corrections?
• Cost and efficiency
• Effectiveness and quality
• Administrative flexibility and change
• Accountability and Legal issues
• Who are the players in privatized corrections?
• 14 companies in U.S. largest Correctional
  Corp. of America (CCA) also GEO Group
  (Wackenhut Corrections), Cornell Corrections.
• May provide prison, jail, medical, or other
  facilities
• Also very involved in juvenile corrections

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State vs. Federal Corrections

• At state level, have 50 different correction
  systems, with great variation across states
• All felony imprisonments are state responsibility
• Difficult to describe the average, because states
  vary so much ? 31 security levels of prisons
  maximum-medium-minimum supermax
• greater use of imprisonment in southern states
• Greater use of privatized corrections in South
• At federal level, have one correction system
• Used only for federal felony imprisonments
• 5 security levels(?) (AdMax High Medium Low
  minimum) (4 FCIs 1 FPC)
• Also Federal Jails (MDCs) and Medical Centers
  (MCFPs)

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Mens vs. Womens Prisons

• See the description in the book for male prisons
• Note female prison population is growing faster
  than male, still only about 7 of all prison
  inmates.
• Prison facilities are visibly different
• Female offenders are very different kinds of
  persons
• Most sentences for property or drug crimes
• Inmate organization is very different
• Female prisons generally have fewer programs

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Security Levels in Prisons

• See the description in the book of levels
• Distribution of inmates in state prisons (2004)
• Minimum Security 34.4
• Medium Security 37.1
• Maximum/high-close 21.5
• Super-Maximum 0.5
• Unclassified 6.5

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The current trends in prison policy?

• Will the next several decades in institutional
  corrections look like more of the same (as in
  the past several decades)?
• Will prisoner populations continue to grow?
• Will there be more privatization of corrections?
• Will we continue to use mandatory sentences and
  releases?

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Recent Trends
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Jail Architecture
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The Big House Prison