Chapter 10
Looking Toward the Future
Overcrowded Prisons, Drugs,
Laws, and Race
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7 million Americans under correctional
supervision; 2 million in prison
Rate of imprisonment is going up; crime rates
are going down
No relationship between crime rates and
imprisonment rates
Effects on prison population
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Harsher sentencing, parole and probation
revocations, deinstitutionalization of the
mentally ill, War on Drugs
Opportunity Costs
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Comparison between education and
corrections spending
Link between lack of education and
crime?
Private Prisons, Private Profits
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“Build and manage” contracts
Evaluations are mixed
Problem of “bait and switch”
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Housing violent offenders in unsuspecting
host states
The “Super Max” Prison
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57 super max in 1997
Used inappropriately for mentally ill inmates?
Evaluation showed higher rates of violence
after prisoners were sent to super max
States have legal right to send prisoners to
super max without due process
Abu Ghraib?
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Stanford Prison Experiment, go to
http://www.prisonexp.org/
Is prison, by nature, dehumanizing?
Cross Sex Supervision
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Majority of officers in some states’
women’s prisons are men
Sexual misconduct occurs in both men’s
and women’s prisons
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Exploitive elements in women’s prisons
A New Era of Prison History
(1 of 2)
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71% feel that “many” people in prison
are drug addicts and need treatment
ReEntry
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650,000 people released each year back to
community
Recidivism – 67%
Removing civil disabilities
Factors in success: job, family, housing,
drug free
A New Era of Prison History
(2 of 2)
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Alternatives to Prison
$40/day prison; $2.50/day probation
 Examples of alternatives
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Drug courts
 Repealing mandatory minimum laws
 Electronic monitoring
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