Page 1/5
CHAPTER 10
Incarceration
I. Links to the Past
A. Most correctional facilities are still in rural areas in line with Quaker beliefs that
offenders could be redeemed only if removed from city distractions.
B. The 1940s and 1950s image of the ‘big house’ is still imprinted on most
Americans’ minds: a walled prison with large, tiered cell blocks, a yard, shops, and
industries.
1. The South did not conform to this model.
2. Racial segregation was maintained.
3. Prisoners were used as farm labor.
C. The rehabilitative model of the 1960s and 1970s.
1. Treatment programs administered.
D. During the past 30 years the prison population has changed.
1. There has been a major increase in the number of African American and Hispanic
American inmates.
2. More inmates come from urban areas.
3. More inmates have been convicted of drug-related and violent offenses.
4. Former street gangs regroup inside prisons and have raised levels of violence in many
institutions.
5. The rise of public employee unions have improved working conditions, safety
procedures, and training.
E. Current focus of corrections has shifted to crime control, which emphasizes the
importance of incarceration.
II. The Goals of Incarceration
A. Three models of incarceration have been prominent since the early 1940s.
1. The custodial model – based on the assumption that prisoners have been incarcerated
for the protection of society and emphasizes security, discipline, and order subordinating
the prisoner to the authority of the warden. This model was prevalent in corrections before
World War II and dominates most maximum-security institutions today.
2. The rehabilitation model – developed in the 1950s, it emphasizes treatment programs
to reform the offender.
3. The reintegration model – linked to the structures and goals of community
corrections, it emphasizes maintaining offender ties to family and community.
B. Correctional institutions that conform to each of these models can be found, but most
prisons are mainly custodial.
Next Page
Find
Go to Page
Thumbnail Index
Image View
Download a Copy
Close