Chapter 18
A Research Focus on Corrections
From Antiquity to the Eighteenth
Century
Historically, people were not generally punished
by confinement to prisons
Some systems mandated revenge as
punishment
Overtime, forms of punishment increased in their
cruelty
This state-sanctioned brutality did not reduce the
crime rate
Incarceration gradually evolved as the primary
form of punishment
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Punishment in the New World
The first settlers of New England brought with
them the English means of punishment
The American correctional movement began in
Pennsylvania, with the “Great Law” in 1682,
which provided for the establishment of houses
of correction and restricted corporal and capital
punishment
After the colonies gained their independence,
the cause of penal reform was taken up
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Two prison models emerged: The Auburn
System and the Pennsylvania System
Most states adopted the Auburn system
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American Prisons
Auburn
Congregate System
Hard Labor in Groups
Silence
Small Cells
Corporal Punishment
Pennsylvania
Separate System
Labored in Cells
Silence
Larger Cells
Started by the
Quakers
Religious Instruction
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Medical Treatment Model

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The medical treatment model, characterized by
individual and group therapy in American prisons,
flourished between World War I and World War II
Characterized by individual and group therapy.
Unfortunately, while offenders underwent treatment,
the conditions of confinement changed very little, if at
all.
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History of Corrections
Reformatory Movement


Reformers embraced the ideas of treatment, moral
regeneration, and reformation
Many reformatories were built, particularly for younger
offenders, but fell out of favor when it was determined
that they did not reform
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Prisoner’s Rights Model


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During the rapid social change of the 1960s,
prisoners like other mistreated groups, demanded
their rights
In September of 1971, a riot broke out at Attica State
Prison in New York
After closer examination, it was revealed that the
prisoners revolted because many of the fundamental
rights guaranteed to them under the Constitution had
been denied or violated
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Corrections Today
The nature of corrections was changed by two
factors:
1.
2.
The prisoners’ rights movement
The rebirth of the retributive philosophy of punishment,
in the form of the just-deserts model.
3.
This led to corrections becoming more punitive and
custodial, harsher conditions of imprisonment, and the
abandonment of rehabilitation programs
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Types of Incarceration
There are two categories of prison facilities:
1.
2.
Detention facilities: tend to house persons
arrested and undergoing processing, awaiting trial,
or awaiting transfer to a correctional facility after
conviction
Correctional facilities: include county jails, where
incarcerated people serve a year or less, and state
and federal prisons, where the inmates serve
sentences longer than one year
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Jails
Jails are designed to hold people accused of
committing crimes and awaiting trial. They are
also designed to hold people who have been
convicted and received a sentence of less than
one year.
There are 3,304 jails in the U.S.
They hold anywhere from one to 17,000
prisoners.
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Prisons
Maximum security prisons are designed to hold
the most dangerous and aggressive inmates.
Medium security prisons house inmates who
are considered less dangerous than those in
maximum security facilities.
Minimum security prisons hold inmates who
are considered the lowest security risk.
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Supermax Prison
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Prison Population
1,410,404 inmates residing in state and federal prisons.
The highest number in our history.
713,990 persons in local jails.
1,391,781 male prisoners; 104,848 female prisoners.
Black prisoners: 589,400; White prisoners: 491,800.
(2004)
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Most prisoners are male
Relative to the number of U.S. residents, blacks
were five and a half times more likely than whites,
and two and a half times more likely than Hispanics,
and nice times more likely than persons of other
races to have been held in a local jail on June 30,
2000.
If the number of individuals supervised in community
corrections is included in the count, the number of
people under correctional supervision is near six
million.
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U.S. Prison Incarceration
Rates, 1920-1998
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World Incarceration Rates per
100,000
US: 714
Russia: 532
Belarus: 532
Kazakhstan: 386
Bahamas: 410
Belize: 420
South Africa: 41300
United Kingdom: 142
Canada: 116
Australia: 117
France: 91
Italy: 98
Sweden: 75
Japan: 58
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Overcrowding
Some argue that incarceration rates have increased
because punitiveness increased, which prompted
legislatures to implement mandatory sentencing
schemes and increase the severity of sentences.
Others argue that the prison population has
escalated because the most crime-prone population,
eighteen- to twenty-five-year-old males, has
increased rapidly since the 1960s.
This alternative explanation is flawed due to the fact
that the prison population increase is greater than the
increase in the prison-prone population group.
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Prisonization
Donald Clemmer
The process by which the inmate learns, through
socialization, the rules and regulation of the penal
institution, as well as the informal values, rules, and
customs of the penitentiary culture.
“The taking on in greater or less degree of the folkways,
mores, customs, and general culture of the penitentiary.”
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Pains of Imprisonment
Gresham Sykes
Gresham argues that prisoners go through the following
pains of imprisonment.
1. Deprivation of liberty
2. Deprivation of goods and services
3. Deprivation of heterosexual relations
4. Deprivation of autonomy
5. Deprivation of security
To survive, prisoners need to adopt the inmate code.
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Inmate Code
Don’t interfere with inmate interests
Don’t trust the guards
Don’t weaken, be a man
Do your own time
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Elderly Inmates
70,000 inmates over the age of 55
Continuing to increase
Experience family conflict, depression,
suicidal thoughts, and the fear of dying
while in prison
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AIDS
24,881 prisoners with AIDS
In 1996: 907 state and federal inmates
died of AIDS
Since 1981 AIDS has been the second
most common cause of death among
prisoners
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Community Corrections
Probation
Parole
Home Confinement
Shock Programs
Restitution Programs
Day Fines and Community Service
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Probation
The concept of probation was born through the actions
of John Augustus in the late 1700s and early 1800s
Probation is the release of a prison-bound offender
into the community under the supervision of a
trustworthy person and bound by certain conditions,
such as not to violate the law, not to leave the
jurisdiction, and to maintain employment.
The purpose of probation has always been to integrate
offenders, under supervision, into law-abiding society
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Parole
Parole is the supervised release of a prisoner before
expiration of the prison sentence.
Parole success rates have never been great
Parole is also criticized for a variety of other reasons:
a. Parole is supposed to be a reward for
rehabilitation in prison, but prisons do not
promote rehabilitation.
b. The system lacks valid criteria that parole boards
can use to decide whether to release a prisoner.
c. It is subject to political manipulation and lobbying.
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