CJ 220
Chapter 4
Corrections and Community Justice
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Introduction
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Compared to law enforcement and the
courts, the correctional function has been
a latecomer to community justice
Correctional operations are generally
grouped into two types:
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Institutional corrections
Field services corrections
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Introduction
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Institutional corrections encompass jails,
prisons, and federal penitentiaries
Field services corrections usually encompass
probation and parole
The most commonly used forms of corrections
occur in the community (probation, parole, and
community corrections) and these aspects of
correctional activity would seem to be naturally
related to the ideals of community justice
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Themes in Traditional Correctional
Services
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Offender management
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In traditional corrections, the technical core is
developed to manage offenders through the process
of criminal sanctions
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Correctional workers are held accountable for the way they
deal with individual offenders
The offender-management theme determines the
level of focus of correctional attention to be brought
on the individual offender, not the community, the
victim, or the system
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Themes in Traditional Correctional
Services
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Under correctional authority, offenders are
processed through stages of correctional
work – pretrial, post-conviction, and
community re-entry
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The meaning of corrections is operationalized
by the way each of its clients is dealt with by
correctional staff
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Themes in Traditional Correctional
Services
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Risk
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The central concern correctional officials
emphasize in managing offenders is their risk
High risk offenders are treated one-way –
managed with care and with an emphasis on
control
Low risk offenders are dealt with in another –
given less restriction and controls
Average risk cases fall in the middle
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Themes in Traditional Correctional
Services
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Risk level may change if the offender
demonstrates through behavior that risk is
less than what close control requires
Risk permeates correctional thinking
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It is seen as unwise to underestimate risk, and
correctional officers are encouraged to treat any
indicator as important
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Themes in Traditional Correctional
Services
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Treatment
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Almost all offenders have significant personal
problems that, left unchanged, bode poorly
for subsequent adjustment to community life
after correctional authority ends
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Drug abuse, poor impulse control, lack of job skills,
educational deficits, and so on
Unfortunately, the success of correctional
treatment programming is notoriously poor
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Themes in Traditional Correctional
Services
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Even the best treatment programs work only for
some of the clients, and all treatment programs have
some failure
There is no “silver bullet” in correctional rehabilitation
Treatment programming poses an inherent dilemma
for corrections: the treatments are all going to have
failures, and if they are applied correctly (to high-risk
cases) to start with, they will have a larger number of
failures overall
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Surveillance and Control
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Traditional correctional programs have a basic
concern for the safety of the community
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This implies the need for a minimum level of
surveillance and control and suggests that a program
failures mount and as risk levels of clients get higher,
the need for surveillance and control increases
Institutional corrections offices do counts and
community corrections workers employ home visits
and drug testing
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Surveillance and Control
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New technologies have improved
surveillance capacities
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It is not possible to watch every offender all
of the time, but it is possible to give greater
emphasis to watching particular offenders
more closely, especially those of high risk or
those who have complicated or significant
treatment needs
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Surveillance and Control
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Punishment
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If there is anything citizens expect from corrections, it
is that offenders will be sanctioned for their
misconduct
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First, it assumed that the correctional worker will ensure that
the punishment imposed by the judge will be carried out
Second, when the offenders fail to conform to the rules of
the correctional programming, there will be unpleasant
consequences that will cause the recalcitrant to rethink his
errant ways
Some observers consider punishment as the most
important function of corrections
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Themes in Correctional Community
Justice
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The most significant difference between the
traditional view of corrections and community
justice is that community justice seems to align
itself with and build capacity of informal social
controls at the community level
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The formal social controls are seen as of secondary
importance in building a safer society than the
informal social control of families, personal
associations, social organizations, and the private
sector
PARADE Magazine | Why We Must Fix Our Prisons
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Themes in Correctional Community
Justice
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Neighborhoods and Communities
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Under a community justice model, corrections
maintains a focus on neighborhoods and local
communities
The importance of neighborhood and
community is straightforward for correctional
functions that operate when the offender is
residing in the community, such as probation
and parole
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Themes in Correctional Community
Justice
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But the neighborhood connection also applies
to the institutional correctional function
Criminologists agree that informal social
controls for the basis for public safety in
community life: the capacity of a community
to achieve a degree of public safety through
collective efficacy
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Without strong, broad networks, there is little
collective efficacy
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Themes in Correctional Community
Justice
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Every time an offender is removed from the
community for incarceration, those networks are
affected
High rates of incarceration can become significant
forces in the capacity of social networks in these
communities to perform their public safety functions
These issues concern not only how an offender is
behaving, but also how that offender’s situation – in
or out of prison – affects the people who are not
under correctional authority
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Themes in Correctional Community
Justice
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Partnerships
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Those organizations responsible for a special
set of objectives, such as public safety,
partner with other organizations to carry out
their function
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The reasons for partnerships are fairly simple: the
problems of community life are so complex and so
interconnected that working on one set of issues in
isolation from others is not likely to produce much
change
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Themes in Correctional Community
Justice
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The most common correctional partnerships are
formed with other criminal justice organizations,
particularly the police
Non-criminal justice agencies also stand as good
partners
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Overall, partnerships with nonjustice agencies are designed
to encourage “seamless” service systems in which
comprehensive strategies are concentrated in communities
whose residents suffer from significant deficits
Community justice strategies also seek private-sector
partners
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Themes in Correctional Community
Justice
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Victims and communities
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Unlike traditional justice services, community justice initiatives
concern themselves with clients other than the offender under
direct correctional supervision because the community justice
agenda accepts responsibilities that go beyond the management
of the offender
Community justice embraces the interests of victims and
communities directly
The problems victims encounter as a result of the crime and the
difficulties encountered by communities resulting from the
removal and return of resident offenders are made a part of the
community justice agenda
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Themes in Correctional Community
Justice
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Problem solving
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Community justice is a problem solving
philosophy
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The orientation contrasts with traditional criminal
justice, which is adversarial
One of the reason partnerships are so
important to community justice is that
problem solving is so important
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Themes in Correctional Community
Justice
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Restoration
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To some extent, every solution to the problem
of crime involves some level of restoration
because crime is destructive to society
This dual level of loss – tangible and social –
suggests that restoration has two aims
One aim is to repair the losses suffered by the
victims of crime and is accomplished by restitution
 The social damage of crime can be ameliorated
only through social reparation
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© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Integrating Traditional Correctional
Thought into the Community
Justice Framework
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The traditional concerns of corrections do
not disappear under community justice,
they are incorporated into the community
justice priorities
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The most important of these priorities is the
neighborhood and community focus of
community justice
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Integrating Traditional Correctional
Thought into the Community
Justice Framework
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Offender management becomes community focused
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The question is how best to reintegrate offenders back into the
community
This tend to fall on probation and parole, but it also has
implications for institutional corrections
In working with those in the offender’s social network,
community justice workers must bear in mind the risk
the offender represents to people in that network and to
others in the community
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A challenge is to balance the risk with the need to establish
supports and interdependencies that are vulnerable to that risk
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Integrating Traditional Correctional
Thought into the Community Justice
Framework

The two most significant ways that community
justice workers ensure progress toward
reintegration is through the combined strategies
of treatment programs and problem solving
efforts
 Treatment programs control and reduce risk
 Problem solving strategies identify ways that
risk may be overcome through new offender
and community approaches
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Integrating Traditional Correctional
Thought into the Community Justice
Framework


Both punishment and surveillance and control
are aspects of community justice, but they are
used as tools to achieve reintegration rather
than as ends in themselves
In a community orientation, the traditional
concerns of corrections remain but they are
subverted to the concerns of community justice
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Integrating Traditional Correctional
Thought into the Community
Justice Framework

The question posed to assess the value of
particular actions is not directed mainly at
the offender but instead is focused on the
question of the community quality of life
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Will this strategy help strengthen the
community and the offender’s circumstances
within it?
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
How Community Justice Changes the
Traditional Correctional Functions
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There are two main locations for
corrections: the community and the
institution
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For each of these locations, traditional
corrections has two types of functions
Regarding the community there are probation and
parole
 Regarding institutions there are jails and prisons
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© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
How Community Justice Changes the
Traditional Correctional Functions

Community justice and probation
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Probation (along with parole) involves community
supervision, meaning that its operations occur in the
community, and its clients reside in the community
Traditional probation has not realized a community
justice orientation
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They tend to use “Fortress Probation” in which offices are
located near the courthouse and clients are expected to
come there. Also, few home or community visits
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
How Community Justice Changes the
Traditional Correctional Functions
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Critics of Fortress Probation argue that the reactive style
of this method does not prevent problems, it just
manages them
Under a community justice model, probation moves out
of the office into branch offices in the neighborhoods
where the majority of the clients live
Being in the field allows probation officers to monitor not
only the offenders’ behavior, but also the informal social
control mechanisms which have the biggest influence on
their success
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
How Community Justice Changes the
Traditional Correctional Functions
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Informal social controls are the prosocial
relationships that strengthen an offender’s
connection to a conventional lifestyle
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Family members
Employers
Associates
Community organizations
A neighborhood-based probation system
concerns itself not only with the offender but
also others in the neighborhood who might play
a role in the offender’s adjustment
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
How Community Justice Changes the
Traditional Correctional Functions
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Community justice probation seeks ways to establish
support systems in the community for probationers
For most probationers, the key target for community
justice probation is the family
Community justice probation is also concerned about
victims of crime, as they are also residents of the
community
The community is also a victim of crime and offenders
can be expected to make some form of restitution to the
community, not just to the specific victim
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Usually in the form of community service
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
How Community Justice Changes the
Traditional Correctional Functions

By locating in the neighborhood,
community justice tailors its efforts to the
particular neighborhood
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
How Community Justice Changes the
Traditional Correctional Functions
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When probation is used properly it can be very effective
in providing sanctioning and rehabilitation to the
offender
One argument is that the criminal’s perceptions about
deterrence matter for rehabilitation and retribution
Although probation does not provide the same level of
sanctioning as imprisonment, it does still allow for some
incapacitation due to the supervision of a probation
officer
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
How Community Justice Changes the
Traditional Correctional Functions
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Applegate et al. believe that it is important
whether probationers perceive probation
as a punitive experience
Their research with misdemeanant
probationers found that a large number
perceived the probation as a punitive
experience and say that it will keep them
from offending again
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
How Community Justice Changes the
Traditional Correctional Functions

Community justice and the jail
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Jails are important to the community
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They serve as temporary holding facilities prior to trials and
incarcerate misdemeanants
Three principles would seem to be important in the
application of community justice to the jail
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Informal social control
Transition planning
Restoration/restitution
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
How Community Justice Changes the
Traditional Correctional Functions

Jails stays, no matter how brief, disrupt the
offender’s life and can affect their informal social
controls
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A community justice orientation to a jail will try to
minimize these losses
The important objective is to create the supports
the inmate will need when released from
custody
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Treatment for drug and alcohol abuse as well as
anger management can be set up to continue after
the release of the offender
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
How Community Justice Changes the
Traditional Correctional Functions
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Transition planning is very important
Jails can also play an important role in
restoration and restitution
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Allowing inmates to work for income that
partly goes toward a victims’ fund
Trustee programs that allow the offender to
perform restorative services in the community
Inmate programs that benefit the community
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
How Community Justice Changes the
Traditional Correctional Functions

Community justice and the prison
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The typical prisoner is away from the community
between two and three years
Prisons can make the process of readjusting to the
community easier
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An emphasis can be placed on facilitating the maintenance of
family ties through visitation programs
As the offender nears release, planning for transition
can help create linkages to the community by
involving family members, employers, and residents’
groups in the preparation for the transition
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
How Community Justice Changes the
Traditional Correctional Functions

The point of any community justice
initiative in prison is to reduce the
isolation of prisons from community life
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
How Community Justice Changes the
Traditional Correctional Functions

Community justice and parole
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Studies show that the rate of crime in a given
community is associated with the number of
prisoners returning to that community
Community justice in parole can operate in
the same manner as it does in probation with
neighborhood centers
It is important that there is participation in
the transition planning process
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
How Community Justice Changes the
Traditional Correctional Functions

Community corrections and restoration
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One of the values that sets community justice apart
from traditional criminal justice is a concern for
restoration
Doing something about the damage that results from
crime is an essential part of community justice
Community justice approaches restorative justice as
problem solving
Community justice conceptualizes a criminal case not
as a contest between two disputants, but a problem
between three parties: offender, victim, community
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
How Community Justice Changes the
Traditional Correctional Functions

Restorative justice gives both the
community and the victim an active role in
determining the appropriate sanction in a
case, and it gives the offender a voice in
that same process
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
How Community Justice Changes the
Traditional Correctional Functions

Women in prison
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Rate of imprisonment for women has been
greater than that of men
Women incarcerated for a variety of reasons,
but it is often because of a boyfriend or
significant other who uses them to assist in
criminal behavior
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
How Community Justice Changes the
Traditional Correctional Functions
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Women face different adjustment issues
when returning to society from
imprisonment
Since this is the case, treatment programs
should be revised to address women’s
issues and challenges holistically with
attention toward factors that drive women
into substance abuse
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora
Community Justice Centers
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The center serves as a resource both for
residents being supervised by corrections
agencies and for families, victims of crime,
and other residents in need of assistance
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Community guardianship
Civic leadership
Workforce development
Supportive health care and housing
© 2011 Todd R. Clear, John R.
Hamilton, Jr and Eric Cadora