Chapter 23
American
Corrections:
Looking Forward
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 7th
American Corrections: Looking Forward
Five correctional dilemmas
 Mission
 Methods
 Structure
 Personal
 Costs
 Three challenges for the future of corrections
 Challenge 1: Reinvigorate a new correctional
leadership
 Challenge 2: Refocus our investments on what
works
 Challenge 3: Reclaim the moral and ethical
high road

Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 7th
FIVE CORRECTIONAL DILEMMAS
A dilemma is a situation that forces one to choose
between unsatisfactory alternatives. Corrections
faces many dilemmas—any worker in the field will
attest to this fact. We have selected five dilemmas
as particularly important, because they are what
we consider “orienting” dilemmas for corrections.
 Mission
 Methods
 Structure
 Personal
 Costs

Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 7th
Five correctional dilemmas
MISSION
COSTS
correctional dilemmas
METHODS
STRUCTURE
PERSONNEL
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 7th
Mission

Corrections lacks a clear mission. One reason for this is
that it has so many different clients—offenders, the
general public, other government agencies—each of which
has different expectations of corrections. In simple terms,
we recognize that offenders want fairness, leniency, and
assistance; the public wants protection from and
punishment of criminals; government agencies want
cooperation and coordination. Obviously, these
expectations often come into conflict. Thus, one goal of
corrections ultimately must be to disentangle the
expectations and establish a set of priorities for handling
them.
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 7th
Methods

Obviously, if the correctional mission is unclear,
the best correctional strategies and techniques
will be ambiguous as well. When goals are in
conflict, staff members have difficulty choosing
among competing methods to perform their work:
surveillance or service, custody or treatment. But
this is not the only problem with correctional
methods; much more significantly, correctional
techniques often do not seem to work
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 7th
Structure

Corrections is simply not in a position to influence
its own fate significantly. Much of this inability
has to do with its structure—internal and external.
Internally, corrections is a process divided against
itself. Jails, prisons, probation, and parole all
struggle with one another; the practices of each
become contingencies for the others. Externally,
corrections represents the culmination of the
criminal justice process, and it has little formal
capacity to control the demand for its services.
Thus, correctional leaders face two structural
dilemmas.
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 7th
Personal

Because corrections is a people-processing
operation, its personnel are its main resource. The
two essential goals in regard to staff are (1)
attracting the right kinds of people to work in
corrections and (2) motivating them to remain
once they are employed. Corrections traditionally
has not done well in either area.
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 7th
Costs

One of the most notable aspects of corrections is that it is
expensive. The cost of building a prison is more than
$100,000 per cell, excluding financing. Each personnel
position represents expenditures equal to twice his or her
annual salary when fringe benefits, retirement costs, and
office supplies are taken into consideration. The
processing of an offender through the corrections system
is usually at least $20,000 in direct costs and nearly half
that much again in indirect costs (such as defaulted debts,
welfare to families, and lost wages and taxes). The
decision to punish an offender is a decision to allocate
precious public resources, often irretrievably. Correctional
administrators understand all this now more than ever.
Allocating correctional resources wisely poses a huge
challenge.
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 7th
Challenge 1: Reinvigorate a new
correctional leadership

The field of corrections will get nowhere without effective
leadership. It is from its leaders that corrections will get the vision
for a new future; it is from its leaders that corrections will find the
capacity to embark on the difficult road of change.

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acting in ways that correctional clients see as
“legitimate”–that is, fair and reasonable
maintaining safe, drug-free environments in
prisons and jails where staff and those confined
inside can stay “clean”;
and making the management of “transparent” so
the general public has knows what how
corrections is being run and has confidence in it
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 7th
Challenge 2: Refocus our
Investments on What Works

Studies of program effectiveness has grown dramatically in recent
years. Where once we would be lucky if we had barely even a study
or two to decide a course of action, we now have literally hundreds
of good-quality studies to inform our work in corrections.
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Early Prevention measures implemented in the early years
of the a child’s life from (or sometimes prior to) birth through
to early adolescence, with a focus on children and youths
before they engage in delinquency in the first place;
Risk-Focused, Evidence-Based Programs that identify
the key risk factors for offending and implement proven–by
systematic study–prevention methods designed to
counteract them
A National Council on Early Prevention, modeled after
successful nation-wide approaches used in Europe and
seeks to support the early crime prevention strategy
Local Level Prevention that collaborates with other
government departments, develop local problem-solving
partnerships, and involves citizens
Communities That Care
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 7th
Challenge 3: Reclaim the moral
and ethical high road

What is disturbing about the U.S. corrections system is the way it
has become so much more harsh than other systems of free
societies. Here are some of the things that can be found, somewhere
in the U.S. system

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chain gangs cleaning roads wearing black striped
shirts;
men in jail made to wear pink underwear;
signs in yards and on cars saying the person has
been convicted of a crime;
children serving time in adult prisons;
eviction of people from their homes because of
convictions of drug crimes
refusals of college loans because of convictions
of drug crimes
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 7th
Myths in Corrections
 The
Myth: The corrections system is
too buffeted by political and social
forces to be able to change
 The Reality: The corrections system
changes when people with new vision
devote themselves to improving it.
 Source: Three hundred years of
history and the present realities
described in this book
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 7th