INTRO. TO CORRECTIONS

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INTRO. TO CORRECTIONS

• Chapter 1
• The Goals of Corrections
• Policy

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Corrections

• The term used to describe a set of agencies
  created to control the behavior of people accused
  or convicted of a criminal offense.

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Social Control

• Any set of methods designed to encourage people
  to obey norms
• Crime control is only one area of social control.
• Informal social controls
• CRJ system is the last resort

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Correctional Agencies

• Four types
• Jails
• Prisons
• Probation
• Parole

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Efficiency and Fairness

• Long struggle for society
• Efficiency concerns focus on how to keep society
  safe at the lowest cost
• Fairness is a fundamental value that is basic to
  our morality and sense of justice

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Defining the study of corrections

• Content- Four agencies
• Context- Politics
• Goals- Efficient Crime control, low
• recidivism, Public Safety
• Fair and thorough treatment for
• each person and case

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Never extremely efficient

• Democratic values stress fair and equal treatment
  over efficient social control
• Social control- Informal
• CRJ System designed for occasional
  failures of family and community
• Democracies- Not guilty unless proven

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BURDEN OF PROOF

• Criminal- Beyond a reasonable doubt
• Civil- Preponderance of the evidence

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PROBABLE CAUSE

• Arrest Warrant- A reasonable person would agree
  that a crime has or will be committed and the
  person to be arrested committed the crime
• Search Warrant- A reasonable person would agree
  that a crime has or will be committed and
  evidence will be found in the place to be searched

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Corrections has little control

• Police and prosecutors decide on offenders
• Legislatures set rules for courts
• Executive Branch appoints policymakers
• Correctional systems then handle offenders

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Legislative Control

• Design sentencing structures for the courts
• Describe each agencys legal powers and duties
• Setting the state agencys budget

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Defining Modern Goals

• Control and punish offenders
• Attempts to change offenders behavior are
  secondary
• Control makes the public feel safer
• Punishment appeals to current sense of
• values
• Reform is more cost effective

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PUNISHMENT

• Inflict a penalty for wrongdoing by deliberately
  causing someone to experience pain

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DO NOT THINK LIKE AN INMATE

• Sometimes punishment changes behavior
• Usually offender resents punishment and results
  in bitterness toward those felt to be responsible
• People act on the basis of their own perceptions
  rather than on the basis of what society perceives

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DISCIPLINE

• Training designed to assure obedience to a set of
  rules
• Instills self control that assures law-abiding
  behavior
• Creates long term thinking and appreciate the
  needs of others

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Honesty and Respect

• Honesty is crucial to self-discipline
• Respect is most easily achieved when loyalty and
  warmth toward the source of the rules are the
  dominant emotions
• HARD to be warm and respectful to that which is
  the source of inflicted pain
• Parental discipline

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OFFENDERS VIEW

• Government is the oppressor that denies their
  dignity and freedom
• Principle of least eligibility

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MORAL AND UTILITARIAN VIEWS

• Moral arguments focus on the search for fairness
  and try to compensate for the wrongs done by
  crime
• Utilitarian arguments focus on the practical goal
  of reducing crime while spending as little as
  possible

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Moral/ Utilitarian Goals

• Moral- Efficiency is of secondary concern-
  primary goal is fairness- Pay for the crime
• Utilitarian- Look to the future safety of
  citizens and the costs of corrections action

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PHILOSOPHIES OF PUNISHMENT

• 1. RETRIBUTION
• JUST DESERTS
• 2. DETERRENCE
• 3. REHABILITATION
• BOUNDARY SETTING
• RESTITUTION
• TREATMENT/ REINTEGRATION
• 4. INCAPACITATION

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RETRIBUTION

• Infliction of pain that is equal to or slightly
  greater than the harm than that done to the
  victim
• Vengeance or legalized revenge

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JUST DESERTS

• Punishment should be used to assure a sense of
  fairness
• Stresses social justice rather than revenge
• Emphasis is on punishment certainty and
  consistency
• Focused on societys sense of fairness rather
  than the status of victim or offender

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DETERRENCE

• Threat of punishment to influence how people make
  decisions
• Attempt to minimize crime by influencing
  rational, conscious choices

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Effective deterrence

• Certain
• Swift
• Severe
• Maximum effect is achieved when most criminals
  are quickly caught and punished
• Offenders perception/ not objective reality

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Deterrence/ RetributionAssumptions

• 1. Crime results from a rational calculation of
  the expected costs and benefits of various acts
• 2. This calculation can be affected by legal
  penalties
• Offenders believe that others will be caught
  rather than themselves

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Offender mentality

• Present orientation of persons thinking causes
  resistance to deterrence
• Common criminal state of mind
• Criminals think they have Street Smarts

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Two types of Deterrence

• General deterrence punishes one offender in an
  effort to discourage others from committing
  crimes
• Specific deterrence suggests that punishing a
  particular offender will discourage that
  individual from committing crimes in the future

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BOUNDARY SETTING

• Societies have always defined some behavior as
  criminal
• Members of society cannot feel united as we
  unless there is a readily identified they
• By defining actions as criminal the group sets
  itself apart from others

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RESTITUTION

• Repays the victim for material and financial
  losses
• State Victims compensation
• Used to punish minor crimes
• Community service

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INCAPACITATION

• Prevents re-offending by making the offender
  physically unable to commit other crimes
• Primarily by imprisonment
• Warehouses offenders until age and/or deterrence
  discourages re-offending
• Surest means of safeguarding society

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Legal Approaches to Incapacitation

• Habitual offender laws
• Three-strikes laws
• Life without parole

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Prediction Problems

• Presumption that repeat offenders can be
  predicted
• Few offenders commit most crimes
• Some types of offenders are more likely
• Gross increase in imprisonment with little or no
  effect on crime

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Treatment- Reintegration

• Correctional treatment is an attempt to convert
  offenders into law abiding citizens
• Most treatment advocates believe that crime
  occurs because of some sort of mental, spiritual,
  educational, or vocational inadequacy of the
  offender
• Correct the inadequacy/ crime ceases?
• Crime is a symptom of individuals problem

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Treatment vs. Retribution

• Offends many citizens sense of justice
• If crime is a result of social organization or
  inequalities, then society has the responsibility
  to help re-integrate offenders
• Ignoring Free will is also problematic
• May help change habits, lifestyle, and changeable
  personality traits

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Correctional Decision Making

• Justice Model
• Scientific or medical model

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Justice Model

• Started in 1700s
• Basis of US Constitution
• Deterrence basis
• Regained popularity late 1970s
• Current trend is justice

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Scientific Approach

• Courts should judge each offender as a unique
  individual
• Can stress culpability, dangerousness, treatment
  needs, or other factors
• Some are less able to avoid crime
• Questions that crime is by free will
• Supporters note that most will return to society

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Indeterminate Sentencing

• Broad range of sentence
• Part may be in custody and part may be in
  community supervision
• Based upon dangerousness and treatment needs of
  the criminal rather than the type of offense
• Originally designed to make offenders work for
  release- Good time

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The Legal Approach

• Based upon the Justice Model
• Laws should be used to cause people to make
  desirable choices by using punishment to deter
  crime
• The seriousness of crime is the only relevant
  factor
• Seriousness is defined in terms of offenders
  blameworthiness and harm

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Determinate Sentences

• Penalties are determined solely by the persons
  crime and prior record
• Penalty may be in a range of years

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Mandatory Sentencing

• Judges have no discretion
• Sentences set when offender is convicted
• Legislature sets sentences
• Most cannot be suspended

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Presumptive Sentences

• Federal system used since 1987
• Sentences set by a presidentially appointed panel
  of judges
• Set based upon average of older sentences

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Basis of Ranges

• 1. Seriousness of the offense
• 2. Salient factors in criminal history that
  predict recidivism
• Determination of ranges by research
• Race and economic factors illegal
• Variations must be explained by judges

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Truth in Sentencing Laws

• Mostly used with violent offenders
• Most require to serve 50 of sentence
• Some require two thirds of sentence
• Economics are the problem

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Justice Model Impact

• Mandatory, presumptive, and determinate sentences
  are all attempts to assure equality in sentencing
• Treatment is not considered
• Punishment fits the crime
• Average violent offender 85 months paroled in 50
  months or less

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Impact- Continued

• Justice model advocates believe that longer
  sentences are responsible for the drop in crime
  in the mid 1990s
• Others credit numbers of young people, improved
  economic opportunities, better policing methods,
  greater community cooperation, and tougher gun
  laws- (I disagree completely with the gun laws)

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Contradictions

• Different sentencing develops out of different
  justifications for punishment
• Polls indicate that treatment is favored
• Deterrence, incapacitation, and retribution all
  favor punishment rather than treatment
• Conflicts with treatment and reintegration
• Most fundamental contradiction

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Summary

• Punishment drives offenders out
• Treatment pulls them back into society
• Retribution reduces offender status
• Deprives in some way
• Reintegration requires improvement
• Least eligibility
• Treatment helps offenders no recidivism