1. Chapter 1 The Goals of Corrections Policy
INTRO. TO CORRECTIONS
Chapter 1
The Goals of Corrections
Policy

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

3. 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

4. Correctional Agencies
Four types
Jails
Prisons
Probation
Parole

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. BURDEN OF PROOF Criminal- Beyond a reasonable doubt
Civil- Preponderance of the evidence

9. 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

10. Corrections has little control
Police and prosecutors decide on offenders
Legislatures set rules for courts
Executive Branch appoints policymakers
Correctional systems then handle offenders

11. Legislative Control Design sentencing structures for the courts
Describe each agency’s legal powers and duties
Setting the state agency’s budget

12. 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

13. PUNISHMENT
Inflict a penalty for wrongdoing by deliberately causing someone to experience pain

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. OFFENDERS VIEW
Government is the oppressor that denies their dignity and freedom
Principle of least eligibility

18. 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

19. 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

20. PHILOSOPHIES OF PUNISHMENT
1. RETRIBUTION
JUST DESERTS
2. DETERRENCE
3. REHABILITATION
BOUNDARY SETTING
RESTITUTION
TREATMENT/ REINTEGRATION
4. INCAPACITATION

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

22. 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 society’s sense of fairness rather than the status of victim or offender

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

24. Effective deterrence Certain Swift Severe
Maximum effect is achieved when most criminals are quickly caught and punished
Offenders’ perception/ not objective reality

25. Deterrence/ Retribution Assumptions
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

26. Offender mentality
Present orientation of person’s thinking causes resistance to deterrence
Common criminal state of mind
Criminals think they have “Street Smarts”

27. 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

28. 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

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

30. 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

31. Legal Approaches to Incapacitation
Habitual offender laws
“Three-strikes” laws
Life without parole

32. 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

33. 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 individual’s problem

34. 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

35. Correctional Decision Making
Justice Model
Scientific or “medical” model

36. Justice Model Started in 1700s Basis of US Constitution
Deterrence basis
Regained popularity late 1970s
Current trend is justice

37. 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

38. 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

39. 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

40. Determinate Sentences
Penalties are determined solely by the person’s crime and prior record
Penalty may be in a range of years

41. Mandatory Sentencing Judges have no discretion
Sentences set when offender is convicted
Legislature sets sentences
Most cannot be suspended

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

43. 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

44. 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

45. 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

46. 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)

47. 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

48. 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