Corrections in America An Introduction Eleventh Edition

Corrections in AmericaAn IntroductionEleventh Edition Allen, Latessa, Ponder and Simonsen Chapter 9: Imprisonment

Imprisonment • Placing a criminal offender into a correctional facility for confinement

Basic Functionsof Imprisonment • Security • Public protection • Inmate custody and treatment

Prison • A confinement facility having custodial authority and control over adult felons convicted and sentenced to confinement (usually for more than one year)

Reasons for Increase in the Number of Prisoners • Selective incapacitation • Baby boomers passing through the high crime rate years • Increased use of technology in parole supervision • Offenders serving a higher percentage of the sentences imposed

Reasons: cont. • Increased commitment rates for almost all felonies • The War on Drugs • It is not due to an increase in either the volume and rates of crime, which have been dropping for at least the last 10 years

African American Statistics • Seven times grater rate of imprisonment than white men • 3,405/100,000 African American men • 465/100,000 white men • One in three African American males born today: likely to be imprisoned in lifetime

African American Statistics • Higher rates for some crimes • Get tough policies – harsher sentencing • War on Drugs • Crack Cocaine • School Zones • Three Strikes Law

Overcrowding • $70,909 for each bed construction • $22,650 cost/inmate per year • $2,325 cost/inmate per year: Medical Care ** American prisoners only U.S. residents who have a Constitutional right to receive free medical care - prevented from securing their own

Maximum Security Prison • A facility designed, built, and managed so as to minimize escape, disturbance, and violence while maximizing control over the inmate population • Custody and security are the primary concerns in a maximum security prison

Prisonization • The process by which an inmate learns, through socialization, the rules and regulations of the penal institution, and how to behave within that institution

Supermax • Violent, seriously disruptive, assaultive, escape-prone inmates • Pose a threat to the safety of staff and other inmates, and danger to the security of the institution • Need to manage and securely control inmates exhibiting continuous violent or seriously disruptive behavior • Only separation, restricted movement, and limited direct access to staff and other inmates can control their behavior

Special Housing Unit (SHU) • The special housing unit with the highest security in the prison • An austere setting accompanied by the use of restraints (leg irons, handcuffs, and belly chains) until the inmate is under control • Generally reserved for the “baddest of the bad”

Medium-Security • Prevent escape, disturbances, and violence • Fewer restrictions on the movement and activities of prison inmates

Minimum-Security • Prevent escape, disturbances, and violence • Allows maximum inmate movement, freedom, and self-determination

Overcrowding Options • Basic options for reducing prison overcrowding are: • Front-end or prison avoidance • Bricks and mortar • Back-end alternatives

Prison Avoidance • Expanding programs to handle more offenders within the community, such as: • Diversion programs • Drug courts • Probation • Intermediate sanctions

Bricks and Mortar • Building additional correctional facilities to accommodate the offender population: • Larger and regional jails • More prisons • Renovating and expanding current prisons

Back-End Alternatives • Expanding the use of and strengthening of post-incarceration controls in the community: • Intensive supervised parole • Electronic monitoring of parolees • Community-corrections centers (“halfway houses”) • Boot camps and early release programs

Recidivism of Offenders • Within three years of their release, ex-prisoners had unfavorable failure rates. • More than 2 in 3 were arrested for a new offense, almost exclusively a felony or serious misdemeanor • Almost half were reconvicted for a new crime

Recidivism: cont. • More than one-quarter were re-sentenced to prison for the new crime • More than half were back in prison for either a new crime or failure to abide by conditions of their release (technical parole violations)

Summary • Imprisonment is the harshest penalty imposed on most offenders • Both the commitment rate and length of sentence have increased in the last decade • Most prisons have become over-crowded

Summary: cont. • To alleviate over-crowding, corrections has expanded front-end, prison stock, and back-end alternatives • The recidivism rate of ex-prisoners remains unacceptably high • Many challenges remain to be addressed

Corrections in America An Introduction Eleventh Edition