Chapter Summary and Learning Objectives

What goes on in prisons and jails occurs largely out of the view of outside observers, and certainly the general public. The nature of custody makes oversight of the institutions responsible for it problematic. The various methods for regulating corrections via external oversight bodies, professional standards, litigating through the courts, civil rights legislation, and other federal laws have had only limited success in bringing about reforms. In general, the reforms that do pass tend to be cyclic. It tends to be extremely difficult to move the reform agenda forward using any of these methods and to make sure that correctional agencies stay true to their missions and are accountable when they fail to do so.

Boards designed to examine agency and facility practice and report on and remedy serious problems have been dogged by politics. Their authority has been weak at times, and their influence has waxed and waned during the 20th century. Professional organizations have attempted to establish standards for excellence in correctional practice. Compliance with these standards has been largely voluntary. The ACA accreditation process has been plagued with questions about its integrity, applicability, and relevance.

The courts—including the U.S. Supreme Court—have been a significant forum for hashing out some of the prisoners’ most blatant or essential grievances. Despite the legal precedent for considering prisoners “slaves of the state,” they and their advocates have brought before the bench questions of legal due process, cruel and unusual punishment, habeas corpus, and conditions of confinement. Last, prisoner advocates as well as “law and order” conservatives have pushed for new laws to bring about what they view as needed reforms. Some of these laws are CRIPA, PLRA, and PREA. To successfully pass and implement such legislation requires that lawmakers reach across the political aisle and build bipartisan support.

  • To grasp the reasons that the corrections system must be held accountable and some of the obstacles to realizing that goal.
  • To be able to list and describe the main mechanisms for holding corrections accountable.
  • To understand the dilemma involved in establishing standards and accrediting institutions.
  • To gain an insight into how the courts work relative to corrections reforms and prisoner rights.
  • To be able to discuss some of the major relevant issues that have come before the courts.
  • To be able to list and describe some of the major pieces of federal legislation that pertain to prisoners or individuals under community supervision in the past several decades.