Chapter 12

Summary:
Jails and prisons differ in many different ways.  Jails hold individuals who have been arrest for crimes and are awaiting trial, have been convicted for misdemeanors and are servicing a sentence, federal offenders, and others.  They are usually run by county sheriff’s departments.  Prisons are designed for longer confinement and confine convicted felons.  Prisons are operated by state or federal governments.  $50 a year is spent by states on corrections systems.  The Public Safety Realignment (PSR) should reduce state’s prison population through normal attrition of existing population, releasing many nonviolent, non-serious, nonsexual offenders.  Several factors contribute to corrections populations, including drugs, truth-in-sentencing laws, violence on TV and movies, general deterioration of morals and the family, rehabilitation, and “nothing works” philosophy. There are 2 management subsystems within corrections: one concerned with primarily with managing correctional employees and one concerned primarily with delivering correctional services to a designated offender population.  There are also 2 different philosophies concerning corrections: a custodial organization, which emphasizes the caretaker functions of controlling and observing inmates and a treatment organization, which emphasizes rehabilitation of inmates.  For some individuals, going to jail or prison represents an increased standard of living.  Prison life is not perceived as being as difficult as it once was and the stigma of having a prison record is not the same as in the past.  Classification of inmates is important in corrections to ensure the safety of inmates as well as correctional officers.  The four categories of classification of inmates are security, custody, housing, and program.  Within the category of security, 4 levels exist:  supermax, maximum, medium, and minimum.  The new generation/direct supervision jails were opened in 1970’s in Contra Costa County, California.  Three styles were created: podular/direct supervision jails, linear/intermittent supervision jails, and podular/remote supervision jails.  The Justice Assistance Act of 1984 removed some of the long-standing restrictions on interstate commerce of prisoner-made goods.  State prisons are run by a warden with a deputy or associate warden reporting to the warden.  The correctional security department is normally the largest department in a prison and supervises all of the security activities within a prison, including any special housing units, inmate transportation, and the inmate disciplinary process. The unit management department control prisons by providing a “small, self-contained, inmate living and staff office area that operates semi-autonomously within the larger institution”.  Education departments operate all training and teaching programs while the prison industries department produces goods or provide services for a public agency or private corporation.  Federal prisons are categorized as minimum, low, medium, and high security.  Supermax prisons operate in 40 states across the country and their constitutionalities were discussed in Madrid v. Gomez and Jones El v. Berge.  Technology has molded the way prisons and jails deal with riots, offender programming and management, and virtual visits to hospitals and courtrooms. 

Objectives:

• Describe why, for many members of our society, the threat of being incarcerated is not a deterrent or a punishment, but rather a “step up”—an improved lifestyle
   
• Review the general mission and features of a correctional organization
   
• Explain correctional organizations in terms of the number of inmates they oversee and the resources they require (e.g., employment and expenditures)
   
• Describe the different factors that affect prison and jail populations
   
• Explain the purposes of inmate classification
   
• Review how jails are organized and constructed, including the “new generation” jail
   
• Discuss how prisons have evolved, and the major reform efforts that occurred during their evolution
   
• Explain the basic structure and function of the federal prison system
   
• Describe how supermax prisons function, how they differ from other prisons, and critics’ views concerning their effects on inmates and constitutionality
   
• Describe some of the technologies now in use in corrections

Outline:

• Correctional Facilities as Organizations
   
  • Defining Jails and Prisons
     
  • Inmates, Employment, Expenditures
     
  • Factors Contributing to Corrections Populations
     
  • General Mission and Features
     
  • Punishment for Some, a “Step Up” for Others
     
  • Classification of Inmates: A Cornerstone of Corrections
     
• Jails as Organizations
   
  • The New Generation/Direct Supervision Jail
     
  • Making Jails Productive
     
• State Prisons as Organizations
   
  • State prison
     
  • Until beginning of 20th century, prisons were administered by state boards of charities, boards composed of citizens, boards of inspectors, state prison commissions, or individual prison keepers
     
  • Warden
     
  • Reporting to warden are deputy or associate wardens
     
  • Correctional security department
     
  • Unit management
     
  • Education departments
     
  • Prison industries
     
• Federal Prisons
   
  • Prison types and General Information
     
  • Community Corrections in the Federal System
     
• Supermax Prisons
   
  • A penal institution that, for security purposes, affords inmates very few if any amenities and a great amount of isolation
     
  • Origin and Operation
     
  • Effects on Inmates
     
  • Constitutionality
     
• Technologies
   
  • Coping with Riots
     
  • Offender Programming and Management
     
  • “Virtual Visits” to Hospitals and Courtrooms