Learning Objectives

As a result of reading this chapter, you will be able to

  1. Describe correctional populations, employment, expenditures, and institutional types
  2. Review some of the factors that contribute to recent declines in prison and jail populations
  3. Explain the basic structure and function of state prisons
  4. Explain the basic structure and function of the federal prison system
  5. Describe how supermax prisons function, how they differ from other prisons, and findings concerning their effects on inmates and constitutionality
  6. Define and review the operation of private, for-profit prisons
  7. Review how local jails are organized and constructed, including the new generation jail
  8. Describe some of the technologies now in use in corrections, with particular emphasis on methods for halting drone and cell phone use by inmates