Classroom Exercises

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Chapter 1: The Philosophical and Ideological Underpinnings of Corrections 

  1. Divide the students into two groups and have each group take one side to the nature v. nurture argument.  Have each group come up with the basic assumptions of each argument and come up with justifications and research for that argument.  Have each group present their argumentsin a debate style setting.
  2. Have each student choose one of the justifications for punishment.  Have them create a visual presentation on that justification without using words of any kind.  Have them present to the class.This can be a group project, as well.
  3. Have each student find and bring to class two newspaper articles.  One of these articles should be a story that indicates a tough on crime approach, and the other should be an article that indicates a soft on crime approach.  Choose some of the articles and have the class discuss the issues as to why each article is indicating either a soft or hard on crime approach.

Chapter 2: Correctional History: Ancient Times–Colonial Jails

  1. Money has been a lasting issue when dealing with corrections.  On a piece of paper, have students write down what roles they have learned that money has played in the early history of corrections.  Discuss their answers in class.  Have students turn in their papers to be revisited at a later date (This activity will align with an activity later on in the book).
  2. Discuss the issue of the paradigm shift that occurred during the Enlightenment Period.  Have each student write down their own personal views of punishment and share some with the class.  Then have each student take another look at punishment through the eyes of those thinkers and philosophers that dominated the Enlightenment Period.  Have each group assess whether or not they feel as though the “magic spores” as discussed in the book would have effected them and why or why not.  Have some of them share their findings with the rest of the class.
  3. Divide the students into groups of four (ideally).  Give one student in each group the name of Cesare Beccaria, Jeremy Bentham, William Penn, and John Howard.  Also give each student an issue in corrections (past or current).  Have the students verbally defend to their groups a position of the issue they were given based on the ideals that were supported by the individual they are portraying.

Chapter 3: Correctional History: The 17th–20th Century 

  1. Divide students into two groups.  Give one group the Pennsylvania Model and the other the New York Model.  Have each group argue their basic ideals and characteristics.  Also have each group discuss and share with the class what they believe life would be like for them had they been in these prisons at this time-even the women.
  2. Divide the students into pairs.  Have one student in each pair take the roles of Beaumont and Tocqueville (1831) (as discussed in chapter 1) and the other student in each pair the role of Dorothea Dix (1843) (as discussed in the current chapter).  Have them compare and contrast the comments made by their role counterparts regarding early jails and prisons in America.
  3. Have each student pick an early jail or prison discussed in the chapter.  Outside of class have them find information in books, articles, or on the internet regarding the respective institution they chose.  Have them create a poster presentation on the information they found.

Chapter 4: Ethics and Corrections 

  1. Have students discuss what their definition of ethics are.  Have them discuss why they think they have that definition (where they come from, etc.).  Have them discuss the differences between deontological and teleological ethics while thinking of their definitions.
  2. Have students write a paper discussing which type of ethics are more important to them (deontological vs. teleological).  Have them argue their choice using examples.
  3. Have students write a paper discussing each of the types of ethics that Pollock (1998) describes in the text.  Have them provide examples from their own lives where they have displayed each type in their paper.

Chapter 5: Sentencing: The Application of Punishment 

  1. Have students pull the statutes of the state where you are currently located.  Have them find different sentences that show an indeterminate, determinate, and mandatory sentence specified.  Have them bring their findings to class and discuss them with everyone else.
  2. Have each student choose a state other than the one they live in.  Have each student locate and pull any habitual offender statutes that state may have.  Have them also pull the habitual offender statute from their own state.  Have them compare and contrast the two states’ statutes.  
  3. Using the sample sentencing guidelines worksheet provided in the text as a guide, create one or more fictitious criminal cases prior to class.  Make sure that you come up with offender characteristics as well as offense characteristics for each case.  In class discuss the fictitious cases with the class.  As a group, go through each case and apply the sentencing guidelines to each fictitious case and offender(s).

Chapter 6: Jails

  1. Organize a trip to your local jail.  Have the students write a comparison paper on what they viewed in the jail and what they have learned thus far in class.  How does academe mirror reality, or does it?
  2. Have each student pretend that they are an administrator of a local jail.  Have them discuss in class how would they deal with issues such as overcrowding? Mentally Ill?  Medical issues?  Juveniles?
  3. Have students break into pairs.  Have one of the pair be a correctional officer working in corrections prior to co-equal staffing taking place and the other be an officer after its initiative.  Have the pairs discuss the pros and cons of their positions in the corrections industry at their time and place.

Chapter 7: Community Corrections: Probation and Intermediary Sanctions

  1. Require each to student find a country that uses a form of probation and have them write a paper comparing that country’s probation system to ours.  Have them identify one aspect from each countries’ systems that would work well together (if combined as one) and one thing that would not work.

Chapter 8: Prisons 

  1. Have each student find and bring to class a song or poem that discusses all or part of the pains of imprisonment.  Have each student present the portion of the song or poem that describes the pains and have them discuss why they chose that song or poem in particular.
  2. Divide the students into groups and delegate to each group a supermax prison.  Have each group research their prison and come up with a presentation on that prison such as history, characteristics, location, notable offenders, any violent history, etc.
  3. Divide the students into groups.  Using some of the terms discussed in the chapter, have each group come up with their own argot.  Have them present each term they come up with and provide an explanation as to why they chose that argot.

Chapter 9: The Corrections Experience for Staff 

  1. Come up with a variety of scenarios that would entail inmate and staff interaction.  Divide the class into groups based on gender.  Have each group of males and each group of females discuss how they would address each situation while on the job.  Note any and all similarities and differences that each group comes up with.  How do these similarities and differences compare to what the chapter discusses in respect to male v. female officers?
  2. Have the students watch the Stanford Prison Experiment in class.  Afterward, discuss the implications that this experiment had on the individuals in the experiment as well as on the field of criminal justice.
  3. Divide the students into equal groups divisible by two.  Give half of the groups the role of the hack officer and the other groups the role of the human service officer.  Pair each hack group with a human service group and have them debate the characteristics, pros, and cons of each of their defined roles. 

Chapter 10: Community Corrections: Parole and Prisoner Reentry

  1. Break the students into two groups.  Have one group take Alexander Maconochie and the other group take Walter Crofton.  Have each group discuss the elements of their designee’s system of parole.  Have each group present to the class a comparison of their parole system and how it compares to that of Zebulon Brockway’s system implemented in the United States.
  2. Have each student choose an individual state and require them to research the parole system of that state.  Have them bring their research to class and compare and contrast the different systems.
  3. Break the students into groups and have each group come up with a definition of parole success.  Discuss the pros and cons of each definition as a class.

Chapter 11: Women and Corrections

  1. Have students divide into groups.  Have each group discuss the arguments of both moralist and liberal feminism.  Have them discuss what corrections would be like for female offenders if either group’s beliefs are utilized in policy making.
  2. Have each student come up with an example of how patriarchy has had an effect on female offenders in the correctional system.  How can this be combated?
  3. Discuss the differences in the needs and programming that female offenders have with their male counterparts.  Discuss how these differences are addressed in the system, if they are indeed addressed. 

Chapter 12: Minorities and Corrections 

  1. Have each student find and watch a corrections movie or television show that depicts minorities in the correctional system.  How does the depiction in the movie or television show compare to what the student has learned thus far in class.  Have them write a paper discussing this issue.
  2. Divide the students into groups.  Have each group pretend that they are part of the state legislature.  Have them discuss what types of policies they would make in regard to crack and powder cocaine.  Have them discuss if any, the implications that their policies may have on minorities.
  3. As a class, make a list of ways that minorities have been or could be negatively caught up in the correctional system.  Discuss any remedies for correcting these ways.

Chapter 13: Juveniles and Corrections 

  1. Locate and discuss your state’s minimum legally defined age of criminal responsibility.  Have the class discuss their views on whether or not they believe the defined age is old or young enough.  Have them support their responses.
  2. Have students bring to class a newspaper article of a juvenile who was waived into adult court.  Discuss the reasons that were given for the waiver (if any) and whether the students believe that the particular individual should have been waived.
  3. Have students divide into groups of three or four.  Assign each group one of the cases that established due process rights for juveniles.  Have each group come up with a pictorial (no words) presentation that discusses the case.  Have them present the case to the rest of the class.

Chapter 14: Legal Issues in Corrections 

  1. Divide the class into three groups.  Assign one of the periods of prisoners’ rights discussed in the chapter.  Have each group discuss the characteristics of the period they were assigned, as well as any controlling cases.  Have them present their period of rights to the class.
  2. Randomly designate to each student a case related to prisoner’s rights.  Have the student write a paper summarizing the case they were given and discuss whether or not they agree with the ruling court’s decision on the issue.  Have them support their arguments.
  3. Have students write a paper discussing the one amendment and its corresponding rights they believe prisoners should receive above the rest.  Have them justify their arguments based on support from the class materials.

Chapter 15: Correctional Programming and Treatment 

  1. Have the class discuss the issue of anger and the role that it plays in criminal activity.  Have them discuss the anger management treatment options and whether or not they find this type of treatment to be adequate.  Have them explain why they believe the way they do.
  2. Divide student into two groups.  Have one group take the stance of supporting and the other of not supporting pharmacological treatment and create a list of reasons to support their stance.  Discuss each groups list as a class.
  3. Assign each student a state and have them research the sex offender laws of that state.  Have them write a paper discussing their research and whether or not they agree with said laws or whether they should be stricter or lenient than they are written.  Have them justify their opinions.

Chapter 16: The Death Penalty 

  1. Discuss the timeline of cases that have addressed the issue of the death penalty.  Have the class discuss their opinions on each case as it was decided.  Have them support their arguments.
  2. Have the students choose a state that has the death penalty.  Require them to write a paper discussing what method of execution that state uses.  Have them research, if any, previous methods they have used as well.  Have them argue the different forms used by that state.  Which do they think is more humane (if any)?  If only one method has ever been used, do they believe that method is humane or not?
  3. Have students discuss the chivalry and evil woman hypotheses.  Which do they believe is more indicative of how women are treated in the system regarding the death penalty?  Have them justify their answers.

Chapter 17: Corrections in the 21st Century

  1. Have each student create a list of roles that money plays in modern corrections.  Return the lists created by each student in Section II about the role that that money played in early corrections.  Discuss any similarities or differences in their lists between early corrections and today.  Discuss what has changed or remained the same?
  2. Have the students listen to the audio files regarding the issue in California where the courts are requiring them to decarcerate numerous individuals.  Discuss why the courts came to this decision and the effects this decarceration could have.  Do the students agree with this decision?  Have them explain why or why not.
  3. Divide the students into groups.  Have each group discuss the issues surrounding privatization of prisons.  Have each group make a list of the pros and cons of privatization. As a class, go over each list and discuss the various points that were brought up and their possible implications for modern corrections.