I.I. The Emergence of PrisonsThe Emergence of PrisonsPart TwoPart Two

I.I. The Emergence of PrisonsThe Emergence of PrisonsPart One ReviewPart One Review

1.   The prison administrators were caught with few ready alternatives after the moratorium of the free-market prison industry, therefore they seized upon the custody and institutional security as the long-lost purpose of the correctional enterprise, thereby ushering in an era of punitive custody.

A.     The Punitive Era (1935 – 1945)A.     The Punitive Era (1935 – 1945)

2. The focus during this era was on punishment and security.

3.      The belief was that prisoners owed a debt to society which only a rigorous period of confinement could absolve.

A.     The Punitive Era (1935 – 1945)A.     The Punitive Era (1935 – 1945)

4.      Prisoners’ daily routine became one of monotony and frustration.

5.      The term stir-crazy grew out of the experience of many prisoners due to the lack of educational, treatment, and work programs.

A.     The Punitive Era (1935 – 1945)A.     The Punitive Era (1935 – 1945)

A.     The Punitive Era (1935 – 1945)A.     The Punitive Era (1935 – 1945)

6.      Inmates created their own diversions, frequently attempting to escape or incite riots.

7.      The Punitive era was a lackluster time for the American prisons.

B.B. The Treatment Era (1945 – 1967)The Treatment Era (1945 – 1967)

1.       Interest grew in the reformation and rehabilitation of offenders.

2.       The treatment era was based upon the medical model.

B.B. The Treatment Era (1945 – 1967)The Treatment Era (1945 – 1967)

3.       Medical model: A therapeutic perspective on correctional treatment that applies the diagnostic perspective of medical science to the handling of criminal offenders. Rehabilitation was seen as a cure, and offenders are treated through a variety of programs in order to reduce their antisocial tendencies.

B.B. The Treatment Era (1945 – 1967)The Treatment Era (1945 – 1967)

4.       This model implied that the offender was sick and that rehabilitation was only a matter of finding the right treatment.

B.B. The Treatment Era (1945 – 1967)The Treatment Era (1945 – 1967)

5.       Prisons built their programs around both individual treatment and group therapy approaches.

a)      Individual treatment – depicted the offender in a face to face relationship with the therapist.

B.B. The Treatment Era (1945 – 1967)The Treatment Era (1945 – 1967)

b)      Group therapy – relies upon the sharing of insights gleaned by members of the group.

B.B. The Treatment Era (1945 – 1967)The Treatment Era (1945 – 1967)

6.       Academic and legal scholars pointed to the lack of evidence in support of the model and began to stress individual responsibility rather than treatment in handling of the offenders.

C. The Community-Based Era (1967 – 1980)C. The Community-Based Era (1967 – 1980)

1.      This era was based on the premise that rehabilitation could not occur in isolation from the community.

2.      Decarceration included halfway house, work release, and open institutions.

C. The Community-Based Era (1967 – 1980)C. The Community-Based Era (1967 – 1980)

3. Work-release: A prison program through which inmates are temporarily released into the community in order to meet job responsibilities.

C. The Community-Based Era (1967 – 1980)C. The Community-Based Era (1967 – 1980)

4. Halfway houses: usually housed between 15 to 20 residents who were generally free to come and go during the workday. Residents were expected to return to the home after work and some group therapy may be provided.

D. The Warehousing Era (1980 – 1995)D. The Warehousing Era (1980 – 1995)

1.      Warehousing: An imprisonment strategy that is based upon the desire to prevent recurrent crime but that has abandoned any hope of rehabilitation.

D. The Warehousing Era (1980 – 1995)D. The Warehousing Era (1980 – 1995)

a)      Several factors contribute to the abandonment of community-based programs, including high rates of recidivism, public disappointment, high-profile news stories, and Martinson’s research on the effectiveness of treatment programs.

D. The Warehousing Era (1980 – 1995)D. The Warehousing Era (1980 – 1995)

2.      Recidivism: The repetition of criminal behavior.

3.      Nothing-Works Doctrine: The belief popularized by Robert Martinson in the 1970s, that correctional treatment programs have little success in rehabilitating offenders.

D. The Warehousing Era (1980 – 1995)D. The Warehousing Era (1980 – 1995)

4.      Dimensions of Overcrowding - Federal prisons are operating at 27% above capacity and state prisons at about 20% above capacity.

Prison Capacity: The size of the correctional population an institution can effectively hold.

D. The Warehousing Era (1980 – 1995)D. The Warehousing Era (1980 – 1995)

a)    Rated Capacity - The size of the inmate population that a correctional facility can accommodate according to the judgment of experts.

D. The Warehousing Era (1980 – 1995)D. The Warehousing Era (1980 – 1995)

b)      Operational Capacity - The number of inmates a prison can effectively accommodate based upon management considerations.

D. The Warehousing Era (1980 – 1995)D. The Warehousing Era (1980 – 1995)

c)      Design Capacity (bed capacity) - The number of inmates a prison was architecturally intended to hold when it was built or modified.

D. The Warehousing Era (1980 – 1995)D. The Warehousing Era (1980 – 1995)

5.       Rhodes v. Chapman held that crowding is not cruel and unusual punishment.6.       The Justice Department reported that new crimes by released prisoners cost society about $430,000 per year per offender for police work, court cost, and losses to victims.

D. The Warehousing Era (1980 – 1995)D. The Warehousing Era (1980 – 1995)

7.       Continued confinement, even in newly built prison cells, cost only about $25,000 per offender and was not too expensive when weighed against the price of crimes that would otherwise be prevented by incapacitation.

E.E.          The Just Desserts Era (1995 – Present)The Just Desserts Era (1995 – Present)

Justice Model: A contemporary model of imprisonment in which the principle of just desserts forms the underlying social philosophy.

1. Emphasis on Individual Responsibility.

2. Similar to the Punitive Era

E.E.          The Just Desserts Era (1995 – Present)The Just Desserts Era (1995 – Present)

3. Examples of the move to this era include chain gangs, hard labor, abolishment of parole, “three strikes and you’re out” laws, and elimination of inmate “frills.”

E.E.          The Just Desserts Era (1995 – Present)The Just Desserts Era (1995 – Present)

4. Selective Incapacitation – A strategy to reduce overcrowding. (Collective incapacitation is a strategy that would imprison all serious offenders and selective incapacitation seeks to identify the most dangerous and then remove them from society.)

II. Prisons TodayII. Prisons Today

A. Characteristics and issuesA. Characteristics and issues

1. Approximately 1,000 state and 80 federal prisons are in operation today.

2. The Prison population has tripled since 1980

3. Prisons are overcrowded

A. Characteristics and issuesA. Characteristics and issues

4. Most people who receive sentences are sentenced to state prisons for violent crimes.

5. About 350,000 individuals are employed in corrections.

A. Characteristics and issuesA. Characteristics and issues

6. Disparities by Race and by Gender.

B. Security LevelsB. Security Levels

1.      Maximum a. Older Prisons with large

inmate populations b. High level of security c. Frequent counts

B. Security LevelsB. Security Levels

2.    Medium

a.       Medium-security prisons are smaller than maximum, and are more likely to have barbed-wire fences than thick walls.

b.       Dormitory housing

B. Security LevelsB. Security Levels

3.   Minimum

a. Minimum-security prisons are like dormitories

b. Inmates are free to walk the yard

c. Inmates may have private rooms