CRIMINAL JUSTICE TRENDS PAPER 1

Criminal Justice Trends Paper

Rosa M. Silva

CJA/484

March 29, 2021

Virginia Swisher
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Criminal Justice Trends Paper

The correctional facility is place within the Criminal Justice System that serves to

confine and rehabilitate individuals who are arrested and sent to the facility for

punishment a crime they committed. Texas has Texas Department of Criminal Justice

(TDCJ) which is an overpopulated facilities; several of the officials have tried looking for

ways to reduce the over crowed prisons system. Even though the issue is bigger than it

seems the correctional facility is always working hard to make changes to reduce the

overcrowding. Providing new ideas will assist develop and recognize the past and current

trends to assist with the overcrowding. The important element that the Texas Department

of Criminal Justice is overseeing is shrinking the budget as they work in reducing the

overcrowding. While the overcrowding and budget are not resolved this could only affect

the criminal justice systems future and productiveness.

This paper is going to evaluate the past, present, and future trends of the criminal

justice in relation to the Department of Corrections and the outcome on the Department of

Justice. The Department of Justice offers parole as they are released which is a community

justice programs to reduce the current trend of overcrowding. These issues are debated

often in the Capitol by legislatures and advocates to make changes but the number of

people getting incarnated only increase more. It will also discuss the budgetary and

managerial impact that future trends will likely have not only on the Correctional facilities

and on the Criminal Justice System. Lastly, it will include current research data

(qualitative and quantitative) in the analysis.

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Past Trends

In the past, crime was looked at different from today. The “Get Tough Youth Programs

are ineffective, Panel says (The Associated Press, 2004).

It was believed that boot camp and other get-tough programs for the adolescents did not

help prevent the criminal behavior but made it worse. It only showed that the program

treatment were not helping because the crime rates were increasing and the only way the

recidivism rate could b e reduce was to punish those who committed the crimes to protect

the communities. In results from the recidivism a couple of reforms were created and also

implemented into a new law to help reduce crime but failed. The first one is “truth in

sentencing was to restrict individuals from earning time off their sentences” (ACLU,

2020). The second one is the Three Strike legislation is for individuals who have

committed more than three violent crimes, which wouldn’t have a chance a smaller

sentence other than a life sentence. At one point the reform failed because numbers

increased on arrest, convictions and longer sentences which then the” prisons got

overcrowded this reform was designed to target the drug dealers and repeat offenders.

“According to a recent Bureau of Justice Statistics report, the number of prisoners aged 55

or older in state prisons increased 400% between 1993 and 2013” (Carson and Sabol,

2016).

Present Trends/Overcrowding

Presently, the reform trend only caused the overcrowding the prison units are

having now. The Department of Corrections is facing many problems with the

overcrowding of prisoners. One problem they have issues with space for the prisoners and

bedding. Once prisoners are in and doing time it has been known that they do not have any
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rights but the one right they do have is for them to have a particular living space while

doing their time in prison. The prisons have had several issues since the overcrowding

began to get worse because the staff have to work longer hours, mandatory days to work,

their stress level is higher and loss of staff.

Studies done in 2006 have proved that overcrowded prison population has had a

big impact on physiological state to the prisoners (Ohchr.org, n.d.). For example, when a

juvenile is sent to a prison for a violent crime that they committed and later released

without any type of rehabilitation or any counseling that are capable to reoffend later as an

adult. This could have a negative impact with the correctional officers because they have

to see the repeat offenders again and also concerns with the budget.

Future Trends

Trends that are currently happening would include sentence adjustments, improved

community supervision, overcrowding, aging and mentally ill. The trends from the past,

present, and future have been and will affect the correction system. (Lawrence, 2013).

Sentencing Adjustments

Legislation focuses on a state level on how long should a prisoner should go to

prison and which ones will do time in a prison. By focusing who makes it to the prison is a

way to making sure they have space for the dangerous offenders to make sure they keep

communities safe (Lawrence, 2013). With the increasing of drug offenses mandatory

minimum sentencing are more common.

Improvement of Supervision Within the Community

A new trend that could help to reduce recidivism is a requirement an agencies

could implement a new policy is for a risk assessment, a treatment, place them in a
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program, and with supervisor level for the offenders to be sent to areas who are willing to

have them instead of sending them to prison.

Reacting Quicker to Violations

Another trend that is growing like the overcrowding of prisons is probationers and

parolees. They are held accountable for violating conditions however; the violators are

higher penalty, less jail sentencing and placed in a special facility for those who violate

opposed to prison time (Lawrence, 2013).

Addressing the needs of the offender

A trend that State Legislation would consider is matching the offenders with

treatment and treatment facilities, which would help to get, is successful with

rehabilitation services (Lawrence, 2013). Also correctional facilities can focus on the

prerelease and reentry when being released because they provide the offenders with tools,

resources, and supervision so they can be prepared as they reenter society. This would also

include earn-time credit, which would give an offender credited time for successfully

completing education, vocational and several programs (Lawrence, 2013)

Aging

The age group that is growing and fast is the offenders from 65 and older

especially for those who are severing a life sentence. Because of the age those offenders

are the one who affect more the prison system because of medical cost care and the

facilities that house older offenders with physical disabilities (Mackenzie, 2001).

Housing Mental Ill

Offenders with mental illness have only increased but the correction officers have

received some training to deal with those who have mental illness (Mackenzie, 2001).
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Correction Officers who have to deal with offenders who suffer from mental disorders has

been challenging as well for the administrators who doesn’t have little to none training on

how to deal with offenders who are housed in their prison system.

Budget and Managerial Impacts

Less funding has forces budget cuts to the corrections facilities which a big percent

of the correctional facilities have managed by cutting spending and saving more (Scott-

Hayward, 2009). The Correctional facilities have to eliminate several things within their

system to cut budget down such as cutting down on staff, salary, eliminating pay raises

and sometimes hiring freezes. (Scott-Hayward, 2009).

The impacts of the budget and managerial on the criminal justice system are

considerable. The criminal justice system makes tons of transactions yearly. “Federal

spending is less than 1%, 6% more than the State spending and close to 7% spending of

the local level. Combining levels of spending is almost compared to transportation and

lower than the government spending on health and hospital care” (BJS Princeton Project,

2010). According to BJS Princeton Project, 2010 the spending in corrections grew more

between 1985 through 1990 while the spending on police agencies and officers has slowed

down more than any criminal justice system components (BJS Princeton Project, 2010).

Conclusion

Administration and policy makers have been working to succeed in analyzation of

data, creating policies, policy implementation and lastly making sure the performance to

success of all and any new policies. Even though the corrections facilities or the criminal

justice system is not the best system with the developed programs and implementation
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policies this is going to help fix some of the issues within the correctional component and

the criminal system would work and move forward in a positive affect as a whole.
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References

ALCU. (December 17, 2020). The Sad Truth About “Truth In Sentences” Laws in Illinois.

Retrieved from https://www.aclu-il.org/en/news/sad-truth-about-truth-sentencing-

laws-illinois

BJS Princeton Project. (1993). Performance Measures for the Criminal Justice System.

Retrieved from https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/pmcjs.pdf

Carson EAnn, William Sabol J. Aging of the State Prison Population, 1993–2013. Bureau

of Justice Statistics 2016

Kreager, D. A., & Kruttschnitt, C. (2018). INMATE SOCIETY IN THE ERA OF MASS

INCARCERATION. Annual review of criminology, 1, 261–283.

https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-criminol-032317-092513

Lawrence, A. (2013). Trends in Sentencing and Corrections State Legislation.

Washington, D.C.: National Conference of State Legislatures.

Mackenzie, D. L. (2001). Sentencing and Corrections in the 21st Century: Setting the

Stage for the Future. College Park, MD: Department Of Criminology and Criminal

Justice University of Maryland.

Scott-Hayward, C. S. (2009). The Fiscal Crisis in Corrections. Retrieved from

https://www.vera.org/downloads/Publications/the-fiscal-crisis-in-corrections-

rethinking-policies-and-practices/legacy_downloads/fiscal-crisis-corrections-

rethinking-policies-and-practices-2.pdf

The Associated Press. (October 17, 2004). `Get Tough` Youth Programs Are Ineffective,
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Panel, Says. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/politics/get-

tough-youth-programs-are-ineffective-panel-says.html