Institutional

Corrections

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 European Background
Historically, institutional confinement has
been used since ancient times, but not until
the 1600s and 1700s as a major punishment
for criminals. Prior to that it was used to:
• Detain people before trial
• Hold prisoners awaiting other sanctions
• Coerce payment of debts and fines
continued…
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 European Background
• Hold and punish slaves
• Achieve religious indoctrination (the Inquisition)
• Quarantine disease

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 Forerunners of Modern 
Incarceration
Modern incarceration Early punishments for
strives to change the crime were directed
offender’s character more at the offender’s
and is carried out body and property.
away from public Goals were to inflict
view. pain, humiliate the
offender, and deter
onlookers from crime.
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 Forerunners of Modern 
Incarceration
Two additional forerunners of modern
incarceration were:
• Banishment
• Transportation 

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 banishment
A punishment, originating in ancient times, that 
required offenders to leave the community and live 
elsewhere, commonly in the wilderness.

transportation
A punishment in which offenders were transported 
from their home nation to one of that nation’s 
colonies to work.

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 Forerunners of Modern 
Incarceration
The closest European forerunners of modern
U.S. prisons were known as workhouses.
workhouses
European forerunners of the modern U.S. prison, 
where offenders were sent to learn discipline and 
regular work habits.

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 Developments in the 
United States
In colonial America, penal practice was loose,
decentralized, and unsystematic, combining
private retaliation with fines, banishment,
harsh corporal punishments, and capital
punishment.

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 The Penitentiary Movement
The Walnut Street Jail opened in 1790 in
Philadelphia and is considered the first state
prison.

Inmates labored in solitary cells and 
received large doses of religious training.

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 The Penitentiary Movement
Pennsylvania and New York pioneered the
penitentiary movement by developing two
competing systems of confinement:
The Pennsylvania  The Auburn system 
system 

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 Pennsylvania system
An early system of U.S. penology in which inmates 
were kept in solitary cells so that they could study 
religious writings, reflect on their misdeeds, and 
perform handicraft work.

continued…
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 Auburn system
An early system of penology, originating at Auburn 
Penitentiary in New York, under which inmates 
worked and ate together in silence during the day and 
were placed in solitary cells for the evening.

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 The Penitentiary Movement
By the end of the Civil War, many were
questioning the value of the penitentiary
movement, as prisons failed to deter crime,
and became increasingly expensive to
maintain.
A new movement sought to improve the 
method of incarceration. 

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 The Reformatory Movement
The reformatory movement was based on
principles adopted at the 1870 meeting of the
National Prison Association. The reformatory was
designed: •
for younger, less hardened offenders.
• based on a military model of regimentation.
• with indeterminate terms.
• with parole or early release for favorable 
progress in reformation.

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 Institutions for Women
Until the reformatory era, there was little
effort to establish separate facilities for
women.
• The first women’s prison based on the 
reformatory model opened in Indiana in 1873.
• Women’s prisons concentrated on molding 
inmates to fulfill stereotypical domestic roles.

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 Recent Trends ­ The 
Incarceration Boom
Between 1980 and 2000, the adult prison
population in the U.S. (state and federal) more
than quadrupled.

There are more than 1.4 million state and

federal prisoners in U.S.

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 Recent Trends
Local jail populations saw a similar (less
dramatic) trend.

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 Cost Estimates

• The average yearly cost of incarceration 
per inmate is about $22,000.

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 The Crowding Issue
Crowding has become especially troublesome
over the past two decades. The staggering
increase in prison construction has frequently
failed to keep pace with the increase in prison
populations.

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 The Crowding Issue
The prison population has exploded even as
crime rates are stable, and in some cases even
declining.

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Prison Inmate Characteristics

90% of prisoners in the U.S. are in state

prisons; 10% are in federal prisons.

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 Prison Inmate Characteristics
The largest proportion of state prisoners are:
• Male
• Minority
• Have not completed high school
• Under age 35
• Have never married

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 Prison Inmate Characteristics
The prison population is characterized as
follows:
• About 50% are serving sentences for 
violent offenses
• About 20% for property offenses
• About 20% for drug offenses
• The remainder for public order offenses

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 Organization and 
Administration by Government
• Each state has a department of corrections or
a similar administrative body to coordinate
the various adult prisons in the state.
• Most adult prisons employ a quasi­
military model of administration and 
management.

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 Types of Facilities
Some of the more common facility types are:
• Classification and other special facilities
• Men’s prisons
• Women’s prisons 
• Jails and lockups

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 Classification and Other 
Special Facilities
Most prisoners are initially sent to a
classification facility.
Classification facility
A facility to which newly sentenced offenders are 
taken so that their security risks and needs can be 
assessed and they can be assigned to a permanent 
institution.

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 Classification and Other 
Special Facilities
The decision of where to place an offender 
rests on a variety of factors:
• The offender’s security risk
• Program services the offender needs, such as 
counseling
• Any problems such as alcohol dependency
• The nature of the offense continued…
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 Classification and Other 
Special Facilities
• The offender’s prior record, propensity 
toward violence and escape, and 
vulnerability to victimization by other 
inmates
• Programs offered at the state’s institutions, 
and the related crowding levels

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 Men’s Prisons
Men’s prisons, the most common general type
of prison, are often distinguished by security
level.
security level
A designation applied to a facility to describe the 
measures taken, both inside and outside, to preserve 
security and custody.

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 Men’s Prisons
The simplest security level categorization is:
• maximum
• medium
• minimum

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 Men’s Prisons

Maximum-security facilities are characterized

by very tight internal and external security.

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 Men’s Prisons
Common security measures include:
• A high wall or razor­wire fencing
• Armed­guard towers
• Electronic detectors
• External armed patrol
• A wide, open buffer zone between the outer wall or 
fence and the community
continued…
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 Men’s Prisons
• Restrictions on inmate movement
• The capability of closing off areas to contain riots 
or disruptions

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 Men’s Prisons
A recent development is the “ultramaximum”
or “supermaximum-security” prison to house
notorious offenders and problem inmates from
other institutions.
These institutions utilize:
• Total isolation of inmates
• Constant lockdowns

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 Men’s Prisons
Medium-security institutions place fewer
restrictions on inmate movement inside the facility.
Characteristics often include:
• Dormitory or barracks­type living quarters
• No external security wall
• Barbed wire rather than razor wire
• Fences and towers that look less forbidding

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 Men’s Prisons
Minimum-security prisons are smaller and
more open.

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 Men’s Prisons
They often house inmates who:
• Have established records of good behavior
• Are nearing release
Characteristics often include:
• Dormitory or barracks living quarters
• No fences
• Some inmates may be permitted to leave during the 
day to work or study
• Some inmates may be granted furloughs
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 Men’s Prisons
Individual inmates are classified by custody
level.

Although custody levels are sometimes 
designated by the same terms as security 
levels, they are independent of each other.

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 Women’s Prisons
Women make up about 7% of the prison
population, but the incarceration rate for
women has grown faster than the
incarceration rate for men.
• A greater proportion of women than men are 
serving sentences for property offenses.
• Women are more likely to have dependent 
children and to be serving their first prison term.

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 Women’s Prisons
• Prisons exclusively for women tend to be
smaller and house fewer inmates than
institutions exclusively for men.
• Dorm and cottage plans are much more 
common than cell­block plans for women’s 
prisons.

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 Jails and Lockups
Suspects usually stay in a lockup for only 24
to 48 hours.
• A suspect may later be transferred from the 
lockup to the jail.

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 Jails and Lockups
In practice, a jail serves a catchall function in
criminal justice and corrections. A jail may
hold:
• Convicted offenders serving short sentences
• Convicted offenders awaiting transfer to prison
• Offenders who have violated their probation or 
parole
• Defendants who are awaiting trial
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 Prison Services
Many of the human services and programs
found in the free society are duplicated within
prisons:
• Food services
• Building maintenance and repair (often performed 
by inmates)
• Medical and dental services
• Mail and phone services
continued…
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 Prison Services

• Visitations
• Commissaries where prisoners can purchase food, 
tobacco, radios, and reading materials
• Recreational facilities
• Legal resources
• Religious services

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 Prison Services
All institutions have special-needs
populations, in particular:
• Elderly inmates who require more medical 
attention
• Inmates with mental disorders
• Inmates with HIV and AIDS

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 Prison Services
It has long been assumed that rehabilitation
can be facilitated by improving inmates’
academic skills and providing them with job
skills.
• Much prison education amounts to remedial 
schooling designed to prepare inmates to 
obtain their GEDs.
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 Prison Services
Some prison vocational programs operate as
part of job assignments, others are separate.
Either way, the goal is to provide inmates with 
job skills that will improve their marketability 
upon release.

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 Prison Services
Counseling and therapy offered in prisons
varies widely.
• Sometimes individual counseling (one­on­
one with a counselor) and group counseling 
are both offered.
 

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