Lecture 1

The nature, scope & functioning of corrections

UKZN INSPIRING
 The Correctional Conglomerate

• As a component of the criminal justice system, corrections interacts with –

and is affected by – both law enforcement and the courts.

• The criminal justice turn, reflects social policy – as anchored in the

executive, legislative, and judicial functions of government.

• Policy in turn, is influenced by the values, opinions, and interests of

society.

• Government service is composed of as many employees, clients, and

diverse activities as corrections can also be considered a conglomerate .

UKZN INSPIRING
 Cont…..

• The people in position within the correction institutions

ranging from
 correctional officers to administrators,
 social workers,
 psychologists,
 psychiatrists,
 doctors, nurses,
 lawyers, teachers,
 counsellors, office staff, and maintenance personnel.

UKZN INSPIRING
 Custodial Institutions

• Corrections are easily stereotyped by its most visible physical structures –

custodial institutions.
• Prisons state or federal correctional institutions that confine those serving
sentences of longer than one years.
• Jails local correctional institutions that primary confine those awaiting trail
or serving sentences of less than one year.
• Other (less secure) facilities: local, state federal facilities for low rick
offenders serving sentences or preparing for parole.

UKZN INSPIRING
 Corrections is easily stereotyped by its most visible physical structures
custodial institutions.

 For adult, these are prisons and jails. For juveniles, they are training
schools, detention centres, and boot camps.

 All adult inmates housed in correctional institutions throughout the U.S.,

only about one-third are serving time in such maximum-security prisons.

 Inmates are confined to medium-security institutions – where wire

fencing replaces concrete walls.

UKZN INSPIRING
 Non-Custodial Alternatives
To find most clients of the correctional conglomerate, you would not locked
up behind bars.

• The vast majority are serving their sentence in the community through
such noncustodial alternatives as probation or parole.
• Offenders under community supervision (services, programs, or facilities
provided within the community to offenders who are not incarcerated), are
predominately either on probation or on parole.
• As the largest providers of correctional services, probation is a sentence
offered as an alternative to going to an institution, whereas parole is early
release offered as an alternative to remaining in an institution. Both enable
the offender to serve time in the community rather in a correctional facility

UKZN INSPIRING
 Cont….

 Probation is a sentencing option used by the court, whereas parole is an

administrative decision to conditionally release an inmate from prison
following a period of confinement.

 However, non-custodial alternative are not limited to probation and

parole. Other offenders are paying fines, making restitution (monetary
payment or the rendering of services by a convicted offender to
compensate for criminal behaviour), or performing community service in
lieu of incarceration.

 Growing numbers of these pretrial releases are being electronically

monitored while under “house arrest” during specified curfew hours. Nor
are such noncustodial alternatives limited to adults

UKZN INSPIRING
 Juvenile Programs and Facilities

 The correctional conglomerate likewise includes juveniles released prior to

adjudication, housed in detention, or participating in many residential and
non-residential treatment programs.

 Most youths are not confined primarily in secure institutions. There are far
fewer juveniles in locked-down custodial institutions and detention centres
than there are on probation or in alternative community-based programs
and facilities

• The juvenile corrections system includes both delinquents (whose offenses

would be considered crimes if they were older) and status offenders
(whose activities are considered illegal only because of their age), as well
as children voluntarily admitted by their parents, and in some cases can
even extend to those who are dependent or neglected.

UKZN INSPIRING
 Cont.…

• This does not mean children are dealt with a severely as adults but juvenile
correctional systems embraces a wider clientele.
• It includes both :
Delinquents
Whose offences would be considered crimes if they older
Statue offenders
Whose activities are considered illegal only because of their age

UKZN INSPIRING
 GOVERNMENT, SOCIETY, AND
CORRECTIONS

 The workload of corrections is determined by other components of the

justice system, as well as government practices and social values in
general.

 The police can decide whether or not to make an arrest

 Judges can decide whether or not to incarcerate an offender and, if so, for
what period of time

 But the corrections cannot decide which clients to accept and has limited
influence over how long they will remain under correctional supervision

UKZN INSPIRING
 The policies, procedures, and practices of the entire justice system have a
significant impact on corrections.

 Much of the success or failure of corrections is dependent on the entire

criminal justice system, as well as the government structure within which it
operates and the citizens who determine its policies.

 Corrections is part of the executive branch of government. Just as an

executive in private enterprise manages the operations of a company,
correctional officials manages the operations of a company, correctional
officials manage the day-to-day operations of government that are related
to implementing the sanctions decreed by the courts.

UKZN INSPIRING
 Cont….
 Within the correctional, system itself, there is a wide variety of opinions
about what constitutes “success,” ranging from lack of escapes to lack of
recidivism.

 Criminal justice decision-makers do not function in isolation. They are

responsible to elected officials, who in turn are responsible to the public. The
difficulty for corrections is trying to operate efficiency in the midst of the
resulting political pressures and public policy changes

UKZN INSPIRING
 Criminal Justice Impact Assessment

 When plans are made to construct a public building, it is mandatory to

conduct an impact study to assess the potential damage to the environment.

 If no one anticipates how crowded jails and prisons will become with more
punitive sentences, and if no one provides the resources to expand the
capacity of corrections to deal with more offenders, then no one will be
satisfied when ‘longer sentences actually translate into less time served .
 When it becomes apparent that correctional facilities cannot accommodate
the influx, lawmakers much more quietly authorize speeded-up formulas
whereby inmates can amass credits toward early release.
 Decision-makers can estimate the impact of new policies on future
correctional populations and associated costs.

UKZN INSPIRING
 Conflicting Correctional Goals

• System planning through an impact assessment of criminal

justice policy to coordinate efforts of police, police, courts &
corrections.
• Some police administrators for example: place great emphasis
on crime prevention & community relations.
• Some judges stress holding offenders fully accountable for
their crime.
• Criminal justice decision makers do not function in isolation –
bring about public policy changes.

UKZN INSPIRING
 Changing Public Policies
Time to time, the public changes its perspective about what causes people to
commit crime, what types of sentences offenders should receive, and what
corrections should be accomplishing

THE MEDICAL MODEL (1930 to mid 1970) :

• The medical model of criminal justice views offenders as engaging in
crime because of forces beyond their control. The forces shaping criminal
behaviour might be psychological; (e.g., mental illness); sociological (e.g.,
disruptive family environment), economic (e.g., unemployment), or even
physiological (e.g., improper diet).

• If offenders were to be effectively treated according to the medical model,

it was essential that sentencing address their individual needs.

UKZN INSPIRING
• Much burden on crime causation is placed on society in the line of
reasoning, it is society that the medical model holds responsible for
“diagnosing” the offenders “illness” prescribe a cure
• This views translated into correction being accountable for converting
clients into law- abiding citizens and successfully rupturing them into the
community.
• Social and psychological sciences are somewhat imprecise, making it
difficult to determine how long a client would require treatment before
being “cured” which translated into indeterminate sentences.

UKZN INSPIRING
• Medical model was named because of its resemblance to the medical
profession, it did not apply quite so precisely to corrections.
• Criminals convicted of the same offenses ended up serving widely
differing lengths of time in correctional institutions, creating sentencing
disparities.

Sentencing disparities:
Inequity created when the servility of sentencing or time served differs for
similar offenses committed under similar circumstances.

UKZN INSPIRING
 THE JUSTICE MODEL

THE JUSTICE MODEL (From mid 1970):

 A renewed emphasis on personal responsibility emerged, which eventually
became known as the justice (or crime control) model, since its focus was
on controlling crime and seeing justice served
 Under this philosophy people are viewed as capable of making rational
choices – of deciding through their own free will whether or not to engage
in crime.
 It therefore stands to reason that, if one freely elects to commit a crime,
punishment should follow to deter other potential criminals, achieve
justice, and hold the person accountable for his or her actions.

 Determinate Sentences of “flat” or “fixed” length are the hallmark of the

justice model. States embracing the justice model often employ sentencing
guidelines to assure more uniformity

UKZN INSPIRING
 Cont.…

• Indeterminate sentences practices, convicted offenders receive

flexible terms, which can range anywhere from one year (or
less) to life.
• It was designed to enable a specific treatment plan to be
prepared in which the offender participated for an undefine
period of time until rehabilitated.
• When correctional officials, in conjunction with treatment
personnel, determine that rehabilitation has occurred, the
inmate was released on parole.

UKZN INSPIRING
 The justice model incorporates treatment only on voluntary basis, in
believing that changing one’s behaviour cannot be forced but rather,
requires voluntary consent.

 Under the medical model, involvement in treatment was virtually required

to become eligible for parole.

 The justice model would advocate the abolishment of parole discretion to

assure more uniformity in sentencing.

UKZN INSPIRING
 Implications for Corrections

Balanced and Restorative Justice

• This approach attempts to balance the interests of offender, victim, and

community.

• Under this perspective, the justice process focuses on

– Offender accountability: restoring victim losses;
– Community protection: matching risk with intervention
strategy;
– Competency development: improving the offender’s ability to
function in a productive way.

• Public opinion will continue to influence public policy – which, in turn,

will continue to shape correctional operations.

UKZN INSPIRING
 Implications for Corrections

• Look at the table in page 18 of prescribed text book.

• Balance and restoration justice can provide a more productive option for
both the victim and offender as well the protection of the
society/community.
• If for no other reason than economic self-interest, burgeoning prison jail
populations may stimulate such rethinking in terms of society response to
crime.
• With economy plummeting to high levels of unemployment, mortgage
foreclosures and personal bankruptcy, public policy is yet again as the
political pendulum swings in new direction.
End

UKZN INSPIRING