Correctional Administration: Integrating Theory and Practice

• NCJ Number: 193281
• Author(s): Richard P. Seiter
• Date Published: 2002
• Length: 523 pages
• Sale Source: Prentice Hall Publishing
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This textbook provides information on the functions of correctional administrators and the issues that impact administrators as they create new approaches to deal with new challenges.

Abstract

The textbook is divided into five sections. Part 1 Correctional Management and Administration, includes a review of how management differs from leadership and how future issues will demand that leaders change traditional styles of leadership. The section includes a discussion on how administrators can use planning exercises to help their organizations identify future challenges and appropriate responses. Part 2 Managing Offenders, describes the history of various correctional goals that influenced the creation of correctional administration. The goal of corrections seems confusing because administrators must balance the need to punish, deter, and rehabilitate. Important elements that help administrators categorize criminals include risk assessment and offender classification. Part 3 Managing the Environment--The Prison Setting, examines the organization and activities critical for developing a safe and secure prison environment. Prisons are highly complex organizations, with multifaceted missions and a number of client groups. The correctional administrator must understand the tools available to manage this population to protect staff and inmates. In Part 4 Managing the Correctional Staff, the functions of human resource management within the correctional agencies, including how agencies recruit, hire, train, and develop staff, are reviewed. A key component in using human resources in a correctional environment is supervision, which involves how work is assigned and evaluated. This section also provides a description of the jobs available to those who choose correctional careers. Finally, Part 5 looks at the issues that will confront correctional administrators during the next decade. Various approaches to fiscal administration are considered and there is a review of the private sector contracting for delivery of correctional services. The text was written with several goals, the most important was to give individuals considering corrections a realistic assessment of corrections as a career option.