NCJ Number
145621
Date Published
1990
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This paper reviews the principles underlying current corrections policies and practices, including emerging trends regarding imprisonment as well as alternatives to institutionalization in countries around the world.
Abstract
The discussion notes that the problem of AIDS in correctional facilities and the need to ensure the human rights of offenders and correctional personnel are also crucial. It also notes the political pressures for more prisons, longer sentences, and harsher prison conditions and the needs both to create a more informed climate of public opinion and to evaluate the extent to which custodial and noncustodial sanctions both protect and satisfy the public. Current issues related to corrections management include personnel selection and training, inmate classification, inmate academic education, correctional industries, programs for ex-offenders, privatization in corrections, prisoners' rights, AIDS prevention, and prison overcrowding. Other issues relate to special categories of prisoners, including terrorists, violent inmates, drug offenders, pretrial prisoners, mentally ill offenders, mentally handicapped offenders, foreign citizens, females, children, and minorities. Further issues include alternatives to incarceration and the use of technology. International cooperation should focus on descriptive research and trend analysis, evaluation research, international transfers, and mutual assistance. Reference notes