NCJ Number
85342
Date Published
1982
Length
8 pages
Annotation
The role of corrections is to carry out court sentences in such a way that offenders are no worse off than when they entered the system and have had a fair chance to better themselves if they so choose.
Abstract
If corrections continues to drift without formulating and committing itself to a rational, achievable policy, it can be expected that (1) the pressure on maximum security prisons will increase; (2) there will be less money for programs; (3) there will not be enough work to go around for inmates; (4) staff will continue to be difficult to recruit and retain; (5) the narcotics traffic in prisons will increase; and (6) existing inmate gangs will become more firmly entrenched, and new gangs will be formed. The public now demands more severity against offenders, expressed in long prison sentences. Corrections responsibility begins with steps to ensure that these long sentences are served in tolerable conditions. The indispensable ingredients in every prison environment should be safety, lawfulness, industriousness, and hopefulness. Any inmate should expect that if he minds his own business throughout his sentence, he will be safe from other inmates without resorting to protective custody or other restraints. This calls for more and better trained staff to be certain that prison predators are restrained. Further, laws and rules in the prison must be rigorously enforced, and inmate work activity should be expanded to serve State-use and Federal-use markets. While the medical model is no longer realistic, inmates should at least have the opportunity to improve their education and vocational skills should they choose, so that there is some hope that their lives after release will not repeat the patterns that led to imprisonment.