NCJ Number
198508
Date Published
1997
Length
511 pages
Annotation
This textbook is intended to introduce students to the profession, industry, and academic discipline of corrections in America.
Abstract
Chapter 1 examines the role of corrections in society's attempt to control crime, followed by a chapter that explains how corrections functions as one component of an integrated, sequenced criminal justice system. Chapter 3 focuses on how social norms, values, and beliefs guide official responses to crime by analyzing how societies have reacted historically to law-breakers. The prison is the focus of Chapter 4, as it provides an overview of how correctional institutions have evolved, changes in characteristics of prison populations, and the characteristics of State correctional systems and the Federal prison system. After a discussion of the management of the prison in Chapter 5, Chapters 6-8 shift the focus to the clients of correctional institutions. In addition to examining who is in prison and how prison populations have increased in the past two decades, this chapter discusses the nature of prison life and its impact on inmates after their release. Other topics discussed in these chapters are prisoners' rights and the impact of prison culture on inmate violent behavior. In Chapter 9 the issues previously addressed regarding male inmates are discussed specifically for women inmates. In Chapters 10-12, the discussion turns from prisons to other forms of correctional activities, namely, jails, community corrections in the form of probation, and parole. The parallel structure and activities of the juvenile justice system with the adult system are examined in Chapter 13, and the concluding chapter addresses four major contemporary issues in corrections: overcrowding, financial problems, private corrections, and locations of new correctional facilities. Each chapter contains a summary, questions for review, suggested learning activities, and notes. Appended suggested for finding a job in corrections and selected amendments to the U.S. Constitution