Ch. 9 - Correctional Institutions

Question 1

What are Canada’s three correctional systems?

Answer 1

Youth, adult provincial, and adult federal.

Question 2

What ages are held in youth correctional systems?

Answer 2

12 - 17.

Question 3

Where did Canada’s first federal prison open and when?

Answer 3

Kingston in 1835.

Question 4

According to Foucault, what were prisons designed to create?

Answer 4

Docile bodies.

Question 5

What are docile bodies?

Answer 5

Compliant and passive prisoners who did not challenge the authority of the prison.

Question 6

How did the prison make docile bodies?

Answer 6

Denial freedom, arbitrary prison rules, harsh punishment, and substandard living conditions.

Question 7

Until when did the Constitution allow the whipping of inmates?

Answer 7

The 1950s.

Question 8

When was the physical abuse of inmates totally abolished?

Answer 8

1972.

Question 9

When was Kingston investigated?

Answer 9

1849.

Question 10

What was discovered when Kingston was investigated?

Answer 10

Whipping for staring at guards, food unfit for human consumption, men and women and children all housed together, mentally ill and social “misfits” also imprisoned.

Question 11

What were the two systems of punishment in 19th century North America?

Answer 11

The Pennsylvania System and the Auburn System.

Question 12

What were the characteristics of the Pennsylvania system?

Answer 12

Small cells based around segregation, forcing criminals to think about their crimes and repent, heavily Quaker based, given only a Bible.

Question 13

What were the characteristics of the Auburn system?

Answer 13

Based on the New York State Prison, advocated hard labour as the path to reform, distinguished by tiers or blocks, and it’s circular.

Question 14

Whose ideas were the tiers or blocks in a prison system based on?

Answer 14

Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon.

Question 15

What are the five types of correctional institutions?

Answer 15

Minimum-security, medium-security, maximum-security, multi-level institutions, and special handling units.

Question 16

What is characteristic of minimum-security institutions?

Answer 16

No armed security posts, no movement restrictions except at night.

Question 17

What is characteristic of medium-security institutions?

Answer 17

Look like maximum-security prisons, and more freedom of movement than max but less than min.

Question 18

What percentage of offenders are serving time in medium-security institutions?

Answer 18

Around 60%.

Question 19

What is characteristic of maximum-security institutions?

Answer 19

Rigidly controlled, armed security, housing dangerous offenders.

Question 20

What is characteristic of a special handling unit (SHU)?

Answer 20

Referred to as “super-max-prison,” actually classified as max security, holds the most dangerous inmates.

Question 21

What criteria are used to determine which security level an offender should be placed?

Answer 21

Escape risk, risk to public safety in the event of an escape, and level of supervision required within the institution.

Question 22

What does the theory of risk assessment focus on?

Answer 22

The social psychology of criminal behaviour.

Question 23

What does the theory of risk assessment state?

Answer 23

That individual and social/situational factors combine to create values, cognitions, and personality contexts in offenders,that facilitate criminal behaviour.

Question 24

Describe the risk in the risk-need-responsivity model.

Answer 24

An offender’s risk to reoffend can be predicted and reduced if the level of service provided matches the level of risk of the person.

Question 25

What is the difference between static and dynamic risks?

Answer 25

Static risks are factors that can’t be controlled by the state. E.g., how the offender will behave in prison.
Dynamic risks are things that can be changed. E.g., substance abuse, antisocial attitudes, education level.

Question 26

What are static risks used to assess?

Answer 26

The security level of the institution.

Question 27

What are dynamic risks used to assess?

Answer 27

The individual offender’s treatment plan.

Question 28

Describe the need in the risk-need-responsivity model.

Answer 28

Services that must address the criminogenic needs of an offender (i.e., those that are directly related to an offender’s criminal behaviour).

Question 29

Describe the responsively in the risk-need-responsivity model.

Answer 29

The method in which the needs are administered.

Question 30

Which method of treatment has been found most effective?

Answer 30

Cognitive behavioural strategies.

Question 31

Offenders most likely to reoffend if which component of the risk-need-responsivity model is neglected?

Answer 31

Needs.

Question 32

What are 6 challenges that face correctional institutions?

Answer 32

Being total institutions, being expected to pursue conflicting goals, being political and public institutions, becoming overcrowded, the dynamic nature of offender profiles, and inmate gangs and violence.

Question 33

How is prison being a total institution a challenge for the corrections system?

Answer 33

When every aspect of an inmate’s life is dictated to them, it makes it difficult for them to develop the necessary skills to succeed after prison.

Question 34

Describe the conflicting goals that prisons are expected to pursue, and how they are a challenge.

Answer 34

They are expected to deal with “threats” to public safety, but also to rehabilitate them so they can be reintegrated into society. AKA the split society of the prison system.

Question 35

Describe how the changing nature of criminals poses a challenge to the corrections system.

Answer 35

Many are struggling to overcome addictions or mental illness, or have high rates of contagious diseases. This makes it harder to treat everyone correctly.

Question 36

What proportion of inmates are part of a known gang or other organized crime?

Answer 36

1 in 6.

Question 37

What is the process of taking clothes and possessions, along with general putting inmates in their place called?

Answer 37

Status degradation.

Question 38

What are 3 examples of rules in the inmate code?

Answer 38

Don’t accept favours, don’t show weakness, do your own time.

Question 39

What is a “fish” in inmate vocabulary?

Answer 39

A new inmate.

Question 40

What is a “goof” in inmate vocabulary?

Answer 40

Someone who is acting deviantly or inappropriately. E.g., whistling.