Chapter 9 Flashcards
Problems of Prison Systems
There is no single way to run a prison and there are different theories and rationales for using prisons as a form of punishment for criminal activity.
Policy makers main task is to try to determine, for any given social/religious/economic/political/racial mix, what correctional model and policy works best to prevent, correct/punish, and eliminate recidivism.
It may be that for a given social/religious/economic/political/racial mix, depriving offenders of their freedom through incarceration is not the best response to their crimes or the best way to prevent recidivism.
It may simply be, and we must consider this, that there currently exists no societal responses that works:
(1) to prevent crime
(2) correct behavior after a crime is committed
(3) punish the crime
(4) prevent recidivism
Evolution of Prison Systems
Roman Law: Did not recognize imprisonment as a form of punishment – but as a waiting time before “trial” and before punishment.
1500’s: Prisoners were incarcerated for relatively short periods of time while they awaited draconian style punishments.
Reign of Constantine: The Christian Church began the custom of providing sanctuary for penitence rather than physical punishments and death. This evolved over time to a form of imprisonment and the formation of monasteries.
Middle Ages: Prisons remained largely for minor offenses and for those in debt. Purpose of some prisons became expanded to include longer incarceration terms as punishment.
Dutch Courts: Believed to be first courts to regularly substitute imprisonment for corporal punishment.
England: Bridewells (secular houses of correction) were instituted in 1553. Housed prostitutes, vagrants, debtors, and other minor criminals. Prisoners were subject to stern discipline. Early European prisons were rarely called prisons, but goals, which turned into jails.
The American Experience with Incarceration
The American system of penitentiaries had achieved international fame as a major reform of the criminal justice process.
Various American reformers designed different systems: The Pennsylvania system (Regime of Solitude), and Auburn system (silent, controlled work), would provide a humane way to bring about a change of disposition and lifestyle in convicted criminals.
The American prison system developed in response to the arbitrary and cruel corporal punishments that were inflicted on offenders in previous eras in the hope that they would deter others from crime.
By the early twentieth century it was clear that the prisons were not fulfilling their promise and in fact were generally as cruel and inhumane as any previous method of punishment.
Progressive movement: a new approach to corrections: rehabilitation of the individual offender by specialists in corrections. New or renewed proposals for change, including probation, parole, therapeutic programs. Separate juvenile justice mechanisms became the ideological, if not practical, reform proposals of the movement.
The reform movement was short lived. Faced with high crime rates and high recidivism rates, since the early1970’s criminal justice officials throughout the world and especially in the United States turned to a crime control model.
The crime control model: Assumes that criminal behavior can be controlled by more incarceration and other forms of strict supervision in the community. As a result of this model we have seen the decline of rehabilitation and growth of a punitive ethos that has led to dealing more strictly with drug offenders, violent offenders, and career criminals. Mandatory sentences, longer sentences, intensive supervision programs, and detention without bail have increased jail and prison populations to record levels in the U.S.
Questions to ask when Designing a Penal System
What assumptions are we to make about the nature of human beings? Basically Good or basically bad? Capable of reform/correction or incorrigible?
Problem of recidivism?
What is our purpose in punishing offenders?
What corrects? What punishes? What prevents recidivism?
How do our answers to these questions influence the design of our:
Penal system? Sentencing laws? Forms of punishment?
England and Wales Penal Policy
English correctional system has experienced major reforms over the past 200 years. Prison became the major recourse for dealing with convicted offenders English prisons were notorious for their rigid regimes and harsh conditions. A series of riots in the 1970s(Woolf Report): Over crowding, Poor food, Limited Programs, and Ineffective grievance procedures.
20th century: movements of concern and efforts to reform. Influenced by the Progressive Movement in the United States. Also increased concern for juvenile offenders. Formed separate court processes and formed the Borstal training system.
England and Wales have the highest number of inmates in Western and Northern Europe. To address the increase in prison population, the government began a series of prison expansion projects that addressed 3 main issues: Rise in use of custodial sanctions by courts, the increase in the length of sentences, and the increase in the time served by those in remand prisons. To address the costs of this endeavor, the British have turned to the privatization of prisons.
Five basic types of prisons in England:
Remand centers: Where the accused are held until trial.
Local prisons: Offenders awaiting trial or sentencing or serving short sentences.
Closed and open training institutions: hold the majority of British inmates, who are generally sentenced to between eighteen months and four years, or long term prisons that house inmates serving more than four years.
Highly secure prisons: Handle high security and dangerous inmates.
Closed and open institutions: Incarcerate only young offenders.
In 2004, the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) was created. Serves as an agency that coordinates in 10 geographic regions that services both the prison system and the probation service so inmates who are leaving prison are supervised and provided with the best release plan possible.
Independent monitoring boards: developed in response to human rights concerns. Serves as a way to bring in outsiders into the prisons to help with the problems of administration and discipline.
Noncustodial options: warnings, probation, restitution, community service, fines, curfews, suspended services.
Combination orders: includes aspects of probation and community service.
National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NACRO): Fully supports the use of volunteers in the supervision and placement of offenders, increases in diversion programs, and the reduction of mandatory sentences. Comparable to the halfway house in United States.
France Penal Policy
In the postwar years France moved from an emphasis on prison reform to a generally harsher philosophy of punishment. France has a reputation for the dismal treatment of criminal and political offenders – sending people to island work colonies of barren rock, heat, disease, and depravation.
3 general types of institutions:
Jails: pretrial inmates and short sentences.
Prisons: detention centers, penitentiary centers, or high security institutions.
Special institutions: physical handicaps, psychological disorders, females, aged, and juveniles.
Almost 25% of inmates are unconvicted or serving less than one year sentences. France has developed a reputation for the excessiveness of the length of their pretrial detentions. Some detainees are kept in jail for several years while their cases are being investigated by examining magistrates. The numbers are down by 10% from five years prior. Reasons for the drop include pretrial diversion programs and rules stating that a maximum of one year of pretrial detention is allowed in less serious cases.
The French have tried to deal with the problem of increasing incarceration rates through the Office of Corrections Judges. These judges are appointed by the government to perform several functions, including determining the length of time that a particular prisoner remains in prison and whether the prisoner should be released on parole. The corrections judges have the responsibility of visiting prisons in their jurisdictions at least once a month, hearing individual inmate complaints, and keeping informed about prison programs, physical plants, and general conditions.
Germany Penal Policy
Prisons are administered at the State level (Lander).
The Prison Act of 1976: Establishes all of the principles and methods to be practiced in German correctional facilities. Includes provisions for safeguarding certain rights accorded to prisoners, including visiting rights, home leave, and productive paid work.
As of 2012: 186 correctional institutions in Germany. But less than 10% have a capacity of over 500 prisoners, making Germany quite progressive in terms of prison size. When offenders enter prison they begin at a high level of security and as they serve their sentence and show progression they can move to a lower level of security.
Unique environmental design. German prisons are almost always located within cities or in nearby suburban communities. This makes it easier for families to visit and for inmates to utilize the community for home leave, work, and educational purposes. Prisons in Germany look mostly like factories or hospitals. The belief is that keeping the physical appearance more like that of a factory creates a more “normal” living condition that will foster rehabilitation. German prisons often provide inmates with extensive work and training opportunities to prevent idleness, reduce institutional costs, and help inmates improve themselves so they can become better citizens upon release. A large percentage of the inmates in German prisons engage in some work or rehabilitative program.
Frequent use of three Community Reintegration Programs:
Home leave: is one of the rights included in the 1976 Prison Act that has been increasingly implemented. These leaves are given at the discretion of the authorities.
Conjugal visiting: inmates can receive visits from their spouses and children for four hours every two months. They obtain this privilege after being incarcerated for two to three months and lose it only if they violate a serious prison rule or are involved with drugs.
Freiganger program: In this program, inmates who have served at least one half of their sentence can earn the privilege to leave the institution during the day for school or work and then return to the institution at night. This program is guided by the belief that gradual release will assist in the inmates’ successful reintegration into the community.
China Penal Policy
Correctional system retains elements of both the Confucian and legalist perspectives: Bringing out the good nature of people and creating personal change through the imposition of moral education combined with Socialist idea of reeducating people toward socialist values.
Seven types of Social Control Mechanisms:
Jails
Prisons
Reeducation through labor camps
Reform through labor camps
Detention centers
Drug detoxification centers
Schools of discipline and education for young adults and juveniles.
Reeducation through labor: both a policy and a name of the kind of correctional facility that incarcerates those who have administrative detention status. Administrative detention: punishment that allows authorities to impose fines and incarceration without the benefit of a trial and formal adjudication as criminals. Technically a noncriminal sanction that can be applied to youths and adults. Has resulted in the incarceration of thousands of people without the benefit of trial or formal adjudication – for reeducation.
Reform through labor: both a philosophy of corrections and the name of the kind of correctional facility for offenders who have been tried and convicted of a criminal offense.
Prisons: generally house the more dangerous inmates.
Labor: important element of correctional system through all the forms of incarceration.
Thought reform: includes having inmates confess to their wrongdoing, attack their criminal identity, and reconstruct a new self- image that fits with the beliefs of the socialist agenda.
Incarceration figures: tough to determine because China often fails to report such data and does not allow outside scrutiny of correctional system.
Public Surveillance: a form of a noncustodial sanction in China - can be imposed from 3 months to two years and requires that the offender report regularly to the local public security agency.
Japan Penal Policy
Strong emphasis on work and discipline. Prisons administered centrally by a division of the Ministry of Justice called the Correction Bureau. Divided into 8 regions. The prisons themselves are differential according to age, sex, pretrial or post-conviction status, and type of prison regime. Imprisonment rate is low compared to other countries. For less serious crimes, fines are likely to be ordered which account for 97% of punishments for crimes.
Individuals are afforded individualized treatment in prisons that allow them to become rehabilitated and reintegrated into the community. Inmates work through a system that allows them more privileges and freedoms as they successfully serve their sentence.
Naikan: a method of therapy in which individuals use introspection to understand the impact of their behavior on others and that of others on themselves.
Unflattering reports about the treatment of offenders in Japanese prisons. To address these matters the Japanese passed the Act on Penal Detention Facilities and Treatment of Inmates and Detainees in 2005. Among the changes in the act is a call for authorization to appoint citizens to a visiting committee for each correctional institution. Each committee will be charged with the task of making recommendations to prison administrators. It is hoped that these committees can provide the supervision necessary to improve the treatment of inmates.
Growing number of inmates who are members of gangs or organized crime groups. It is estimated that more than 25% of Japanese inmates are involved in these security threat groups.
Increasing number of inmates coming into prison with drug abuse and mental health issues. This problem is taxing to the strict regime methods of the Japanese prison system. Because of the strong emphasis on conformity in Japanese life, prisons are a sign of failure, and being a prisoner is a disgrace to the offender and the family. The Japanese believe that tough methods used in prisons are necessary costs for a safer society. The methods are believed to break down a prisoner’s resistance and force him to acknowledge guilt and remorse. The goal is to successfully reintegrate offenders back into society. What American’s may see as abuse, the Japanese view as rehabilitation.
Saudi Arabia Penal Policy
Prison is not main method of punishment in Saudi Arabia but rather heavy use of corporal punishment.
Saudi Correctional Theory: written rules to regulate the prison system are unnecessary because the rights of prisoners are guaranteed according to Islamic Law. The Shari’a forms the basis for all Islamic codes and regulates all principles of the justice system. Efforts to persuade the Saudis to comply with various international treaties that outline protections for inmates have been unsuccessful.
Solutions to Prison Crowding
Laws that mandate release of prisoners when the prisons become crowded. This practice has been adopted in the United States, while other countries moved toward reducing the kinds and lengths of prison sentences for certain times.
Use of amnesty or pardons to shorten sentences to counteract the large increase in crime and convictions. Used in Thailand and India recently.
In many countries, the answer has been to simply build more prisons. This strategy has often been criticized by a number of well-respected academics and social reformers who claim that it is illogical to think that prison can be offered as its own remedy. This methodology is called the construction strategy. The construction strategy within the United States has been advanced through the development of private prisons - which are correctional institutions, run by private companies on behalf of the government. Some feel that this can save money for governments while others feel the exact opposite.
The null strategy: do nothing about the increasing population so that conditions become so deplorable that the atmosphere will serve as a deterrent to future or recidivistic offenders.
Intermediate sanctions strategy: calls for the development of punishments short of incarceration. These include probation and parole, fines, day fines, home confinement, electronic monitoring, etc.
Population reduction strategy: calls for a two-step process of changing sentencing practices and developing more methods for letting inmates out of prison.
“Front door strategies” - legislators must write laws that limit the use of imprisonment.
“Backdoor strategies” - strategies such as parole, work release, and good time must be implemented to get offenders out of prison before the end of their terms to free up space for newcomers.
Incarceration of Supranational Criminals
Supranational courts were formed to deal with those accused of crimes such as genocide and other crimes against humanity. As these courts begin to pass verdicts and sentences, the international community must decide how and where to place the criminals.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda has built within the Arusha prison in Tanzania a United Nations Detention Facility that has 56 cells. Other African countries, Mali and Benin, currently incarcerate 32 inmates in addition to the thousands who have already been tried, convicted, and incarcerated in Rwanda for the atrocities committed during its civil war in 1994.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has indicted 161 persons since beginning operations in the 1990’s. As of April 2011, 17 nation states have signed an agreement stating they would be willing to incarcerate those convicted in the ICTY trials. The ICTY’s temporary remand center is located in The Hague.
