Prisons and Jails Chapter 12 13 In Your

Prisons and Jails Chapter 12 & 13 In Your Textbook John Massey Criminal Justice

Prisons o Instruments of punishment Over 200 years o Walnut Street Jail (1790) o n n o Penn System (1820’s) n n n o Pennsylvania Silence and labor provide the best hope for rehabilitation Separated inmates from society and each other Eventually overcrowding Result of the failure of the Walnut Street Jail Prisoners worked, slept, and ate alone in their cells Very little contact with other humans New York System (1831) n n n Congregate system or the Auburn System Silence and labor but inmates worked and ate together More popular, prisons afterwards followed this system

Reform o The Progressives n n o Robert Martinson “What Works” n n o Positivist school of criminology Crime is caused by social, economic and biological factors Medical model of prisons emerged Treatment and programs Prisons had remained unchanged 1960’s, more rehab/treatment, less punishment Martinson’s report showed that no rehab programs work This led to the first “get-tough” programs The 1980’s n n Prison population boom Crime increasing

1990’s o Crime rates begin to drop Prison populations still on the rise o 4 reasons for this: o n n More likely to be sentenced to prison (get tough) More likely to serve more time for your crime (three-strikes, truth-insentencing, reduction of good time) Community corrections programs either cut or underfunded Rising numbers for female offenders

Types of Prisons o Four types – maximum, medium, minimum, supermax o Supermax n n o Maximum n n o Dangerous inmates/felons Built to prevent escape, intense supervision Medium n n o Most severe form Red Onion, Wallens Ridge Less dangerous offenders Less restrictive than max prison, most offenders here Minimum n n n Inmates who pose little threat Great deal of freedom/movement, resembles college campus 1 st time offenders, non-violent, well-behavd

Inside the prison o Most offenders don’t stay in one prison during their entire sentence n o Warden n o Superintendent of prison Privatizing Prisons n n n o Classification Ran by private organizations instead of govt. Efficiency and cost-effectiveness Save the government money Jails n n Different from prisons Counties and cities Awaiting trial, charged w/ misdemeanors, sentences less than 1 year – 700, 000 people in jail on any given day Overflow from prisons

Total institutions o Think of prisons as total institutions Provide all necessities for existence Encompass every aspect of inmate’s life Prisoner cannot leave institution o Prisonization o o o n o Prison Code n o Adapt and accept the prison society and subculture Social norms and values, the do’s and don’ts Parole n n n Conditional release of a prisoner after portion of sentence served Abolished in many states Dependant on a number of factors

The rabble hypothesis o o John Irwin, “The Jail” Those in jail are the sewer of society n n Not members of organizations Few social networks Unusual values and beliefs The jail is the holding place for the “sewage”