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CHAPTER 1
The Corrections System
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading the chapter, students should be able to:
1. Describe the range of purposes served by the corrections system.
2. Define the systems framework and explain why it is useful.
LESSON PLAN
Correlated to PowerPoints
I. Introduction
A. Growth of the system has changed how much people know about corrections.
1. During 2015, almost half the states in the U.S. reduced the number of people in
prison.
3. By 2010, after 38 years of steady growth, the U.S. imprisonment rate reached
4. There are now nearly 3,000 people on death row with another 206,000 serving
life sentences.
6. Nearly 3% of Americans are now in the corrections system—prisons, jails,
probation, parole, or community corrections.
8. By 2015, the prison incarceration rate had fallen to 480 per 100,000, a 5 percent
reduction from the peak.
9. More than 6.7 million Americans are currently in the correctional system.
a. Some worry that some groups are affected more than others.
i. African Americans are five times more likely to be in prison than whites.
ii. Nearly 12 percent of African American men aged 20–40 are under some
form of correctional control. One is six has been to prison.
iii. Nearly one-third of all African American high school dropouts are in the
correctional system.
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Instructor’s Manual
b. Correction costs are nearly $80 billion per year.
Media Tool
Visit http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/
o The Bureau of Justice Statistics: A major source of criminal justice data.
o Research your state’s statistics regarding correctional inmates and discuss this in class.
See Assignment 1
II. The Purpose of Corrections
Learning Objective 1: Describe the range of purposes served by the corrections system.
A. The term corrections usually refers to any action applied to individuals who have
been accused or convicted of a crime.
B. Corrections also includes actions applied to people who have been accused—but not
yet convicted—of criminal offenses.
C. Corrections thus encompasses all the legal responses of society to some prohibited
behavior.
D. Correctional activities are performed by public and private organizations.
E. Three basic concepts of Western criminal law define the purpose and procedure of
criminal justice.
2. Guilt
Class Discussion/Activity
Have each person in the class come up with a two-word phrase to describe corrections. Write
them on the board and comment on the phrases while highlighting some of the topics that will be
discussed throughout the semester.
See Assignment 2
III. A Systems Framework for Studying Corrections
Learning Objective 2: Define the systems framework and explain why it is useful.
1. A system is a complex whole consisting of interdependent parts whose
2. The various components of criminal justice—police, prosecutors, courts,
corrections—function as a system.
A. Goals
1. Fair punishment and community protection define the purpose of corrections.
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3. When these twin functions do not correspond, corrections faces goal conflict.
What If Scenario
Imagine you are in charge of a prison system. What would be the goal of your organization and
what programs would you have in place for incarcerated individuals?
B. Interconnectedness
1. Corrections can be viewed as a series of processes: sentencing, classification,
supervision, programming, and revocation.
3. Processes affect one another because of the flow of people through the
corrections process.
C. Environment
1. Corrections has a reciprocal relationship with its environment: Its practices
2. If the prison system provides inadequate drug treatment, people return to the
community with the same drug problems they had when they were locked up.
D. Feedback
1. Systems learn, grow, and improve based on feedback received about their
effectiveness.
2. Corrections has trouble obtaining useful feedback.
E. Complexity
1. Thirty years ago, the traditional three Ps—probation, prisons, and parole—
dominated correctional practice.
3. Correctional clients are supervised by various service agencies operating at
different levels and branches of government.
Class Discussion/Activity
Group students into clusters of 3–6. Tell students that they are to assume the role of the
sentencing authority. Tell them that Person X has been convicted of Crime X and that they must
come up with a sentence and indicate what they are trying to achieve with the sentence. Almost
immediately, students will ask for more details about the incident, the person who committed the
crime, the victim, etc. Tell them more. After they’ve decided on their sentence, change a variable
about the person who committed the crime or the victim (such as criminal history, age, gender,
or mental capacity). Have them determine the sentence again. You could keep going with this,
but ultimately, you will want to poll the groups to see the sentences. Some groups may keep their
sentences the same despite changing variables. You may even find great differences among the
Instructor’s Manual
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groups with the sentences given. This activity offers great opportunities to introduce sentencing-
related topics such as presentence investigation reports, laws surrounding habitual criminal
behavior, jails vs. prisons, interagency connectivity, and so forth.
See Assignment 3
IV. The Corrections System Today
Learning Objective 3: Name the various components of the corrections system today and
describe their functions.
A. Employs over 700,000 people—administrators, psychologists, counselors, officers,
social workers, and others.
1. Average annual cost of over $81 billion.
B. Power and responsibility divided between national and state governments.
2. Corrections encompasses a major commitment on the part of American society
to deal with people convicted of criminal law violations.
4. Many states now spend more on corrections than on all public higher education.
5. 110 federal prisons and about 1,000 state prisons (jails operated mainly by local
governments)
Class Discussion/Activity
Critical thinking: Is it fair to let financial pressures determine how much we are willing to spend
to promote justice and public safety? Do we need to consider other issues to determine whether
the U.S. corrections system is too large? What might some of those reasons be? Are they more
important than money?
C. The Big Three in Corrections
2. As of 2012, Texas now has the nation’s largest prison system. Due to the threat
of federal fines, the Texas prison population has declined each year.
3. Florida makes prison more of a priority in sentencing than other states do. But
since a peak in 2010, Florida’s prison population has also declined.
Media Tool
Visit http://www.bop.gov/
o Federal Bureau of Prisons: A look at the federal prison system.
o As a class, discuss how society could assist in the deterrence of criminal activity.
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Chapter 1: The Corrections System
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What If Scenario
What if you were a university student in Japan considering traveling to the U.S. for a year of
study? How might statistics on the rate of incarceration in the U.S. affect your decision? What
impression would that give you about American life? What concerns might you have?
See Assignment 4
V. Key Issues in Corrections
Learning Objective 4: Identify at least five key issues facing corrections today.
Learning Objective 5: Discuss what we can learn from the “great experiment in social control.”
A. Managing the Correctional Organization
2. Funding—At all political levels, the correctional system is only one of many
services operated by government and paid for by tax revenues; corrections must
3. Bureaucracy—Michael Lipsky’s vivid portrait of the problems facing
4. Interagency Coordination—managing correctional agencies is further
B. Working with People
2. Professional Versus Nonprofessional Staff—probation officers, correctional
officers, counselors, and others.
a. Professionals include psychologists, counselors, and administrators (college-
What If Scenario
If you decided to work within a prison system, what job would you choose and why?
C. Uncertain Technologies
1. The technologies of corrections are not as sophisticated as those of engineering,
and their subjects—human beings—are complex.
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2. Methods of effectively dealing with offenders are highly uncertain even with the
D. Exchange
2. The unarmed, outnumbered correctional officers assigned to jail or prison have
surprisingly little raw power with which to exact cooperative behavior.
3. Staff and the people they are responsible for are part of an exchange
relationship.
E. Uncertainty About Correctional Strategies
2. Corrections gets its “business” not only from the courts but from itself.
3. Programs that are implemented may have questionable value.
F. Upholding Social Values
1. The field of corrections is controversial and engrossing for those who study it.
3. Size of prison population expansion is related to other expenditures the state
makes.
a. More programs, health/education, services, incarceration funding.
Class Discussion/Activity
Despite decreased crime rates over the past 40 years, incarceration rates have risen. Debate
whether the public has accurate views of crime, and discuss what factors—excluding actual
crime rate data—influence the “get tough” policies and practices that have resulted in increased
sentence lengths.
What If Scenario
If you wanted to raise public awareness of issues in corrections, how would you go about getting
public attention in a way that doesn’t falsely represent the issues?
Media Tool
Visit http://www.thecrimereport.org/
o The Crime Report
o To get a short summary of all the crime stories in the news, subscribe to the Criminal
Justice Journalists’ daily summary.
o As a class, discuss some current events which focus on corrections and criminal activity.
See Assignment 5
Chapter 1: The Corrections System
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LECTURE NOTES
A useful way to begin studying corrections is by exploring its purpose. This provides an
For students to digest American Corrections, they must realize all that the system of
“corrections” comprises. This book emphasizes the theme that things are not as simple as they
look. Therefore, when teaching about corrections in America, it is important to convey that
corrections is complex. Corrections consists of many individual components, a variety of
responsibilities, and many masters. Corrections embodies multiple, often conflicting goals.
In many respects, corrections has little to do with crime. A useful way to explore this is by
asking students to name all the parts, parties, and functions associated with corrections. You can
People, students included, often think they know a great deal about corrections. Ask students
how big they think the corrections system in the United States is. This can help introduce the
statistical realities of today’s correctional landscape. It is important to convey just how distinct
the United States is when it comes to punishment. This includes the size and vastness of
corrections in America, expenditures included, and how profoundly the system has grown since
It is important for students to understand that corrections is constantly managing and responding
to shifting social and political forces. These influences affect all components of corrections, from
organizational management to the work that involves those persons convicted of a crime. An
example that illustrates this reality is the ever-changing philosophical goal of corrections. Is
corrections a system based on vengeance? Is it a system through which people are rehabilitated?
Is it merely a place to separate the wrongdoers from the law-abiders? Ask students which goals
they think should be a correctional priority. Students should be made aware that despite a variety
of problems, corrections is ultimately concerned with basic social values.
KEY TERMS
Instructor’s Manual
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Prison
An institution for the incarceration of people convicted of serious crimes, usually felonies.
Jail
A facility authorized to hold pretrial detainees and sentenced misdemeanants for periods longer
than 48 hours. Most jails are administered by county governments; sometimes they are part of
the state government.
System
A complex whole consisting of interdependent parts whose operations are directed toward
common goals and influenced by the environment in which they function.
Federalism
A system of government in which power and responsibilities are divided between a national
government and state governments.
Street-level bureaucrats
Public-service workers who interact directly with citizens in the course of their work, granting
access to government programs and providing services within them.
ASSIGNMENTS
1. Over the course of the semester, have students collect articles from the local newspaper
that touch upon issues raised in the textbook. Ask them to identify and discuss how
2. Have students research their state’s correctional facility. Have them research the
3. Supply students with a budget and have them allocate funds for the three “Ps” of
corrections (probation, prison, and parole) at the local, state, county, or federal levels.
After they allocate the money, have them identify what correctional goal (rehabilitation,
retribution, incapacitation, or justice) was being stressed through their allocation of
4. “Recalibrating Justice: A Review of 2013 State Sentencing and Corrections Trends”
http://www.vera.org/pubs/state-sentencing-and-corrections-trends-2013
5. In presenting the concept of “street–level bureaucrat,” invite several different
professionals (probation officers, corrections officers, corrections counselors, parole
officers) to the classroom to discuss their roles and responsibilities, and how they perform
their tasks. Ask students to have a list of questions prepared to ask the individual when
they are presenting their material. After the presentation and discussion, have students
ANSWERS TO END-OF-CHAPTER DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Although the answers provided below will vary from student to student, the responses should
include at a minimum a discussion of the following key points.
1. Contrast the role of crime with the role of politics in the growth of corrections. Why is
this contrast important?
2. What do you see as some of the advantages and disadvantages of the systems concept of
correction?
3. Corrections is a system in which technologies of uncertain validity are used. What are
some of the dangers of using these technologies? What safeguards, if any, should be
applied?
4. Assume that the legislature has stipulated that rehabilitation should be the goal of
corrections in your state. How might people working in the system displace this goal?
5. What does Lipsky mean by the term street-level bureaucrat? Give some examples of how
6. Suppose you are the commissioner of corrections for your state. Which correctional
activities might come with your domain? Which most likely would not?