C117 - Midterm

What changes occurred in prison admissions after 2020?

Dropped at least 40% in 2020 mainly due to fewer arrests, court delays, closures, as well as fewer probation/parole violations with prison time.

What happened to crime in 2020?

COVID-19 Disruptions lead to decarceration in prison admissions.

Crime, overall, went down in 2020, but what crime went UP?

Homicides and Domestic Violence (intimate partner violence)

3 Strategies to decrease spread of COVID in a correctional setting?

1) Reduce the Number of People in Jail or Prison

2) Implement Health Measures Inside Facilities

3) Plan for Safe and Supportive Release

How can we reduce the number of people in jail?

Issue citations instead of arrests for minor offenses, avoid incarceration for nonpayment of fees, and reducing bail to prevent detaining individuals for not being able to afford bail.

How could we implement health measures inside facilities?

Conduct regular COVID-19 testing, providing proper medical care and isolation for those who test positive, as well as improving ventilation.

How can we plan for safe and supportive release?

Identify individuals for early release, ensure access to healthcare by enrolling individuals, and providing resources such as housing and medicine.

What are some institutional barriers among facilities for increased risk of COVID transmission?

1)Overcrowding 2)Poor Ventilation 3)Shared Spaces 4)Limited Healthcare 5)Delayed Testing and Quarantine

What are the systematic barriers that lead to an increased risk of COVID transmission among correctional populations?

1)Slow Release Process(legal system takes too long to approve releases) 2) Lack of reentry support (such as housing, transportation or healthcare) 3) Loss of Medicaid 4) Underfunding

What are the guiding principles for decarceration?

Maximizing net benefits by balancing public health and safety, Equal regard and fairness to address health and racial inequalities, and transparency.

What are the cases that would allow individuals to qualify under the “diversion in a public health emergency”?

Reducing the incarcerated population by releasing prisoners who are low risk to the community who are also medically vulnerable, enhancing health and safety protocols, and improving reentry planning and support.

What are the four normative principles described in the NAS report?

Proportionality (punishment should be proportional to crime), Parsimony (the lease amount necessary to achieve your goal), Citizenship, and Social Justice.

What is Maximization of Net Benefits?

It aims to make decisions that do the most overall good by balancing public safety, public health, and fairness when deciding who to release.

What is equal treatment?

Everyone should be treated with equal respect and avoids discrimination when deciding who to release.

What is fairness?

Process is just and consistent with the emphasis on using clear and fair standards.

What is transparency?

The public should know and why decarceration (the release of prisoners in an effort to reduce # of people in custody) decisions are made.

What are limitations of science within the NAS report?

Science can’t make value judgments (tell us likely decision rather than morally right or wrong decisions), scientific evidence may be limited or uncertain, and science can’t decide who should be released.

Why are the limitations discussed in the NAS report important?

Policymakers need to use science along with ethics and fairness to make good decisions, relying on data alone does not consider human values and lead to unfair outcomes

How many individuals are in state prisons?

Approx 1,215,800 people were held in state and federal prisons by the end of 2020.

What proportion of incarcerated people are in local jails?

About 549,100 individuals were confined in local jails across the United States as of midyear 2020. Significant portion of the incarcerated population.

How are admissions due to parole violations changing over time?

In 2021, approximately 44% of all state prison admissions were individuals who violated the terms of their parole or probation sentences. A substantial portion of prison admissions are related to supervision violations and highlight the impact of parole and probation system.

In which regions of the U.S. are incarceration trends decreasing?

From 2019, California and Texas saw a decrease in their prison population by more than 22,500 people. The Federal Bureau of Prisons experienced a decline with all 3 accounting for 33% of the total prison population decrease.

Primary features of criminal justice reforms in the 1970s and early 1980s?

Focus on rehabilitation with the goal to help change people and avoid future crime. With programs for education and judges giving more freedom to give flexible sentences.

Criminal justice reforms changes in Mid-1980s to 1996?

A shift to tough on crime policies with the goal to punish crime more harshly and reduce crime through long sentences. 3 strikes law and mandatory minimum sentence lead to a big rise in mass incarceration.

Changes in the criminal justice reforms since 1996?

Since 1996, the slow move toward reform occurred with the goal to balance punishment with public safety and fairness. With some states reducing prison populations, focus on drug treatments, efforts to reduce racial disparities and rethink long sentences as well as more support for alternatives to prisons.

Why is it difficult to reintegrate released person into society? (Travis 2000)

Prisoners often leave without ID, money, housing, or a job as well as face families may be stationed or disconnected. They also face legal barriers as they cannot vote.

What is the main argument made by Travis (2000)?

The justice system focuses too much on punishment and not enough on helping people after releasing. The reentry process should be planned from the start of a sentence and not just something that was planned from the start of a sentence.

According to Travis 2000, why does parole not work as a recidivism tool?

Parole is focused on monitoring and catching mistakes with people getting sent back for small violations and not new crimes, there is often little focus on rehabilitation or reintegration support.

Why are drug treatment and drug courts considered model reentry programs?

They treat addiction as a health issue and not a crime and has been proved to reduce relapse and reoffending individuals.

What is the difference between the jail population and the prison population?

Jails are short-term with people mostly waiting for trails or serving short sentences. Prisons are for long term and for people convicted for serious crimes.

Are suicide rates in jails different from those in the community? If so, how?

Suicide rates in jails are much higher than the general population and is due to isolation, shock of arrest, and lack of mental health care.

What is the extent to which there are racial disputes in imprisonment, offending, sentencing, and case outcomes?

Black and Latino people are more likely to be arrested, charged harshly, and given longer sentences with disparities existing at every stage: policing, court, prison.

What is the purpose of the First Step Act of 2018?

It aimed to improve rehabilitation and reduce recidivism, gave prisoners credit for taking programs and reduced the mandatory sentences in an effort to help with early release.

What is proportionality?

Punishment should match the seriousness of the crime.

What is parsimony?

Use the least severe punishment needed to achieve justice and safety.

What are the distinctions between jail populations and prison populations?

Jails hold people awaiting a trial (pre trial detainees) and are serving short sentences (1yr or less). Prisons hold people who have been convicted of a serious crime and are serving longer sentences had mostly have people who have gone through trial and sentencing.

Understand key reasons individuals end up in local jails especially the role of inability to pay bail and issues.

People end up in local jails for not being able to afford bails as even minor charges affect people who do not have money to get out before trial. Mental health issues send people to jails instead of getting treatment. Homelessness also affects people without stable housing and thus lead more likely to be arrested for small violations. Substance use can lead to arrests for low-level offenses such as alcohol problems.

What are aspects of housing in prison presented in “Cellies”?

Cellmates can be sources of support or danger while housing decisions can affect mental health, safety and behavior. Some prisons even use double cells due to overcowding even if it is unsafe.

What is the relationship between incarceration and crime?

Incarceration can reduce crime short-term by physically removing people, however research shows diminishing returns as locking people up does not lower crime.

Is there a deterrent effect on crime?

Deterrent effect is limited as people often commit crimes without thinking of the punishment.

What happened to crime rates from 1961 through the early 1980s and was there a consensus on why crime rose?

Crime rates rose sharply in the 1960s and 1970s with no clear agreement on the cause of it? Could have been poverty, culture or even lack of policing.

Was the public opinion about crime and punishment racialized during the 1960s to 1980s?

Crime did become highly racialized as media often showed crime as a black issue with politicians used messages on being “tough on crime”. This appealed to fear and racial bias as it was said in a “coded language”.

How did criminal justice and sentencing policies change under the Johnson administration?

Johnson launched “war on crime” as part of Great Society and focused on law enforcement funding, training and research. He created the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) to expand policing and prison systems.

What effect did the War on Drugs have on incarceration?

It led to mass incarceration, especially for nonviolent crimes as it targeted Black and Latino communities. Introduced harass laws like mandatory minimums and 3-strikes laws. Drug rates were similar across races, but drug arrests soared from 1980s to 1990s.

What is the relationship between incarceration voting and disenfranchisement? (The Sentencing Project)

Many states banned people with felony convictions from voting even after release with over 5 million Americans disenfranchised this way; Black Americans were affected at a higher rate from Disenfranchised laws.

What is the basis of a “super predator”?

False theory from the 1990s that claimed youths, especially black boys, were “remorseless criminals” and used to justify harsher juvenile sentencing like life without parole. (Lead to racial profiling and tough youth laws)

What is the national recidivism rate of state prisoners?

About 66% of released state prisoners are rearrested within 3 years with 82% are rearrested within 10 years. It also showed that reentry programs and support are often not strong enough.

What are the six trends that alerted the conditions of confinement in the U.S.?

Mass incarceration grew rapidly, solitary confinement became widely used, mental illness increased, aging prison population, racial disparities remained high, and budged cuts strained prison resources.

Are there comprehensive prison data on prison conditions and quality of life?

No, there is no comprehensive nation data on the quality of life in prisons as many prisons do not report things like temperature violence, mental health or the use of solitary confinement.

What is specific incapacitation?

It is when you keep specific individuals in prison so that they do not commit more crime. It focuses on removing dangerous people rather than changing their behavior.

According to Blevins et al. (2010), what is the difference between the deprivation model, the importation model and the coping model?

Deprivation model is where bad behavior comes from prison conditions, importation model bring their outside behaviors and beliefs with them, and coping model is when misconduct happens when people can’t cope with stress.

According to Tasca, what 3 familial progresses take place during prison violation?

Relational repair where you try to rebuild trust like father apologizing to daughter, parental reaffirmation where you are claiming their parental role, and declarative messaging where you set goals such as promising to stay clean after release.

What is a key outcome from family visitation to individuals who are incarcerated?

Visitation strengthens family bonds and lowers the risk of reoffending.

What are perceptions of officers of the effects of restrictive housing on the mentally ill?

Officers believe solitary confinement hurts people with mental illness more than others. Where staff with more empathy are more likely to see harm from solitary.

How are the beliefs held by the officers of solitary confinement shaped?

Beliefs are shaped by agency (inmates have control over their actions), empathy (understanding suffering), and punitiveness (favoring harsh punishment).

What are the types of segregation from the NIJ report?

Disciplinary segregation (punishment for rule-breaking), administrative segregation (for safety or gang-related threats), as well as protective custody (to protect vulnerable inmates).

What are the effects of segregation according to the NIJ report?

It can cause mental health issues with limited contact leading to feelings of isolation, stress, and self-harm.

What are STGs and why do they matter?

Security Threat Groups (e.g. gangs in prison) and they matter as they increase violence and control which often leads to segregation use.

What percentage of prison and Gail incarcerate person have spent time in restrictive housing over the past year? (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2015)

20% of jail and prison inmates spent time in restrictive housing in the past year.

What is the relationship between higher rates of restrictive housing, levels of disorder, and the proportion of “vulnerable” persons in facilities?

Higher rates of solitary are linked to more disorder (violence/tension) and more vulnerable people (mentally ill, youth, lgbt)

What are some of the benefits of restrictive housing that a corrections perspective might espouse?

It helps control violent inmates, keeps staff and others safe, as well as manage gang activities and prevent riots.

What is the impact of California’s 3 strike law?

People with three felony convictions get 25 years to life, even for a minor third offense and has lead to long unfair sentences.

Know the emotional and physiological effects that result from long sentences?

People often escape with feelings of hopelessness and depression.

What happens to prisoners as a result of failure to reform initiatives such as prop 66?

Failed reforms often leads to no relief from serving long terms.

What was Curtis’s story from Left Behind? What happened to his strikes and lead to his sentence?

He was a victim of the third strike where in being in possession of stolen property, he was sentenced to 25yrs to then life after 3 strikes. He felt hopeless especially after laws like prop 66 did not do anything to help him.

What are the psychological impacts of solitary confinement as illustrated in the documentary?

Inmates experience depression, hallucinations, self-harm with people like Todd Fickeyt hurt himself repeatedly in isolation.

What is the rationale behind solitary confinement as safety and how inmates respond as shown from the documentary?

It is used for safety, but it makes inmates more unstable, worsens mental health and leads to more violence from inmates than lessen them.

How can a hunger strike impact correctional settings?

It is a form of protest and can pressure prisons to change policies and conditions as it draws more public/media attention to the abusive practices.

What impact did the hungers strike in CA have on Mr. Rising?

He become emotionally and physically weak as he lost hope in the system as his story shows the psychological toll and desperation caused by long-term solitary confinement.