Intro to Corrections

Chapter 1

Penology

The study of the use of punishment for criminal acts

The Walnut Street Jail

Established in 1790 as first prison designed to house sentenced offenders

Penitenary

The first used to describe secure facilities used to hold offenders serving a criminal sentence

Corrections

The range of community and institutional sanctions treatment programs and services for managing people who have committed crimes

The “mission” of corrections

To implement court prescribed sentences for people who have been convicted of crimes or to carry out the sentence of the court

The three major components of the criminal justice system

Police, courts, corrections

Penal Code

A legislative authorization to provide a specific range of punishment for a crime

The Correctional Funnel

Large numerical difference between number of crimes repoted and the number of offenders convicted and facing a term in prison

Cesare Beccaria

Italian theorist who in the 18th century first suggested linking crime causation to punishments and became known as founder of the classical school of criminology

Classical School

The throy linkin crime causation to punishment based on free will and hedonism

Jeremy Bentham

creator of the hedonistic calculus suggesting that punishments outweigh the pleasure individuals get from committing their crime

Hedonistic Calculus

The idea that the main objective of an intelligent person is to achieve the most pleasure and the least pain and that individuals are constantly calculating the pluses and minuses of their potential actions

Positive School

the belief that those who commit crimes do not have complete choice over their criminal actions and may commit acts that are beyond their control

Cesare Lombroso

the belief that those who commit crimes do not have complete choice over their criminal actions and may commit acts that are beyond their control

Atavism

the existence of features common in the early stages of human evolution; implied the idea that those who commit crimes are born, and criminal behavior is predetermined

Neoclassical school

a compromise between Classical and Positive Schools, while holding offenders accountable for their crimes, allowing for some consideration of mitigating and aggravating circumstances

Transportation

used in England during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to remove offenders from society by sending them to British colonies such as America

John Howard

Jail Reformer