Incarceration & Punishment Midterm

Nurture Underpinnings of Corrections

• humans as blank slates formed by cultural experiences

• Assume human nature good

Evolutionary Underpinnings of Corrections

• Traits evolved from need to survive and reproduce.

• Argue traits like aggressiveness and low empathy impact criminality.  

• Assumes human nature is naturally selfish.

According to Cesare Beccaria, what four qualities must punishment possess to be effective?

• Known

• Swift

• Certain

• Severe

How did Jeremy Bentham define the "Principle of Utility?”

• Human action should be judged moral or immoral by effect on happiness of community.

• Legislature function

• Need to understand human motivation

Positivist

Argued punishment should fit offender rather than the crime

Deterrence

Assume threat of punishment causes people not to commit crimes.

Retribution

Punishment matches closely as possible to harm inflicted

Incapacitation

Convicted cannot commit further crimes while incarcerated

Selective Incapacitation

• Reserving prison for select group of offenders.

• Birth cohort studies find 6-10% offenders commit majority of all crimes

Rehabilitation

Socialize offenders in prosocial directions to decrease recidivism odds

Reintegration

Goal to use time served to prepare for reentry into society

Corrections

System whose social function designed to hold, punish, supervise, deter, and possibly rehabilitate accused or convicted.

Crime Control Model

• Emphasizes community protection from offenders.

• Necessary to suppress criminality swiftly, efficiently, and with finality.

• Cases handled informally and uniformly

Due Process Model

• Concerned with integrity of legal process, rather than factual guilt

• Translates into legal guilt only if evidence used was obtained in procedurally correct fashion.

• Police must respect rights of individuals

Out of a sample of 100 felony defendants, approximately how many end up in prison versus how many receive probation or other non-carceral sentences?

• how many end up in prison: 24

• how many receive probation: 17

13th amendment exception

Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States

Convict leasing

• System which Southern states leased prisoners to private railways, mines, plantations.

• Prisoners earned no pay

According to John Pfaff, why are prosecutors more responsible for mass incarceration than judges or legislators?

• Given much discretion to prosecute

• Courts/juries rarely check prosecutors since approx. 95% convictions result of plea deal. 

• Prosecutors often try to appease electorate by being ‘tough on crime’.

What are the tangible outcomes of the 1994 Crime Bill signed by Bill Clinton?

• $9.7 billion for prisons,

• Funding for 100,000 new police officers and Byrne grants.

• Bans formerly incarcerated from receiving Pell Grants for college.

• Violence Against Women Act included – power to sue depts. for civil right infractions. 

How did the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 change the power balance between judges and the federal government?

Prescribes mandatory minimums-eliminate judicial discretion

Which three presidential eras (Nixon, Reagan, Clinton) were most influential in the escalation of drug-related incarcerations?

Reagan

• passed a lot of the “war on drugs” bills

What percentage of the total incarcerated population is held in private facilities?

less than 9%

three private industries that benefit from the expansion of the Prison-Industrial Complex.

• tele-visitation

• food contractors

• unload costs onto inmates

What were the underlying causes of the Attica Prison Riot?

• deep-seated racial tensions

• systemic failures of the U.S. justice system

Attica (1971): what was the ultimate result of the state's retaking of the facility?

• 41 people were killed in the raid

• Initially, officials claimed inmates had slit the throats of the hostages

• birthed the modern Prisoners' Rights Movement

Why does California have a high rate of technical parole violations?

• very few people receive treatment

• 124,000 released yearly with just $200 and bus ticket. 

how did "Three Strikes" laws impact on California’s prison capacity?

• filled prisons

• Private companies moved in

How did a 1980 court ruling on "cruel and unusual punishment" inadvertently lead to a boom in private prison construction in Texas?

• Texas federal judge ruled prison conditions "cruel and unusual punishment

• Developers cut deals with sheriffs in poor rural counties to build new facilities.

• led to ‘bed brokers’ recruiting out of state prisoners