Pretrial Release, Sentencing Disparities, and Community Corrections in Criminal Justice

What are the three main pretrial release outcomes?

A person may be released through a surety bond, released on their own recognizance (OR), or kept incarcerated while awaiting trial.

What is a surety bond?

A surety bond is when a bail-bond agency helps post bail so the person can be released before trial.

What does release on one's own recognizance (OR) mean?

OR means the person is released back into the community while awaiting trial without paying bail, usually under certain conditions.

When might someone remain incarcerated before trial?

A person may remain incarcerated if the court believes they are dangerous to the community, the offense was especially serious, or other risk factors are present.

What is electronic monitoring?

Electronic monitoring is a form of supervision, such as an ankle monitor, that allows someone to live in the community while still being tracked.

What is one benefit of electronic monitoring?

It can allow someone to remain in the community instead of being incarcerated.

What is one major problem with electronic monitoring?

Devices can malfunction, which may create a violation even when the person did not intentionally break a rule.

What is a technical violation?

A technical violation is breaking a supervision rule without committing a new crime, such as missing a meeting or having an ankle monitor malfunction.

What can happen after a technical violation?

The person may have to return to court and could potentially be sent back to jail or prison.

Why can ankle monitors create stigma?

People may face judgment or discrimination because the monitor visibly marks them as being under supervision.

What is sentencing disparity?

Sentencing disparity means different people receive different levels or types of punishment, sometimes in ways connected to race, class, poverty, or substance use.

What does punitive mean?

Punitive means more focused on punishment and restriction, with fewer freedoms or rights.

How can sentencing create disparities?

Different sentencing policies can produce very different consequences, such as life imprisonment compared with treatment or community supervision.

What are alternative sentences?

Alternative sentences are responses other than traditional incarceration, such as treatment programs or problem-solving courts.

Which philosophy of punishment is most closely connected to alternative sentencing?

Alternative sentencing is most closely connected to the positivist philosophy because it focuses on treatment and individual circumstances.

How can alternative sentencing reduce disparities?

It can give people treatment for issues such as substance use instead of automatically sending them to prison for long periods.

What is one major historical example of a sentencing disparity?

The crack-versus-powder cocaine sentencing difference is a major example.

What is a total institution according to Goffman?

A total institution is a place where people are cut off from wider society and nearly every part of daily life is controlled by the institution.

Why are prisons considered total institutions?

Prisons regulate things such as eating, showering, recreation, movement, and outside contact.

Why do total institutions matter?

They can strongly reshape a person's identity and sense of self.

How can total institutions affect reentry?

Because prison life controls so much of daily living, it can make it harder for someone to adjust after returning to society.

Do incarcerated people still have agency?

Yes. Even under strict control, incarcerated people still make choices about how they adapt and survive.

What does agency mean?

Agency means the ability to make choices and act within the limits of one's situation.

How can incarcerated people show agency?

They may make choices about relationships, daily routines, coping strategies, or how they respond to prison rules.

How can race shape life inside prisons and jails?

Race and ethnicity can organize daily interactions, group membership, rules, and expectations inside carceral spaces.

How can race be imposed during intake?

People may be pressured to choose a racial or ethnic category even if they do not feel that any category fully fits them.

How do informal racial rules operate inside prisons and jails?

Incarcerated people may be expected to align with their racial group and follow unwritten rules enforced by other incarcerated people.

Who often enforces informal racial politics?

Other incarcerated people, especially high-status members or representatives of racial groups, often enforce the rules.

What can happen if someone violates informal racial rules?

They may face punishment, social pressure, or violence from others inside the facility.

What are the ripple effects of mass incarceration?

Mass incarceration affects not only incarcerated people but also their families, children, neighborhoods, and communities.

What is coercive mobility?

Coercive mobility is the forced removal and return of people through incarceration and reentry.

How does coercive mobility affect a neighborhood?

It creates instability and turnover because people are repeatedly removed from and returned to the community.

What is informal social control?

Informal social control is the way neighbors reinforce norms, look out for one another, and help prevent crime without relying only on police.

How does coercive mobility weaken informal social control?

Constant turnover disrupts relationships and makes residents less able or willing to monitor the neighborhood and solve problems together.

What is social disorganization?

Social disorganization is a weakening of neighborhood stability, shared norms, relationships, and collective problem-solving.

How can coercive mobility create a cycle of crime?

Incarceration causes instability, instability weakens informal social control, weakened control can contribute to crime, and more crime can lead to more incarceration.

How can incarceration affect families?

It can create economic hardship, relationship strain, divorce, separation, and emotional stress.

How can incarceration affect children?

Children may take on new responsibilities, experience stress, or distance themselves emotionally from the incarcerated parent.

What are the two ways children may respond to parental incarceration?

Children may step in by taking on responsibilities or step away to protect themselves emotionally.

What are emotional responsibilities children may take on?

They may hide their own feelings or comfort other family members.

What are instrumental responsibilities children may take on?

They may care for siblings, help with household tasks, maintain contact with the incarcerated parent, attend court dates, or communicate with lawyers.

What is community corrections?

Community corrections means supervising someone while they live in the community instead of keeping them in prison or jail.

What are the two main forms of community corrections?

Probation and parole.

What is probation?

Probation is supervision in the community as an alternative to incarceration.

What is parole?

Parole is supervision in the community after someone has already served part of a prison sentence.

Why is community corrections often undervalued?

It is sometimes seen as soft on crime, even though it is much cheaper than incarceration and can reduce harm to families and communities.

What is one major financial benefit of community corrections?

It costs much less than keeping someone incarcerated.

What is decarceration?

Decarceration is the process of reducing the number of people held in prisons and jails.

Why did California move toward decarceration?

California was pressured by a federal court case about prison overcrowding and had to reduce the prison population.

What is AB 109?

AB 109 is a California realignment policy that shifted certain non-serious, non-violent, non-sexual cases toward local supervision or custody.

What are the 'three Ns' under AB 109?

Non-serious, non-violent, and non-sexual offenses.

Why is reentry important?

People returning from incarceration need support so they are less likely to recidivate and return to prison.

Why is employment important for reentry?

Employment provides income, routine, stability, self-worth, and connections to law-abiding people and institutions.

Why are employers reluctant to hire people with criminal records?

Employers often worry about risk and liability and may also rely on stigma, stereotypes, and bias.

What do risk and liability concerns mean in hiring?

Employers may fear that a person with a record will reoffend at work or create legal problems for the company.

How do stigma and stereotypes affect hiring?

Employers may assume people with records are untrustworthy, morally flawed, or unsuitable for certain jobs.

What is human capital?

Human capital means a person's education, job experience, skills, and qualifications.

How can incarceration reduce human capital?

Incarceration can interrupt education, employment history, and skill development.

What is Ban the Box?

Ban the Box is a policy that removes criminal-history questions from the initial job application.

What is the goal of Ban the Box?

Its goal is to prevent employers from automatically rejecting applicants with records before evaluating their qualifications.

What is the California Fair Chance Act?

The California Fair Chance Act is a stronger hiring-protection law that delays criminal-history consideration until after a conditional job offer.

What does the California Fair Chance Act require if a record is found?

The employer must conduct an individualized assessment and allow the applicant an opportunity to respond or appeal.

What is individualized assessment?

Individualized assessment means the employer must consider the specific person's history and circumstances instead of automatically rejecting them.

What is impression management in the CFCA appeal process?

Impression management means the applicant explains their circumstances, rehabilitation, and personal change in an attempt to influence the employer's decision.

What is one major problem with fair-chance hiring laws?

Employers may still violate the law, ignore its requirements, or comply only symbolically.

Essay 1 — What is legal cynicism?

Legal cynicism is a shared belief that police or legal authorities are illegitimate, ineffective, or unable to provide safety. It can grow from repeated negative encounters and over-policing.

Essay 1 — What is a strong incarceration-disparity example?

Mass incarceration is concentrated in poor communities of color. This removes residents, destabilizes neighborhoods, and increases the burden on families and communities that are already disadvantaged.

Essay 2 — What is the full reform-policy sequence to remember?

Original practice or problem → pressure for change → policy enacted → what the policy requires → policy intent → consequences → evidence of effectiveness.

Essay 3 — Which demographic groups are most likely to be incarcerated?

Incarceration disproportionately affects disadvantaged and marginalized groups, especially poor communities of color and young Black men with limited educational opportunities.

Essay 3 — What are the four prisoner-adjustment strategies?

Withdraw, retreat, or regress; rebel or resist; conform, colonize, or convert; and doing the time or playing it cool.

Essay 3 — What is the withdraw, retreat, or regress adaptation?

The person pulls inward and may isolate, self-harm, obsessively exercise, or use art or education as a mental escape.

Essay 3 — What is the rebel or resist adaptation?

The person challenges prison control through actions such as escape attempts, physical resistance, jokes, in-group language, stealing supplies, or hunger strikes.

Essay 3 — What is the conform, colonize, or convert adaptation?

The person internalizes prison expectations, follows rules closely, and may become a model inmate or use official programs for self-improvement.

Essay 3 — What is doing the time or playing it cool?

The person stays in the middle: avoids trouble, supports other prisoners, and tries to make prison life manageable without fully resisting or embracing the institution.

Essay 3 — What are two major effects prisons can have on residents?

Prisons can restrict autonomy and reshape identity. They can also create stress through confinement, institutional control, and racialized social conditions.

Essay 4 — What is the first administrative justification for racial segregation?

Officials argue that segregation reduces security risks because race is used as a proxy for gang affiliation and separation may reduce violence.

Essay 4 — What is the second administrative justification for racial segregation?

Officials claim incarcerated people prefer segregation, although the lecture notes that the evidence for this claim is mixed.

Essay 4 — What does rolled out mean?

Rolled out means transferred to another housing unit or facility after violating racial politics.

Essay 4 — What does DPed mean?

DPed means beaten by high-status members of one's own racial group.

Essay 4 — What does redlined mean?

Redlined means beaten by many members of one's racial group.

Essay 4 — What are racial reps?

Racial reps are high-status incarcerated people who represent their group's interests, communicate with deputies, manage conflicts, and reinforce group rules.

Essay 5 — What is disenfranchised grief?

Disenfranchised grief is a form of loss experienced by relatives of incarcerated people that is not openly recognized or treated as socially significant.

Essay 5 — What is secondary prisonization?

Secondary prisonization occurs when relatives and visitors experience prison-like rules, surveillance, privacy intrusions, and bodily restrictions even though they are not incarcerated.

Essay 5 — What is adultification?

Adultification is when children take on responsibilities normally associated with adults because of household stress or disruption.

Essay 5 — What is the stress-process perspective?

The stress-process perspective says that a primary stressor can create secondary stressors that collectively harm well-being. In Turney et al., paternal incarceration is the primary stressor.

Essay 5 — What best explains why children step in or step away?

Age. Older children have more agency, can take on more independent responsibilities, and may feel worn down by repeated cycles of incarceration.

Essay 6 — What are the three common recidivism measures?

Rearrest, reconviction, and reincarceration.

Essay 6 — What is the cycle of failure in community corrections?

People receive limited support, face many supervision rules, commit technical violations, have supervision revoked, return to incarceration, and later reenter with the same or worse barriers.

Essay 6 — What is Petersilia's first recommendation?

Use validated risk-assessment tools to identify higher-risk people and allocate resources more effectively.

Essay 6 — What is Petersilia's second recommendation?

Prioritize treatment based on each person's risk level and criminogenic needs instead of using a one-size-fits-all approach.

Essay 6 — What is Petersilia's third recommendation?

Use intermediate sanctions for moderate-risk people, such as electronic monitoring, GPS tracking, mandatory work, or frequent drug testing.

Essay 6 — What is Petersilia's fourth recommendation?

Provide evidence-based behavioral treatment with pro-social support, advocacy, and brokerage to connect people with housing, work, education, or treatment.

Essay 7 — What is a negative credential?

A criminal record acts as a stigmatizing signal that reduces the likelihood of callbacks or job offers.

Essay 7 — What is statistical discrimination?

Statistical discrimination occurs when employers use visible traits such as race, ethnicity, or gender as proxies for criminal history when direct record information is unavailable.

Essay 7 — What did Oselin, Ross, Wang, and Kang find?

They found frequent employer noncompliance with the California Fair Chance Act. Appeals helped slightly, but employers were more influenced by the amount of time since conviction.

Essay 8 — What are evidence-based practices and their benefits?

Evidence-based practices are policies or programs grounded in scientific research. They help organizations choose reforms that improve outcomes, reduce crime, increase safety, and reduce unnecessary punishment.

Essay 8 — What is contingency management?

Contingency management, or CM, is an evidence-based practice that uses rewards and positive reinforcement to encourage pro-social behavior.

Essay 8 — What three things did staff use to evaluate CM?

Legitimacy, efficiency, and effectiveness.

Essay 8 — What are the three types of legitimacy?

Pragmatic legitimacy: the reform benefits staff or fits their interests. Moral legitimacy: staff believe it is the right thing to do. Cognitive legitimacy: the reform becomes normal and integrated into daily routines.

Essay 8 — Which sites fully sustained CM?

PSC4 and PSC6 fully sustained CM.