CORRECTIONS: POLICING/COURTS & CORRECTIONS

Background: The Progressive Era (Gilded Age: 1870-1900)

An era of great prosperity for America and industrialization with many wealthy tycoons who influenced politicians who influenced public servants

2 LABELS for the system for hiring police & corrections officers

1) Spoils System

2) Political Patronage (exchanging political support for favors)

What is the conflict that arose from the Spoils System?

• The rule of law is not being upheld because politicians are influencing police actions, making police susceptible to political pressure

Problematic manner of police arresting offenders, and court members processing court cases

Police used wide latitude and had great discretion

What's the problematic outcome?

• Arrests and court decisions were made on extralegal factors

Background of 1930: Wickersham Commission, survey instrument

Wickersham (attorney general) was appointed by the president; created the Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

August Vollmer: Primary author of the Commission’s final report: He faced 2 challenges when he took office

• Went back to CA to be a police chief

• Police officers were known for their brutality and corruption than for their crime fighting skills

• Also saw that gambling and opium parlors were openly operated because public officials were being paid off

Vollmer instituted a series of reforms

• banned bribes/gifts

• reforms transformed policing into a modern profession

August Vollmer’s recognized designation

The Father of Modern Law Enforcement

The abuses by administrators, police, and prosecutors: (7)

1) GRAFT: funds intended for public projects are intentionally misdirected in order to maximize private interests

2) USE OF THE “THIRD DEGREE”: willful infliction of pain and suffering on criminal suspects

3) BRIBERY: corrupt solicitation or transfer of value in exchange for official action

4) COERCION OF WITNESSES: forcing false or repressing true testimony

5) ENTRAPMENT: inducing illegal acts

6) FABRICATING EVIDENCE: plant evidence or suppress exonerating evidence

7) ILLEGAL WIRETAPPING

Wickersham Commission final report and recommendations

“Lawlessness in Law Enforcement”: summary: police reform must be insulated from political pressure

OW WILSON

• instituted professionalism by requiring new hires to have a college education

1965 Lyndon Johnson - Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA) - The SURVEY INSTRUMENT

• they realized that the data coming from the UCR was incomplete

• began using the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

What is the FINAL REPORT CALLED 1967?

“The challenge of crime in a free society”

The crime issues investigated (6)

1) policing

2) courts

3) corrections

4) organized crime

5) drugs

6) juvenile delinquency

THE KANSAS CITY EXPERIMENT (Scientifically Rigorous Study based on data)

• HYPOTHESIS: the crime would decrease in areas where police presence increased

• conducted on police between OCT 1972 & DEC 1973

• DEPENDENT VARIABLES: Crime

• INDEPENDENT VARIABLE: Beats grouped into 3 categories

1) ELIMINATED: routine preventative patrol was eliminated in five beats

2) UNCHANGED: routine patrol was maintained in five “control” beats

3) INCREASED: routine patrol was increased by two to three times the norm in five “proactive beats?

Results of police patrol visibility on recorded crime

there was no statistically significant difference in crimes between varying treatment levels (increasing or decreasing police patrol visibility)

The Law Enforcement Officer Subculture

• Cops have to watch out for other cops, bending the rules, which is unethical

• **The suspicious and paranoid** belief that police should not rat out or disclose dubious or questionable practices performed by its members