CJ 340 Spring 2006 Lecture Questions CHAPTER ONE Early Punishments 1. What punishments were most commonly used in pre-modern societies? 2. What kinds of offenders were kept in secure confinement? 3. What legal principles are associated with Cesare Beccaria's Classical School of Criminology? 4. What was John Howard's impact on English corrections? 5. What principal institutions made up the basic correctional alternatives of eighteenth century England? 6. Describe the practice of transportation. 7. What features of the Maison de Force and the Hospice of San Michele attracted so much favorable attention among correctional reformers of the 1700s? CHAPTER TWO The Penitentiary and the 1800s 1. Tell how an inmate's life would differ according to his placement in a Pennsylvania or Auburn prison. 2. What rules of prison discipline were devised to make it easier to control men in confinement? 3. What ideas and practices are associated with the reformatory era in American corrections? 4. What were the reformer’s arguments about separate institutions for juveniles and women? 5. If you were a convict about to be placed in an Auburn- or Pennsylvania-style prison, which type would you choose, and why? 6. Although Elam Lynds’s physical methods have mostly been abandoned, some suggest that his viewpoint or philosophy of imprisonment remains important. Which of his views do you think support this argument? CHAPTER THREE Twentieth Century Corrections Systems 1. What were the advantages of the industrial prison? 2. If the industrial prison was such a good idea, what reasons did the opponents of prison labor give for abolishing its practice of hard labor? 3. What were the arguments behind the creation of specialized correctional institutions to complement the penitentiaries? 4. In terms of the perceived purpose of imprisonment, what ideologies dominated American corrections from World War II through the end of the twentieth century? 5. In the era of the industrial prison, what different systems of prison labor were used to work convicts and financially benefit from their work? 6. Explain the theory of the medical model in corrections. 7. American prisons of the 1950s were marked by a period of widespread rioting; what were these riots all about? 8. What good reasons can you give for combining all of a state’s correctional institutions into a state department of corrections? 9. Thought question: If you had been a convict in 1910, how would your life have been different from that of a convict of today? Which period do you think you would have preferred? CHAPTER FOUR Ideologies and Sentencing 1. What does sentencing disparity mean, and how can we get rid of it? 2. Why is the perception that judges have almost total control over sentencing not accurate? 3. Explain the rationale of the shift from indeterminate to determinate sentencing. 4. If you were a judge looking over a presentence investigation report on an offender you knew nothing about, what information in the report would you find most important? 5. What important standards were established by the Supreme Court decision of Gregg v. Georgia (1976)? 6. Explain how the different ideologies--conservative, liberal, and radical--view the use of imprisonment. 7. Define a model for individual sentencing if rehabilitation were the prime objective of criminal sentencing, CHAPTER FIVE Jails 31. What problems are traditionally associated with jail operations? 32. Describe the operation of a "typical" American jail today. 33. How have jail designs changed in recent decades? What is the dominant thinking in jail design at present? 34. How is the jail population different from the prison population? 35. What are the worst problems of large urban jails? 36. What alternatives are commonly used to reduce jail populations? 37. As someone who has just been arrested and booked into a county jail, you are put into a pod with about two dozen other inmates. What are their backgrounds like? 38. Imagine that you were a progressive sheriff who really wanted to do something to help jail inmates with their problems. What circumstances do you see that would limit your ability to do so? CHAPTER SIX State and Federal Prisons 1. How are federal prison inmates different from state prison inmates? 2. Why was the Federal Bureau of Prisons created? 3. What is the importance of Federal Prison Industries, Inc.? 4. Briefly outline the different security levels used in the federal prison system. 5. Explain the purposes associated with each of the major levels of security you would find in a typical state prison system. 6. How did the model of the American penitentiary develop? 7. If you were asked to sum up the most distinctive feature of each of the five state prison systems discussed in this chapter--North Dakota, California, Texas, Louisiana, and Minnesota--what would you say? 8. A state legislator says, "We ought to make all prisons maximum security again." What criticisms can you direct at his proposal? CHAPTER SEVEN Management and Custody 1. Why is custody so much more important than treatment? 2. What are the basic traditional services the prison provides its inmates? 3. Make a convincing argument for unit team management in prison. 4. Why was (and is today) the position of the deputy warden for custody so powerful? 5. What are the main custodial devices and techniques used to maintain security in a maximum custody prison? 6. What evidence can you cite of the prevalence of the "paramilitary model" in prison operations? 7. How is the makeup of the correctional officer work force different from a century ago? 8. Guards or correctional officers--which is the correct term? CHAPTER EIGHT Corrections Policies and Issues 1. Why do you think many citizens (and some prisoners) might believe that private prisons are inherently superior to public prisons? 2. Explain the application of the concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy as it applies to young black males and imprisonment today. 3. Why are prisoners sicker than ordinary citizens? 4. If you were a prison warden, would you seek accreditation for your institution? Explain your decision. 5. As an outsider looking in, what do you see in corrections workers that supports or hinders the notion of professional status? 6. Your state’s prison population has been static but is starting to go up again. Briefly, what are your options? Which do you recommend for the short-term future? 7. If you were a judge routinely sentencing criminals to probation, jail, and prison, what factors would you look at in making decisions? Do you think the factors that would lead to imprisonment would tend to be concentrated in certain population groups, or would they be evenly distributed among all defendants? CHAPTER NINE Male and Female Prisoners 1. Are men and women different as criminal threats in society? 2. How is the background of women in prison today different from the background of men in prison? 3. “Prisoners have the same chance in life as everyone else,” the politician says. Agree or disagree. 4. Federal prisoners are quite different from state prisoners; what are the key differences? 5. If you are attacking the behaviors that eventually lead to imprisonment, what would be your first priority? Why? 6. Prisoners often report that jail life is much more “annoying” than prison life. Why would they use this word in contrasting the two environments? CHAPTER TEN Prison Life 1. How has the prison subculture changed since Donald Clemmer first described it in the 1940s? 2. How does the popular view of sex in prison contrast with reality? 3. If you were an inmate, what would be the advantages of being in a co-correctional facility? 4. Even if both men and women have been involved in criminal activities before they come to prison, how would you expect the experience of imprisonment to be different for women than it is for men? 5. One of your friends argues that prisons today have become “country clubs.” How do you respond? 6. What were the important pains of imprisonment identified by Gresham Sykes? 7. What are the different types of special management housing that would be used in a contemporary prison? 8. Thought question: So, if you were an inmate just deposited into a contemporary prison, how would you spend your time? CHAPTER ELEVEN Special Needs Prisoners 1. Briefly explain the origin and meaning of the concept of parens patriae. 2. How are juvenile training schools different from adult prisons? 3. Explain what happened to cause more mentally ill persons to wind up in correctional facilities. 4. What problems is the developmentally challenged offender likely to experience in prison? 5. What are the different types of sex offenders you would find in greatest numbers in prison treatment programs? 6. What problems do HIV positive inmates present in prison? 7. Why has the number of older prisoners increased so dramatically in recent years? 8. As an inmate who has just been moved into protective custody housing, how is your life going to be different from inmates in general population? 9. What impact do special needs offenders have on the operation of the prison? CHAPTER TWELVE Prisoners’ Rights 1. What was the legal status of a convicted felon under common law? 2. What do habeas corpus and Section 1983 mean to a prison litigant? 3. What alternatives do prisons provide in trying to resolve prisoner complaints without filing lawsuits? 4. Why is there any such thing as collateral consequences attached to a felony conviction? 5. A federal law is passed restoring all lost civil rights to ex-offenders immediately upon discharge from imprisonment. Is this good or bad? Explain. 6. Contrast the hands off, rights, and deference eras. 7. Why has the attitude of the federal courts toward prisoner lawsuits changed in recent years? CHAPTER THIRTEEN Rehabilitation 1. For what reasons did rehabilitation go into decline in the late 1970s? 2. What are the traditional forms of rehabilitation that have been offered in prison? 3. Discuss the methods that might be used if you were attempting to brainwash prisoners. 4. What are the different ways to measure recidivism? Which do you think is most correct? 5. Describe the important new options in rehabilitation that have developed within the past decade or so. Which do you believe is most promising? 6. If we have moved from “nothing works” to “something works,” what is it that we now think works in rehabilitation programming? 7. In terms of background, describe the prisoner most likely to succeed upon release from custody--and the prisoner most likely to fail. CHAPTER FOURTEEN Parole and Release from Prison 1. Distinguish among the main forms of executive clemency. 2. From the convict's point of view, criticize the parole board. 3. What concepts important to Maconochie and Crofton laid the philosophical foundation of parole? 4. What should the parole board pay attention to, when deciding whom to release? 5. Is there a functional conflict in the parole officer’s mission? 6. Imagine that you are a parolee. What are the most difficult aspects of your life? 7. Your state is one of the ones that has abolished parole. What arguments can you make that it ought to be revived? 8. What are some of the specific suggestions grouped under the heading of reinventing parole? CHAPTER FIFTEEN Probation and Community Corrections 1. How did probation develop in America? 2. What does a probation officer actually do? 3. What general and special conditions are typically applied to probationers? 4. Is probation a punishment? How can it be made more punitive? 5. Describe the elements of a typical intensive probation program. 6. What would seem to be the advantages of leaving the offender under intermediate sanctions living at home, as opposed to confining him in a secure jail or prison? 7. One of your neighbors comes by with a NIMBY petition when a halfway house for adolescent drug abusers is proposed for your neighborhood. What do you tell your neighbor? 8. Describe how the enhanced community correctional center of the future should operate. CHAPTER SIXTEEN Contrasting Philosophies: American and International Corrections Today 1. Is the “crime problem” a general international concern? Explain. 2. Describe the general trend in imprisonment worldwide over the past decade. 3. Explain Canada’s “effective corrections” plan. 4. What are England’s major prison problems at present, and what is the government trying to do to address these problems? 5. Compare the German prison experience to the American prison experience. 6. Why did Russian prisons get so bad in the 1990s? 7. Discuss the concept of prisoners’ rights as it would apply in Saudi Arabia. 8. How does corrections in China fit into totalitarian political control of society? 9. Observers say that not many people go to prison in Japan but, for the ones who are imprisoned, prison conditions are tough. Explain the Japanese view of the place of imprisonment in society. 10. How does the experience of imprisonment vary from one country to another? 11. What do international observers find to criticize about the American corrections system? 12. Why is the American imprisonment rate the highest in the world? 13. What does the future of corrections in America look like to you?