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CJ 120 Test 3

Terms in this set (48)

Special conditions for parolees include:
- Participating in psychological or psychiatric evaluation, as instructed by the offender's supervising officer.

- Participating in mental health treatment/case management/rehabilitation training program.

- Participating in an appropriate educational or vocational program.
Standard conditions for parolees:
- Reporting to parole agent within 24 hours of release.

- Not carrying weapons, not reoffending.

- Reporting changes of address and employment.

- Not traveling without a parole officer's approval.

- Submitting to police and/or parole officer searches.
6 domains that influence the reintegration of offenders:
1. Personal conditions

2. Rehabilitation and counseling support

3. Employment and training support

4. Social network/environment

5. Accommodation

6. The criminal justice system
Is parole a right or a privilege?
The Supreme Court ruled that if "due process" is preserved, meaning the inmate/parolee/ is allowed to be heard in a parole hearing, any decision that the parolee board renders shall be upheld. Being released to parole is therefore considered a privilege, not a right, and can be denied.
Technical violation
Parole violations that pertain to behavior that is not crime, such as the failure to refrain from alcohol use.
An important federal study showed about 2/3 released on parole were rearrested within 3 years.
FACT
5 states' agencies account for nearly half of all U.S. adults under parole supervision: California, Texas, Illinois, New York, and Pennsylvania.
FACT
Recommendations to improve parole effectiveness include:
- Parole officers should incorporate neighborhood parole supervision.

- Parole administrators should establish and test reentry courts and community partnerships.

- Policy makers should establish procedures for ex-prisoners to reestablish citizenship.
Second Chance Act
First-of-its-kind legislation authorizes various grants to government agencies and nonprofit groups to provide employment assistance, substance abuse treatment, housing, family programming, mentoring, victim support, and other services that can help reduce reoffending and violations of probation and parole.
Disenfranchisement laws
civil disabilities facing parolees when they return to the community
Many parolees fail, but the trend has been for a declining number of parole revocation. The longer they are out, the better their chances of success.
FACT
2/3 of parolees were rearrested, half were convicted, and 25% went back to prison.
FACT
Revocation of Parole
A formal procedure that takes place when a parole board, after listening to the parolee and his or her parole officer and their witnesses, decides that parole must end because the offender committed a new crime or violated the conditions of parole.
Morrissey v. Brewer
Supreme Court ruled on procedures for revocation of parole.
Intensive Supervision Parole (ISP)
more extensive supervision than is given for most parolees
Parole Officer
a correctional officer who supervises offenders in the community who have been granted early release from an incarceration for good behavior
Salient factor score is based on:
- Number of previous convictions/adjudications

- Number of previous commitments that were more than 30 days

- Age at current offense

- Recent 3-year prison commitment-free period

-Heroine/Opiate or other drug dependency

- Whether inmate is older
Parole Guidelines
actuarial devices predicting the risk of recidivism based on information about the offender and the crime
The majority of states have a full-time parole board. The membership of state parole boards varies from 3 - 19. NY has the largest parole board with 19 members. 22 jurisdictions have 5 members; 10 jurisdictions have 3. In 19 states, the governor appoints the parole board; Wisconsin and Ohio are the only states that appoint members from a civil service list. Very few states require specific professional qualifications or college education for board members. The board's authority to grant or deny parole is based on its assessment of the risk of the inmate to the community as well as his or her readiness to return to community life.
FACT
The Supreme Court has ruled that there is no legal right to parole. All inmates are entitled to is an opportunity to be heard by a parole-granting authority and a statement of reasons if their parole is denied.
FACT
Parole Board
an official panel that determines whether an inmate serving an indeterminate sentence is ready for parole
Parole Board duties include:
- To select and place prisoners on parole

- To aid, supervise, and provide continuing control of parolees in the community

- To determine when the parole function is completed and to discharge from parole

- To determine whether parole should be revoked, if violations of conditions occur
Mandatory Parole Release
inmate is released on parole when the unserved portion of the maximum prison term equals good time
Discretionary Parole
the decision to release inmates is made by a parole board
Parole
the conditional release from confinement of an offender serving an indeterminate sentence
Ticket of leave
In Maconochie's system of graduated release, this was the final stage
Identify some of the rights that ex-offenders have lost.
Legal restrictions that paroles face include bans on certain kinds of employment, limits on obtaining licenses, loss of voting privileges, and restrictions on the freedom of movement.
Describe why people fail on parole.
People fail on parole for a number of reasons: the very nature of the prison experience itself; a multitude of difficulties faced upon release, include remaining largely undereducated, unskilled, and usually without solid family support systems; and personal marriage and family issues. In addition, they frequently must return to the same neighborhoods and social groups that prompted their law-violating behavior in the first place.
Summarize the procedures involved int he revocation of parole.
Revocation of parole takes place when a parole board decides that, while granting the parolee due process rights, parole must end because the offender committed a new crime or violated the conditions of parole. The actual revocation procedures begin when the parole officer requests a warrant based on an alleged violation of parole. The next step involves parolees being given an opportunity to challenge at a preliminary hearing the allegation of violation and to confront adverse witnesses. If the hearing officer finds probable cause to exist, the parolee is held in custody for a revocation hearing.
Identify the rules for parolees released tot he community.
Parolees released to the community are typically given a set of rules and conditions that must be obeyed. These include reporting to a parole officer within 24 hours of prison release; not carrying weapons; obeying all parole agent instructions; not traveling more than 50 miles from home or leaving the country without permission; not committing crimes; submitting to search by police and parole officers; reporting changes of address and employment; and seeking and maintaining employment.
Discuss how the parole board functions.
Parole decisions can be made with an entire board interviewing eligible inmates; in other jurisdictions, only part of the board interviews eligible inmates. Hearing examiners are used in some jurisdictions to interview inmates. Some states, rather than interviewing inmates, make their decisions based solely on written reports. Nearly all states still authorizing parole have further restricted parole by setting specific standards that inmates must meet to be eligible for release. Some states use formal risk prediction instruments or parole guidelines to structure the parole decision-making process.
Describe parole practices today.
Discretionary parole has now been abolished in 13 states, but for those states that have parole, it is based on the following principles:

- The state extends to offenders a privilege by releasing them from prison before their full sentence is served.

- The state also enters a release contract with offenders in exchange for their promise to abide by certain conditions.

- Offenders who violate the law or conditions of parole can be returned to prison to complete their sentences.

- The state retains control of parolees until they are dismissed from parole.
There is little conclusive evidence that private institutions are any better than state-run facilities. Private institutions have their own set of problems.
FACT
Minneci v. Pollard
Supreme Court held that private prison employees cannot be sued by inmates for violating the 8th Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
Correctional Services Corp. v. Malesko
defines the protections and rights of inmates in private corporations' facilities
Richardson v. McKnight
Supreme Court held that correctional officers employed by a private firm are not entitled to a qualified immunity from suit by prisoners charging a section 1983 violation.
Penal Harm
A current movement that believes the purpose of corrections is to punish offenders as severely as possible.
Private Prisons
- Private companies structure operations that are not under governmental jurisdiction.

- Private companies use prison operations and contract labor to manufacture goods for profit.

- In exchange for their labor, most prisons offer prisoners access to certified work programs, medical, education, and psychological services.

- Proponents of private operators contend that they run prisons more effectively and at a less cost than public agencies because of flexibility in management and staff recruitment.

- Critics say recidivism is no better - with questionable facility construction, inferior inmate programs, and poorly trained and paid staff.
Improving State Services
- In the 1970s, many state correctional administrators began to apply for institutional accreditation through the Commission on Accreditation of the American Correctional Association.

- The accreditation process brought about a higher standard in training of correctional personnel and prison operations.
Explain the proactive management style.
Proactive wardens are committed to anticipating and preventing problems before they take place in the prison. This management style believes in treating inmates with dignity and respect, puts an emphasis on programming for inmates and staff development for staff, and holds to the importance of direct communication between the warden and staff and the warden and inmates. An increasing number of wardens see themselves as proactive in their approach.
Define the basic responsibilities of a correctional administrator.
- Correctional administrators are responsible for the establishment of policy, planning, dealing with civil suits, institutional monitoring, staff development (training programs and assignments), and fiscal management (budget).

- Warden/Superintendent - administrator who is ultimately responsible for everything that takes place within the prison / delegates the responsibility for custodial services to assistant or associate wardens.
Describe what prisons look like.
The four most widely used architectural designs in American prisons are the radial design, the telephone-pole design, the courtyard design, and the campus design.

Radial Design
- Wheel-shaped configuration
- Corridors radiate like spokes from a control center at the hub

Telephone-pole Design
- Has a long central corridor for prisoners to go from one part of prison to another
- Cross-arm formation containing housing, school, shops, and recreation area.

Courtyard Design
- Corridors surround a courtyard
- Housing, educational, vocational, recreational, prison industry, and dining areas face the courtyards.

Campus Design
- Open design that allows some freedom of movement.
- Units of the prison are housed in a complex of buildings surrounded by a fence.
Discuss the security types of correctional institutions.
The security levels of prisons vary from minimum-security to supermax correctional facilities. Security is the byword of all prisons, especially maximum-security and supermax facilities. Today, prison cells are still very small, prison keepers are required to keep prisoners docile if they want to keep their jobs, and solitary confinement is a way of life in the most secure prisons across the nation.

Minimum-security prisons - prisons with relaxed perimeter security, sometimes without fences or any other means of external security.

Medium-security prisons - prisons with single or double fencing, guarded towers or closed-circuit television monitoring, sally-port entrances, and zonal security systems to control inmate movement within the institution.

Maximum-security prisons - prison in which complete control of any and all prisoners can be applied at any time.

Supermax prison - most secure of all prison systems, in which there is typically a 23-hour lockdown.

Segregation - a punishment unit in which inmates are separated from other inmates and are fed in their cells / inmates must be adequately fed and permitted some time out of their cells to exercise.
Summarize how many prisoners are housed in private facilities and whether there is common agreement on the effectiveness of these facilities.
Private prisons are gaining in number and popularity, and now have more than 100,000 inmates. There is disagreement about the quality and effectiveness of private prisons.
Explain whether state jurisdictions are similar from one state to another.
Correctional systems of the 50 states and the District of Columbia are difficult to compare and evaluate because of differences in ideology, structure, and programs. Yet there has been marked improvement in state correctional systems in recent years.

California inmates work with the forestry department to help fight fires. Some inmates cook for the firefighters, others help build fire lines by hand in very rough terrain. Only "minimum-security" inmates are eligible for this program, and realignment is slowly shifting non-serious, non-violent, non-sex offenders from state prisons to county jails.
Discuss the federal jurisdiction over prisons.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons is the largest prison system, as it oversees more than 100 correctional institutions, 6 regional offices, a central office in Washington, DC, 2 staff training centers, and 28 community corrections offices. The Bureau of Prisons has had its problems, but it has long been advocated as the standard setter of American corrections. Its advantages over state prison systems include better-trained staff, higher salaries, and more adequately funded programs and operations.
Describe the age, gender, and racial makeup of those sent to prison.
The prison population is made up of males (93%) who tend to be young and of a minority background. Violent offenders make up 53% of all sentenced inmates in state prisons.

- 22% aged 45-54, over 12% aged 40-44, women aged 30-34 make up the largest percentage of sentenced female prisoners overall (19%)

- African Americans about 37%

- White men 32%

- Hispanic men 22%
Identify the extent to which prisons mirror the larger society.
There are numerous parallels between the prison and the free world, and in many respects the prison is a microcosm of the wider society. It can be argued that the prison is a distorted image of the larger society, with the problems of the larger society fond in an exaggerated form in the prison.

Exaggerated forms of the following are observed:
- Poverty
- Racial and gender discrimination
- Violent crime
- Mental illness
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