Evaluate past, present, and future trends pertaining to the development and operation of institutional and community based corrections
There have been major trends in institutional corrections and community corrections in the past, present and future. One of the trends is growth in populations of the inmates which results from the several changes that have taken place in police practices and how they administer sentencing. There has been rapid growth that has led to some correctional system being pushed to an edge of breaking point.
Another trend that has affected the correctional system is the change in penal philosophy, which today has an emphasis on protecting the society. Some rationales such as deterrence and incapacitation today are the most dominant in prisons. This in turn, increases the length and certainty of the sentences an individual would receive. The society today is more concerned with the offender’s dark side and does not care about any future harm they could cause. The society is more concerned with being successful in their correctional programs. Another trend is an economy emphasis and control of cost. Incarceration seems to be expensive, therefore, punishing that should be dispensed could be expensive thus the society chooses to cut down the cost when dealing with the correction. With these trends in correctional programming, there has been a lot of loss of believe in rehabilitative idea of correction programs.
The number of offenders who need special services legally has increased and will continue to increase in the future as long as the trends exist. Growth of prison offenders has led to changes of the inmates’ characteristics, which are supposed to be in line with correctional programming decisions. An increase in elderly, female and young offenders has also caused a major influence on the change of correctional programming. This is because each group is different from the other and has different needs to be met when imposing the correction measures. When an emphasis was put on the safety of the society then all the resources of the society were concentrated to dealing with the offenders who are a great threat to society. These trends that have been shaping the correctional programs are likely to continue shaping it for a long time. Therefore, the correctional programming is likely to continue with being transformed creating a critical role change in management (Cole, 2009).
Identify and analyze current and future issues facing prisons and prison administrators today
The prisons and prison administrators today are faced with several challenges. A major challenge that they face is prison overcrowding. It is a problem that prisons are struggling to deal with but have not yet succeeded. The number of adults who are under jurisdiction has been on an increase for the past one decade and has been said to have doubled its original number. Between 1980 and 1995 the populations that were in jail grew as rapid as the population in jail. In 1995it was reported that 5.4 million adults were in prisons for correctional purposes. This figure has dramatically risen and has further increased problems in prisons. The need for more space and additional beds has increased, and the need for different forms of supervisions on the inmates has led to changes in prison administration.
As a result of the overcrowding in the prisons, the prison operating costs have been on an increase, as well. Costs to build more prisons and add more beds have been added to the prisons costs and initially were very little. As the prison, inmates increase the costs also increase. People have also changed their perception on the prisons and now believe that there are no quality correctional services the prisons offer. The administration has faced ridicule from this believe, and some have even lost their jobs. This belief rose as a result of failure of programs that are supposedly supposed to reduce the crime rates in the society failing to do so. They have, therefore, lost credibility from the public and the policy makers.
As an alternative, to the overcrowding in the prisons there have risen private prisons. Prisons privatization tries to confront the problem of overcrowding in prisons, but it has not yet solved the problem. It has led to high expenses of prison costs since they are expensive. The private prisons mostly are more concerned with money other than offering correctional services. This is because the prisons are profit driven. Private prisons have led to the creation of jobs for some prison administrators and at the same time loss of jobs for others who are replaced for failure to have the required characteristics with the increased prisoners. The challenges that are currently facing the prisons and prison administrators will continue even in the future unless the government comes up with a better solution.
Role/issue of alternate correction systems as a developing trend.
The alternate correction systems offer alternatives to incarceration of the offenders in different stages during the process of criminal justice. This has been to the response of the increasing populations in prisons. Some of the alternatives that could be offered to individuals include program measure that are different programs of bail supervision, restitution programs, programs of fines, community service orders, supervision probation that is intensive imprisonment sentence that is conditional and electronic monitoring. These alternate correctional systems have different roles, which include cost saving since the costs that would have been used in incarcerations are not used, and reduction on the number of inmates. When alternate correctional systems are used there are reduced numbers of people who go to prison; thus, this would help in reducing the populations that are soaring in the prisons. The alternate systems are more effective compared to the other correctional systems since the individuals are closely monitored in most cases and systems are less costly.
However, the alternate correctional systems have not always met the roles they are supposed to play. They are seen to fail in the role of reducing the prison population. This is because even though they are introduced as alternative ways they are rarely used. The judicial has also failed to use the systems in most cases and even though they use them initially in the end they still give prison terms to the criminals.
The alternate systems also have been seen to widen the social control net. This means the individuals who are dealt with informally initially are still judged by the judicial system. If the alternate systems do not succeed in reducing the populations in prisons then it leads to increased costs since there are costs in the alternate programs, as well as costs in prison programs.
References
Blomberg, T. (2000). Community Control: An assessment of an Alternative to Prison. Draft Paper, 1-3.
Cole, G. (2009). The American System of Criminal Justice. New York: Gardeners books.
Office, U. S. (2010). Prison crowding : issues facing the nation's prison systems : briefing report to Congressional requesters. Washington: The Office.
