Corrections Systems and Practices – Week 4 Key Terms

Key Terms

 

·         The Custodial Model: based on the assumption that prisoners have been incarcerated for the protection of society and emphasizes security, discipline, and order subordinating the prisoner to the authority of the warden. This model was prevalent in corrections before World War II and dominates most maximum-security institutions today (p. 256).

·         The Rehabilitation Model: developed in the 1950s, it emphasizes treatment programs to reform the offender (p. 256).

·         The Reintegration Model: linked to the structures and goals of community corrections, it emphasizes maintaining offender ties to family and community (p. 256).

·         Maximum Security Prison: closed custody prisons; usually an awesome edifice with high stone walls studded with guard towers; designed to prevent escapes and to deter prisoners from harming each other (p. 263).

·         Medium Security Prison: hold 43% of inmates; externally they resemble the maximum security prison, but organized on a different basis and atmosphere is less rigid and tense (p. 263).

·         Minimum Security Prison: holds 19% of prisoners, the least violent offenders; lacks tower guards and walls (p. 264).

·         Corrections is a multibillion dollar government-funded enterprise that purchases supplies, materials, and services from the private sector.

·         Liability of Guards: The U.S. Supreme Court said that private prison guards did not have legal protection under Section 1983 and is fully liable for their actions when they violate a protected right.

·         Prisonization: The process by which a new inmate absorbs the customs of prison society and learns to adapt to the prison environment (p. 281).

·         Degradation Ceremony: A conspicuous ritual that is played out in various stages of the criminal justice process that is designed to degrade, dehumanize, & humiliate an individual. By design or effect, it informs an inmate/criminal that s/he is “outside” of & beneath society, that s/he is no longer regarded as honest, honorable, trustworthy, upright, & good. 

·         Inmate Code: A set of rules of conduct that reflect the values and norms of the prison social system and help to define (for inmates) the image of the “model” prisoner (p. 280).