What are the three trends that stand out in the modern era of correctional institutions? Do you think that those trends are likely to continue?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The first trend that stands out in the modern era is the prisoners' rights movement that occurred between 1960 and 1989. State and federal courts ruled in case after case that inmates had rights to freedom of religion and speech, medical care, procedural due process, and proper living conditions. The second trend is that violence within the correctional system became a national concern. Prison rapes and killings became commonplace. The locus of control in many prisons shifted from correctional staff to violent inmate gangs. In response, some administrators have tried to improve conditions and provide innovative programs that give inmates a voice in running the institution. Another reaction has been to tighten discipline and build new super-maximum-security prisons. The third trend is that traditional correctional rehabilitation efforts have prompted penologists to reconsider the purpose of incarcerating criminals. Between 1960 and 1980, many correctional administrators used the medical model, which viewed inmates as sick people who needed treatment to be able to adjust to society. In the 1970s, efforts were also made to help offenders reintegrate into society by providing them with work-release programs. However, the famous case of Willie Horton made work-release programs into a heated political issue and led a number of states to restrict their furlough policies. Now, instead, prisons are viewed as places for control, incapacitation, and punishment. They follow a model of penal harm, which believes that if prison is a punishing experience it will deter would-be criminals and convince current inmates not to commit more crime. The prisoner rights trends seem like it will not be continuing thanks to an increasingly conservative judiciary. Violence in prisons, based on the fact that many are still overcrowded, makes it difficult to improve conditions and makes it seem unlikely that violence will improve. The overcrowding of prisons and the cost of corrections have prompted searches for alternatives to incarceration, although that has not solved the problem. However, if alternatives began to be widely used, the trends of the modern era could change.