- Series Information
- [UNTITLED]
- Contributors
- The Oxford Handbook of Sentencing and Corrections
- Introduction Sentencing and Corrections: Overlapping and Inseparable Subjects
- Mass Incarceration: From Social Policy to Social Problem
- Race, Ethnicity, and Punishment
- The Collateral Effects of Imprisonment on Prisoners, Their Families, and Communities
- Crime Victims, Sentencing, and Release from Prison
- Theories of Proportionality and Desert
- Problem-Solving Courts: An International Comparison
- Searching for Sasquatch: Deterrence of Crime Through Sentence Severity
- Risk Assessment
- Restorative Justice as Evidence-Based Sentencing
- Charging and Plea Bargaining as Forms of Sentencing Discretion
- The “Traditional” Indeterminate Sentencing Model
- The Sentencing Commission Model, 1970s to Present
- Procedure at Sentencing
- American Corrections: Reform Without Change
- Probation, Intermediate Sanctions, and Community-Based Corrections
- Jails, Pre-trial Detention, and Short Term Confinement
- Prison Governance: Correctional Leadership in the Current Era
- Regulating Prison Conditions: Some International Comparisons
- Understanding the Impact of Drug Treatment in Correctional Settings
- The Effectiveness of Corrections-Based Work and Academic and Vocational Education Programs
- Identifying, Treating, and Reducing Risk for Offenders with Mental Illness
- Sex Offender Management and Treatment
- Female Offenders and Women in Prison
- The Psychological Effects of Imprisonment
- Living Life Behind Bars in America
- The Present Status and Future Prospects of Parole Boards and Parole Supervision
- Life on the Outside: Transitioning from Prison to the Community
- The Characteristics of Prisoners Returning Home and Effective Reentry Programs and Policies
- Broken and Beyond Repair: The American Death Penalty and the Insuperable Obstacles to Reform
- The Dark at the Top of the Stairs: Four Destructive Influences of Capital Punishment on American Criminal Justice
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
This article outlines the corrections system of America. It traces the history of the corrections system and offers some observations on what led to the massive prison buildup. It considers the possibility that the core of the problem is the inconsistencies in practice and ideology, which helped create a system that is not only contradictory and volatile, but indecisive and regressive. This article concludes that a well-balanced justice system can be attained by better using criminological and scientific knowledge.
Keywords: corrections system, prison buildup, inconsistencies, justice system, criminological knowledge, scientific knowledge
Karol Lucken is Associate Professor, Department of Criminal Justice, University of Central Florida.
Thomas G. Blomberg, Professor of Criminology, The Florida State University.
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- Series Information
- [UNTITLED]
- Contributors
- The Oxford Handbook of Sentencing and Corrections
- Introduction Sentencing and Corrections: Overlapping and Inseparable Subjects
- Mass Incarceration: From Social Policy to Social Problem
- Race, Ethnicity, and Punishment
- The Collateral Effects of Imprisonment on Prisoners, Their Families, and Communities
- Crime Victims, Sentencing, and Release from Prison
- Theories of Proportionality and Desert
- Problem-Solving Courts: An International Comparison
- Searching for Sasquatch: Deterrence of Crime Through Sentence Severity
- Risk Assessment
- Restorative Justice as Evidence-Based Sentencing
- Charging and Plea Bargaining as Forms of Sentencing Discretion
- The “Traditional” Indeterminate Sentencing Model
- The Sentencing Commission Model, 1970s to Present
- Procedure at Sentencing
- American Corrections: Reform Without Change
- Probation, Intermediate Sanctions, and Community-Based Corrections
- Jails, Pre-trial Detention, and Short Term Confinement
- Prison Governance: Correctional Leadership in the Current Era
- Regulating Prison Conditions: Some International Comparisons
- Understanding the Impact of Drug Treatment in Correctional Settings
- The Effectiveness of Corrections-Based Work and Academic and Vocational Education Programs
- Identifying, Treating, and Reducing Risk for Offenders with Mental Illness
- Sex Offender Management and Treatment
- Female Offenders and Women in Prison
- The Psychological Effects of Imprisonment
- Living Life Behind Bars in America
- The Present Status and Future Prospects of Parole Boards and Parole Supervision
- Life on the Outside: Transitioning from Prison to the Community
- The Characteristics of Prisoners Returning Home and Effective Reentry Programs and Policies
- Broken and Beyond Repair: The American Death Penalty and the Insuperable Obstacles to Reform
- The Dark at the Top of the Stairs: Four Destructive Influences of Capital Punishment on American Criminal Justice
- Index
