5 Assignments and Discussion Threads for Penology Theory

*************This is for Kim Woods Only****************** Please have ALL assignments returned by the appropriate due dates. Assignment 2: Development of the US Prison System The purpose and goals of the US prison system have evolved through the gamut of simplistic corporal punishment and incarceration to modern-day alternative approaches, such as diversionary programs, restorative justice programs, and specialized problem-solving courts. The evolutionary development of the US prison system has coincided with a greater understanding of criminal behavior as well as the criminogenic factors that influence such behavior. Consequently, the US prison system’s goals on deterrence, punishment, treatment, and rehabilitation have also evolved. From a larger perspective, the system’s predominant philosophies have been influenced by political, legal, and societal factors. Tasks: Using the Argosy University online library resources, research the developments of the early prison system. Compare these developments and changes with those of the prisons that exist today. Submission Details: By Saturday, July 16, 2016, in a minimum of 250 words, post to the Discussion Area your responses to the following: •The early US prison system has gone through many changes. Discuss the significant changes and compare them to the modern prison system. •Explain how the purpose and goals of today’s prison system have changed from the earlier system. Discuss the differences that you see in terms of punishment, deterrence, treatment, and rehabilitation in today’s prison system. Note: Include an APA-formatted reference page that links back to in-text citations and supports your discussions. Remember, you cannot have only in-text citations or references. You must have both. ******************************************************************** Assignment 3: Prison Management—Past and Present The overriding culture of a prison is established by prison leadership. The policies and procedures of a prison system are aimed to achieve the goals of punishment. From a societal standpoint, imprisonment is one of the primary ways of dispensing punishment. Therefore, prison leadership plays a vital role in meeting the goals of punishment set by the justice system. Prisons should include sufficient punishment to meet a measurable level of deterrence, while ensuring proper programs to rehabilitate the accused. Over time, the predominant philosophy of the US prison system has changed because of political, societal, and legal or judicial influences. Moreover, prison leadership has also modified its policies and procedures to coincide with the respective philosophies in place. Tasks: Using the Argosy University online library resources and assigned readings, prepare a 3- to 5-page report including answers to the following: •From a historical perspective, how does prison leadership achieve the goals of punishment using penology theory as a framework? •Has the perspective of using penology theory as a framework to achieve the goals of punishment changed throughout history? Are there common themes that reoccur with the goals of prison management? Note: Include at least one or two references from the Argosy University online library. At the end of the report, prepare an APA-formatted reference page that links back to in-text citations and supports your recommendations. Remember, you cannot have only in-text citations or only references. You must have both. Submission Details: •Save the report as M1_A3_Lastname_Firstname.doc. •By Wednesday, July 20, 2016, submit your report to the M1: Assignment 3 Dropbox. ******************************************************************* Assignment 1: Effects of Solitary Confinement Solitary confinement is used to keep dangerous inmates away from other inmates and corrections staff. Typical solitary confinement consists of twenty-three hours in the cell and one hour of time-out in the open every day. Prison officials must take into account the health and welfare of inmates in solitary confinement. Long-term solitary confinement can be psychologically challenging for the inmates because of a lack of human interaction. There is significant monotony, with very little outside activity. Therefore, there should be appropriate mental health support for these inmates, in addition to increased inspections and routine rounds by medical staff. These considerations need to be weighed against the need for maintaining administrative management, disciplinary control, and prisoner protection. Submission Details: By Saturday, July 23, 2016, in a minimum of 250 words, post to the Discussion Area your responses to the following: •Discuss the mental effects of solitary confinement and possible long-term problems. •Discuss some procedures that could be implemented to ensure the psychological health of prisoners in solitary confinement. •Explain why it is important that we consider the mental health of prisoners in solitary confinement. ********************************************************************* Assignment 2: Library Research: Correctional System Budget The correctional system budget is one of the largest sections of a state’s yearly budget. The current philosophy of being tough on criminals has resulted in overcrowding in prisons and massive corrections budgets. However, the recent overall decline in many state economies and the national economy has forced states to cut their corrections budgets and include alternative sanctions other than incarceration and still be accountable for maintaining public safety. Most prison systems have been negatively affected in recent years by these budget cuts. Due to scarce budgets, states have been forced to reduce staffing and cut funding to crime prevention programs. The staffing cuts have become necessary because people are the most expensive part of running a prison. States have also privatized services and programs such as food service, medical services, warehouse and maintenance operations, and educational services to reduce costs. Typically, programming services are reviewed for reductions as they are not considered the core of prison operations such as custody and security. Tasks: Using the Argosy University online library resources and the textbook readings, write a 3- to 5-page paper that addresses the following: •Analyze and explain how budget cuts affect the various programs in the correctional system. •Analyze the pros and cons of privatizing prison services and programs to alleviate budgetary costs. Explain whether state governments should relinquish correctional supervision and control to private entities. •Explain how enacting legislations that are thought to be tough on crime affects the prison system’s ethical responsibilities to prisoners. Include the following points in your responses: •Legal requirements of a correctional system: food, housing, and medical care •Prison safety •Prison programs: General Education Development (GED), English as a Second Language (ESL), and trades Submission Details: •Save the paper as M2_A2_Lastname_Firstname.doc. •By Wednesday, July 27, 2016, submit your paper to the M2: Assignment 2 Dropbox. ************************************************************************ Assignment 1: Prison Programming and Its Impact on Rehabilitation and Recidivism In addition to bringing about positive behavior change among inmates, reducing recidivism, and making the society safer, effective prison programming also improves facility operations by reducing prisoner idleness and institutional violence. Moreover, effective prison programming can have a substantial impact on prison operations and the overall criminal justice system and lead to improved prison operations and reduced chances of violence inside prisons. Also, prison programming can save the criminal justice system a lot of money by reducing recidivism. The result is less money spent on corrections and adjudication of repeat offenders. Presently, considering the amount of money allocated to corrections, people expect prison programs to be effective and capable of lowering recidivism rates. Submission Details: By Saturday, July 30, 2016, in at least 250 words, post to the Discussion Area your responses to the following: •Discuss current trends and prison programs and how they help in the daily management of inmates. •Discuss examples of common rehabilitation programs that you could find in prisons. You may include examples from prisoner reentry programs or individual programs for prisoners. •List and discuss the types of programs that reduce chances for violence or focus on prosocial behavior. ********************************************************************* Assignment 2: LASA 1: Centervale State Penitentiary’s New Mutual Agreement Parole Program The state of North Carolina has implemented the Mutual Agreement Parole Program (MAPP) since 1975 (North Carolina Department of Corrections, 2011). Because its 2011 report indicates that approximately 10% of the inmates who started the program were terminated from the program, the Centervale State Penitentiary has decided to review North Carolina’s MAPP model to determine how to ethically create its own model. You are a consultant who has been hired by the Centervale State Penitentiary to research and build a workable model of a new MAPP-like program. Like all programs, the MAPP model is expected to have strengths and weaknesses. North Carolina has published not only its 2011 report but also its MAPP’s policies and procedures. The director and warden of Centervale Prison have asked you to review these documents and report on the following in an 8- to 10-page document. Make sure your document is APA formatted and follows guidelines of the sixth edition of the APA, using credible scholarly, academic, and government resources. Here’s What You Need to Do . . . 1.Research the purposes and goals of inmate reentry programs. Define and discuss the purposes and goals of inmate reentry as they relate to the ethical obligations prison administrators and government officials have to society. 2.North Carolina has been criticized for allowing violent offenders to return to society only to reoffend (see the digital resources). Some citizens of Centervale are concerned about violent offenders who were once in maximum security, sentenced to life in prison, but who are now in medium or minimum security after completing or continuing extensive inmate rehabilitation programming, being accepted into the MAPP and eventually being released into Centervale. Recently, citizens have raised their concerns to the warden and director of prisons because a MAPP parole reoffended by committing a violent sexual assault on an elderly female after one week of his release from prison. Evaluate the criteria for eligibility for North Carolina’s MAPP. Address citizen concerns and prison programming’s impact on society if the Centervale State Penitentiary were to adopt a similar model. Propose modifications to North Carolina’s MAPP eligibility criteria toward ethical obligations to public safety. Be sure to provide support for your proposed changes based on your research on other reentry programs. 3.In August 1979, the state of Wisconsin published a report on the problems that ended its Department of Corrections Mutual Agreement Parole Program. Some of the problems that the Department of Health and Social Services identified were as follows (State of Wisconsin, 1979, pp. 116–123): a.No clear expectations and goals were set for inmates. b.There was lack of rational planning structure by staff. c.The prison administration did not value or train the MAPP staff efficiently or effectively. d.The MAPP had no real links to outside inmate employment opportunities. e.No postrelease follow-through took place. Compare North Carolina’s MAPP policy and procedures with the understanding that Wisconsin’s program fell apart because of some of the problems listed above. As a consultant for the Centervale State Penitentiary, recommend how Centervale’s new model might address Wisconsin’s problems a, b, c, d, and e. Develop solutions to these problems and support your ideas with research on programming models that have proven to be successful. 4.Analyze North Carolina’s policy and procedure for termination or renegotiation for inmate MAPP contracts. What changes or recommendations to this policy and procedure might you suggest for Centervale? 5.The director of prisons has come to you with concerns that his office is being criticized for being soft on crime. He claims that the Gainsville state attorney general has accused him of unethical practice by making promises to parole inmates who are considered dangerous to society through the new MAPP program regardless of Gainsville state’s attorneys, judges, victims, witnesses, and law enforcement officers who testified in their trials by writing compelling letters protesting the inmates’ release. The Gainsville state attorney general has argued that North Carolina’s MAPP eligibility requirement of being infraction free for ninety days is unreasonable because the inmate who was released and who reoffended after only seven days had forty-one infractions over more than fifteen years, including assaults on prison staff and attempted sexual assaults on other inmates, before being infraction free for ninety days and, therefore, qualifying for the MAPP. The attorney general further argued that infraction free for ninety days or not, this inmate should have never qualified for the MAPP in North Carolina and that it was unethical to put citizens at risk by granting him parole. The director of prisons tells you that the Gainsville attorney general has begun a movement for a new type of parole board in response to the director’s announcement that the MAPP might be coming to Centervale. The Gainsville attorney general wants the citizens of Centervale represented on the MAPP parole board. Recommend how you might create a board of individuals that would take into account the ethical considerations of the inmates, the MAPP staff, the victims and families of the convicted inmate being considered for release, and the citizens of Centervale. References: North Carolina Department of Corrections. (2011). Report on the status of the mutual agreement parole program. Post Release Supervision and Parole Commission, (Section 17.1, S.L. 2007-323). State of Wisconsin. (1979). The mutual agreement program: A study of system intervention in the Wisconsin division of correction (pp. 1–254). Madison, WI: Department of Health and Social Services, Division of Corrections. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/67951NCJRS. pdf Submission Details: •Save your report as M3_A2_Lastname_Firstname.doc. •By Wednesday, August 3, 2016, submit your report to the M3: Assignment 2 LASA 1 Dropbox. ********************************************************************** Assignment 1: Prisoner Programming as It Relates to Inmate Characteristics Prison officials deal with different categories of inmates, such as aging, mentally ill, or violent inmates. To ensure rehabilitation, prosocial behavior, and reduction and elimination of violent behavior among prisoners, there must be proper programming. When considering the proper programming for prisoners, criminogenic factors and needs must be taken into account. Programming is recommended based on each prisoner’s unique characteristics. While prisoners may have some general characteristics as a group, each prisoner has unique needs and characteristics. Considerations such as age, medical needs, psychiatric needs, and violence factors come into play when making needs assessment. Therefore, in order to ensure optimal chances for rehabilitation and prosocial behavior among prisoners, proper programming is paramount. It is important to understand that for programming to be effective, the “one size fits all” approach is not optimal. Tasks: By Saturday, August 6, 2016, in at least 250 words, post to the Discussion Area your answers to the following: •Discuss examples of rehabilitation programs that you could find related to different categories of inmates. •Explain how social learning theory relates to prison programs. •Discuss the evidence that demonstrates the effectiveness of prison rehabilitation programs. ********************************************************************* Assignment 2: Punishment vs. Rehabilitation: What Society Wants vs. What Works It’s a popular notion that harsh punishment in prison should act as a deterrent to crime. The slogan “to be tough on crime” often extends to the conditions in prison. The evolution of punishment has included executions, corporal punishment, hard labor, and exile. Despite the presence of harsh punishments since the last twenty years, there has been only a slight deterrent effect. Conversely, approaches to reduce recidivism through evidence-based practices and programs have succeeded. It is important to understand the goals of punishment and how they relate to public opinion and prison philosophy within the context of what works according to recent research. Public opinion often recommends harsh punishments and labor for inmates during their incarceration. Evaluate the use of hard labor and even chain gangs and compare to the theories of criminal rehabilitation and the impact on society. For example, the governor of North Carolina has ordered the use of inmates to clean up public areas after Hurricane Irene in 2011. Tasks: Look for the quantitative and qualitative research available to you on the use of inmate labor in your state and one other state using the Argosy University online library resources and prepare a 2- to 3-page paper addressing the following: •Evaluate the outcome of making inmates do hard labor and compare the theories of criminal rehabilitation and the impact on society. •Find research evaluating the outcome of making inmates do hard labor. Does the research support the use of hard labor as an effective method to elicit rehabilitation? Analyze and explain. Note: Make sure you include a reference page in APA style. Submission Details: •Save the paper as M4_A2_Lastname_Firstname.doc. •By Wednesday, August 10, 2016, submit your paper to the M4: Assignment 2 Dropbox. ********************************************************************* Assignment 1: LASA 2: Centervale State Penitentiary Management of Prison Violence The Ninth Circuit Court has received a large number of complaints filed by prisoners claiming that their civil rights are being violated because they are housed in accommodations made unsafe due to the frequent outbursts of violence in the Centervale State Penitentiary. As a result, the Ninth Circuit Court judge has given the governor an ultimatum that if the amount of violence in the prison is not reduced, the prison’s management and leadership will be turned over to the federal government. The director of prisons is now under scrutiny because it appears that the warden, his administrators, and his staff are not maintaining a safe environment for staff either, as evidenced by the brutal beating of a male staff member during a fight between two prison gangs in the corridor outside the mess hall inside the Centervale State Penitentiary. As the assistant to the warden’s director of the Penology Research Team, you have been asked to prepare a report that explains penology theory, prison violence, inmate programming, and rehabilitation for the warden and for the director of prisons that the governor will most likely review. Challenges that you will have to address in your report are many, but primarily, the director of prisons is interested in how prison violence will be reduced by 5% within one year, regardless of the fact that the legislature has just cut even more funding on the corrections system when the prison is understaffed and inmates are in need of programs. Here’s What You Need to Do . . . Using APA format and APA guidelines, compose an 8- to 10-page paper using the Argosy University online library resources to address the following: 1.Define and discuss in detail the goals of penology theory and integrate the discussion with the overarching goal of prison management and leadership. 2.Research US penology theory and practice. Identify and explain five strengths and five weaknesses of the US prison management system as a whole. 3.The Centervale State Penitentiary is an old prison with a limited number of cameras in a few places. It does not have state-of-the-art equipment, and its policies and procedures to counteract prison violence have been in place for decades. Research penology prison violence reduction plans, policy, and procedure using the Argosy University online library resources. Discuss at least one violence reduction program that has failed and one program that you think might work. Be sure to explain why the program was successful or why it might have failed. 4.The Centervale State Penitentiary has two programs for inmates to work in—the Cafeteria Program and the Prison Grounds Program. No educational programs exist at this time. Propose a course of action to reduce violence by implementing the following: •Educational Programming •Employee Developmental Training •Proactive Supervision Model 5.The brutal beating of Centervale State Penitentiary corrections Officer Brian Belle outraged the public to the extent that some citizens protested against inmates’ rights in the state capitol. Officer Belle suffered a broken leg, a broken arm, eight broken ribs, one broken vertebrae, and a skull fracture, which caused medical professionals to keep him in a medically induced coma for over a month. After more than six months, Officer Belle returned to work, only to face the same situation again in the same corridor under the same policies. Staunchly, Officer Belle maintains his authority in the prison and intends to testify against them at their trial. Officer Belle constantly receives community support, and the District Attorney’s Office receives constant complaints about how long it is taking to try the inmates charged with assaulting Officer Belle. Research and explain from a broad perspective how prison violence impacts society. Does prison violence impact society? Be very specific in stating ways in which prison violence might impact society, based on your research findings using credible sources. Submission Details: •Save the report as M5_A1_Lastname_Firstname.doc. •By Monday, August 15, 2016, submit your report to the M5: Assignment 1 LASA 2 Dropbox. ******************************************************************** Assignment 2: Lessons from the Past with a Focus on the Future We are the sum total of our experience to date. Therefore, we need to review and know our past and learn to improve our future. A review of the past two hundred years of prison history shows that history repeats itself. Throughout our history, we have passed through the same eras, naming them slightly different each time. For instance, if we look historically, the period of transition we are moving toward now is a community-based (rehabilitative) model, which was experienced most recently in the 1960s and the 1970s. The criminal justice system tries to learn from the past mistakes and achievements in each era and believes to execute the dominant philosophies more effectively in the future. The theories have a theoretical base but are modified based on social, judicial, and legislative influences. Knowledge, research, experience, and technology all impact our theories as well. We continue to evolve, which is a positive characteristic. The nature of crime and our knowledge of how to address crime have also changed. The sophistication of our diagnostic and assessment techniques and instruments has allowed us to identify criminogenic factors. This will allow us to not only improve outcomes but also make contributions to social policy. We will continue to need bright, motivated people to take us into the future. We also need to review our approach to sentencing and ensure it is contributing to success. Through this class, we have learned about the history, theories, and future of corrections. By now, have your views about penology and its directions changed? Tasks: By Sunday, August 14, 2016, in at least 250 words, post to the Discussion Area your answers to the following questions: •What are some of the future challenges facing corrections and the steps we could take to deal with the challenges? •What impact will technology have on the future of penology? •Does the criminal justice system require a new paradigm for sentencing? ********************************************************************* Please have ALL assignments returned by the appropriate due dates.