THE CORRECTIONAL CLIENT: CHAPTER 6
PRISONERS ARE NOT!! all alike
One problem is deciding who client is. my view: not all "clients" alike,
and this shapes how we "treat" people. Comes back to "goals."
Do prisons get crooks off the streets?
Of: 1,000 crimes: (SEE THE EARLY FIGURE IN CHAPTER 6)
500 crimes reported to police
100 arrested (we're now down to 10 pct)
35 are juveniles, and 30 of those are on probation or case dismissed)
65 remaining are adults
35 of the remaining adult cases are accepted for prosecution
30 of the 35 go to trial
27 are adjudicated as "guilty" and sentenced
18 are incarcerated, 9 placed on probation
(NOTE: These figures may vary slightly depending on which edition
of Clear and Cole you are using)
(REMEMBER THE INDEX CRIME: murder, sexual assault, robbery, physical
assault, burglary, larceny/theft, auto theft, arson
who commits crimes?
1. young, male, poor for street crime.
2. for other crimes, most anybody (explain)
Are most crooks violent?
Arrests:
24 percent for public order
17 pct for drugs
8 pct for larceny-theft
7 pct for Assault
6 pct for forgery-fraud
6 pct for property
The rest is for "other"
Types of offenders:
1. situational
2. career crimial
3. sex offenders
(rapists, child molesters, flashers, etc)
4. "service" offenders (prostitutes, etc)
5. druggies
(includes alchohol, but not in book)
6. mentally ill offender (and mentally handicapped)
7. HIV/AIDS offender
8. (distinguish, which book doesn't: cultural offender)
(eg, students drinking, etc)
Classifying offenders:
1. why do it?
2. problems
a) socio-political pressures
b) inaccurate data
c) ideology/defs
3. an idea from book:
classify by likelihood to repeat rather than type
Impact of 'client characteristics' on prisons:
1. prisoners--who goes, who has power, so what?
2. prison culture: adaptation/coping strats, and how
this shapes prison life for all (gds, etc)
3. prison crowding--more stress on pun = more prisoners
4.severity of punishment (more or less lenient?)
(but probably much younger now---gangs, etc
Types of prisoners:
1. Those with mental health issues
2. Substance abusers
3. Geriatric prisoners
4. Younger prisoners
5) Gender/Sex issues (eg, male/female offenders; GLBT)
6) Security threat groups
7) Vulnerable prisoners (prey v. predators)
8) Long-term/short-term
some added notes on determinate sentencing:
--about 200 still under old Illinois law who come up for parole
and are not subject to "good time" provisions since the late 1970s
Return to Jim Thomas's homepage