Paper Summary:

The paper looks at the development of the modern prison and the changing approaches to prison arrangement and management. The paper discusses how prisons' difficult living conditions and lack of funds places considerable pressure on corrections officers and police who must try to rehabilitate and reform prisoners. The paper further demonstrates the enormous pressure on corrections officers by discussing how they must deal with hardened criminals with violent tendencies, while attempting to navigate between these prisoners' constitutional rights and the need of the prison system to maintain order and achieve its objectives. The paper also notes the conflicting demands of the politicians' and public's cry for a war on crime, and the needs of prisoners who either must be rehabilitated or punished.

Outline:
Introduction
History
Background

From the Paper:

"The modern prison system is the result of some two hundred years of development. Seeking to eliminate cruel punishments, and to develop a human and scientific approach to the problems of crime and antisocial behavior, reformers created a complex system of institutional incarceration. Wrongdoers would be confined apart from society; their actions carefully controlled. They would either be punished or reformed, in either case incarceration serving as a form of behavior modification. In the case of punishment, prisoners would refrain from the future commission of crimes because of their dread of being excluded from the general society. In the case of reform, prisoners would be subjected to a variety of psychological techniques that would, hopefully, show them the error of their ways, and result in their being turned into upstanding and productive citizens."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Blumstein, A. (2004). 3 Restoring Rationality in Punishment Policy. In The Future of Imprisonment, Tonry, M. (Ed.) (pp. 61-78). New York: Oxford University Press.
• Bunzel, S. M. (1995). The Probation Officer and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines: Strange Philosophical Bedfellows. Yale Law Journal, 104(4), 933-966.
• Cochrane, J., Melville, G., & Marsh, I. (2004). Criminal Justice: An Introduction to Philosophies, Theories and Practice. London: Routledge.
• Diiulio, J. J. (1991). No Escape: The Future of American Corrections. New York: Basic Books.
• Dolovich, S. (2005). State Punishment and Private Prisons. Duke Law Journal, 55(3), 437+.

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