Impacting Corrections

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Correctional Context
What impacts corrections and why?
Recidivism is probably the major item that impacts corrections, along with the goals of the criminal justice system, available funds, community attitudes, the quality of those responsible in the system itself, the media and politicians. A variety of means have been introduced to they system in order to prevent criminals from being incarcerated in the first place, to prevent them from being re-incarcerated, while others are aimed at rehabilitation and still others simply to punish. Ongoing studies continue to attempt to determine what "works," and what does not work in opposition of Martinson's (1974) "nothing works" doctrine. (Goodstein & MacKenzie, 1989; Cullen & Gendreau, 1989; Latessa & Allen, 2003) Illustrating what the writing of one person can effect, "On January 18, 1989, the abandonment of rehabilitation in corrections was confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court. In Mistretta v. United States, the Court upheld federal "sentencing guidelines" which remove rehabilitation from serious consideration when sentencing offenders (Miller, J.G. 1989)."
The probation and parole systems have been used to divert offenders from or release them from prison into the community, many point to the flaws that exist: "discretionary abuses, the arbitrary nature of the indeterminate sentence, the disparity in sentencing practices by judges, the failure of rehabilitation and supervision, and the inadequate deliver of services (Latessa and Allen, 2003)." Trying to offset the complaints, the system in many locations has imposed mandatory sentencing, determinate sentencing, sentencing tribunals, guidelines, and new strategies which are also open to attack and criticism. (id) In 1977, seventy-two percent of those released were released on discretionary parole, but by 1999, less than 20 percent. This results in large case and work loads in these departments. (Jankowski, 1990; Latessa & Allen, 2003)
Other innovative programs are residential programs and halfway houses, of which there is a shortage. The system has tried other components, for example "brokerage, casework, house arrest, day-reporting, electronic monitoring, intensive and specialized caseloads and volunteer ...