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California State University, Dominguez Hills
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Created: June 22, 2003
Latest Update: October 2, 2003
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

CRMJ/SOCA 363: Corrections
Week 7 Courts and Corrections

You will be held accountable for purposes of grading for the readings and exercises listed here. There will be no "testing." That means that you will not have to live in anxious anticipation of what we will ask and how much you will have to know. Instead, we will provide weekly discussion questions, lectures, essays, and concepts we feel that you should know as a result of having taken this course. You will assure us of that learning and receive your grade for the questions and concepts about which you choose to write and talk with us. In addition, you will find detailed explanations and examples on our grading policies in the first week's reading.

* * * * *

Week 7: Week of October 12, 2003

• Topic:Courts and Corrections

• Preparatory Readings and Other Materials:
  --- Haas and Alpert. Dilemmas of Corrections. ch. 13-19
  --- Hassine. Life Without Parole. afterword and appendices
  --- "Hard Time" (Documentary to be shown in class)
  

• Lectures/Discussions: in class

• Concepts:

  • prisoner rights
  • due process
  • disciplinary hearings
  • the Eighth Amendment

• Discussion Questions:
  
  

  Note: Be sure to relate your answers to the documentary, "Hard Time" to be shown in class.

  1. How have offender rights been developed by the courts? What is the interrelationship between "theory, policy, practice" when it comes to courts and corrections?
  2. Do prisoners give up their rights and privileges as punishment for crime(s) committed? How do we balance between the protection of the prisoner's rights and the community's need to punish? Why.
  3. What did you like best about Life Without Parole? What did you like least about this book? Why.
  4. How does Hassine's conclusion relate to "courts and corrections?" Do you agree with his conclusion? Why.

Ideas and Suggestions for Creative Measures

• Research the prisoner rights movement.
• Other books related to prisoner rights:
  --- Lynne Goodstein and Doris Layton MacKenzie. The American Prison: Issues in Research and Policy.
  
• A Creative Project with CSUDH students! Check out Visual Essays Project. If interested, let me know.
  
• If you enjoyed reading Hassine's Life Without Parole , you might be interested in other prison autobiographies/biographies:
  --- Jack Henry Abbott. In the Belly of the Beast.
  --- Leonard Peltier. Prison Writings.
  --- Eldridge Cleaver. Soul on Ice.
  --- Rubin "Hurricane" Carter. Sixteenth Round.
  --- The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
  

Recommended Readings:

• Alfie Kohn. Beyond Discipline.
• James Austin and John Irwin. It's About Time: America's Imprisonment Binge.
• Jeffery Reiman. The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison.

Interesting Links:

Convicts and Cops A resource on prison tatoos, prison slang terminology, and more!


Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Jail Cam Link found by Mary Frances Chachula.
Wisconsin Department of Corrections
Virtual Prison Tour





• Minimum Requirements for Week 7:
  • Know the abovementioned concepts, and be able to apply them.
  • Be prepared to answer the above discussion questions and be an active contributor during class discussions.
  • Be able to go back and forth between correctional theories (ideologies), policies and practices relating to courts and corrections.