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Created: June 22, 2003
Latest Update: October 9, 2003
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

CRMJ/SOCA 363: Corrections
Week 8 The Rehabilitation Debate

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 8: Week of October 19, 2003

• Topic:The Rehabilitation Debate

• Preparatory Readings and Other Materials:
  --- Haas and Alpert. Dilemmas of Corrections. ch. 20-26
  --- "Prison Gangs and Racism" (Documentary to be shown in class)
  

• Lectures/Discussions: in class

• Concepts:

  • rehabilitation
  • recidivism
  • program success
  • boot camp
  • prison-based therapeutic communities
  • prison gangs
  • supermax

• Discussion Questions:
  
  

  Note: Be sure to relate your answers to the documentary, "Prison Gangs and Racism" to be shown in class.

  1. Who is the typical inmate in today's supermax prison?
  2. Why does the supermax prison provide the best metaphor for moral bankruptcy when it comes to crime and corrections?
  3. Based on the readings and other materials, does rehabilitation work? Why.
  4. What are the arguments on both sides of the rehabilitation debate? Which side do you take? Why.

Ideas and Suggestions for Creative Measures

• Research "what works?" In other words, what are today's most successful rehabilitation programs? Why. How do you measure success?
• Other books related to rehabilitation:
  --- Robert Martinson. The Effectiveness of Correctional Treatment.
  --- Frances Cullen and Karen Gilbert. Reaffirming Rehabilitation.
  --- James Finckenauer. Scared Straight and the Panacea Phenomenon.
  --- S. Martin, L. Sechrest and R. Redner. New Directions in the Rehabilitation of Criminal Offenders.
  
• 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:

• American Friends Service Committee. Struggle for Justice
• David Fogel. We are Living Proof...
• Graeme Newman. The Punishment Response.
• James Q. Wilson. Thinking About Crime.
• Elliott Currie. Confronting Crime.
• 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 8:
  • Know the abovementioned concepts, and be able to apply them.
  • Be an active discussant in class demonstrating competence in answering this week's discussion questions.
  • Be able to go back and forth between correctional theories (ideologies), policies and practices relating to supermax prisons and the rehabilitation debate.