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Created: June 22, 2003
Latest Update: October 30, 2003
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

CRMJ/SOCA 363: Corrections
Week 9 -- Jails

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 9: Week of October 26, 2003

• Topic: Jails

• Preparatory Readings and Other Materials:
  --- new Answerability: A book on practice
  --- new Fractal Bits of Experience Coming Together in an Empty Memory Space: I can do this, too!
  --- Haas and Alpert. Dilemmas of Corrections. ch. 24-26
  --- Sachar. Holes. ch. 1-10
  --- "Second City" and "Presumed Innocent" (Documentaries to be shown in class)
  --- Visit this link: National Institute of Corrections A major resource on county jails.
  

• Lectures/Discussions: in class

• Concepts:

  • jail
  • pretrial detention
  • misdemeanant
  • bail
  • pretrial diversion

• Discussion Questions:
  
  

  Note: Be sure to relate your answers to the documentaries, "Second City" and "Presumed Innocent" to be shown in class.

  1. What are the similarities and differences between jails and prisons? Why do some people use these terms interchangeably?
  2. Why are county jails considered the "bottom of the correctional barrel?"
  3. What are some problems you would expect to encounter if you were in charge of providing rehabilitation in a county jail? Why.

Ideas and Suggestions for Creative Measures

• Research "what works?" inside a county jail? In other words, what are today's most successful rehabilitation programs in the county jail? Why. How is success measured? Why.
• Other books related to jails:
  --- J.F. Fishman. Crucibles of Crime: The Shocking Story of the American Jail.
  --- D. Danto. Jail House Blues.
  --- John Irwin. The Jails: The Managing the Underclass in American Society.
  
• 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:

National Institute of Corrections A resource on county jails, jail management, inmate classification, and more!
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 9:
  • 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 the county jail.