Exam Content
Because society vacillates between whether we punish or rehabilitate an offender, it is important for anyone entering the criminal justice field to understand how corrections functions and what ways a staff member can provide services for their community.
Resource: Chapters 10–12 of Introduction to Criminal Justice and the Bureau of Justice website. Focus on the data sources for corrections.
Imagine you are a probation officer and you have been asked to talk to a local community group about the current state of prison and jail populations.
Create a 10- to 12-slide Microsoft PowerPoint presentation that helps explains the U.S. corrections system on local, state, and federal levels. Address the following in your presentation:
- Describe the jail population.
- Describe the prison population.
- Describe the population under community supervision.
- Indicate the top 3 challenges facing jails and/or prisons according to your view; especially focus on challenges facing support service workers.
- Explain some of the recent trends in incarceration, which have arisen in response to the 3 challenges you are focusing on.
- Discuss the role of support services in responding to these 3 challenges facing corrections.
- Describe ways that inmates are released from prison.
- Define community corrections.
