CORRECTIONS IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

The Role Of Corrections In The Criminal Justice System



The Role Of Corrections In The Criminal Justice System

There are many components that make up the criminal justice system, including but not limited to: law enforcement, courts, and corrections.

The role of correction often referred to as a network as opposed to a system by criminal justice professionals, can not be successful without all the components that make up that system or network. Nothing can move forward within the criminal court system without first being referred by a law enforcement agency.

The criminal justice system is composed of the agencies of police, courts, and corrections. The corrections system, representing the community's response to suspected and convicted juvenile and adult offenders, is a significant component of criminal justice. Corrections agencies, operating at local, municipal, state, and federal levels, include jails, prisons with varying degrees of security, and a wide array of quasi-institutional as well as community-based programs. Among the most frequently applied community-based programs are probation, parole, and halfway houses, easing the transition of offenders from prison or jail to the community. Recent rapid expansions of intermediate sanctions have provided corrections with a widening range of community-based options. They include home detention, electronic monitoring, intensive supervision probation and parole programs, restitution, community service, substance abuse monitoring, fines, day reporting programs, shock incarceration, and regimented discipline programs more commonly known as boot camps. Juvenile corrections programs operate on the parens patriae principle, under which local, state, and federal jurisdictions assume responsibility for juveniles in order to protect "the child's best interest." As such, it is the role of juvenile corrections to "treat" and "help" the children in their charge, whether they are "dependent and neglected," in "need of supervision," or deemed "delinquent." By contrast, the penal sanctions imposed on convicted adult offenders serve a multiplicity of purposes ranging from deterrence and incapacitation to punishment and rehabilitation.

Even though people are the most effective resource for helping offenders and for effecting crime control and crime reduction, they remain underutilized and, for the most part, inappropriately applied in corrections. Major manpower problems range from a continuing shortage of specialized professional personnel, to poor working conditions, to unsound utilization of available human and scarce fiscal resources. Of all the components of criminal justice, the corrections system suffers the poorest image and is characterized by mission conflict. System fragmentation is yet another serious problem. ...