Deck 1: Crisis in Criminal Justice Policy

Question 1

In 1977, it was declared that both __________ and __________ had failed and a crisis in American criminal justice policy prevailed.

A) punishment and deterrence
B) treatment and incapacitation
C) punishment and treatment
D) deterrence and indeterminate sentencing

Answer 1

punishment and treatment

Question 2

The effectiveness of America's criminal justice policies were called into question starting in the 1960s, mainly because of ___________?

A) the soaring crime rate
B) the declining crime rate
C) President Kennedy
D) the ideas of the new penology

Answer 2

the soaring crime rate

Question 3

An inmate insurrection at __________ sparked the public's consciousness and became a powerful symbol that our nation's prisons were both inhumane and ineffective.

A) Arkansas State Penitentiary
B) the Democratic National Convention
C) the Walnut Street Jail
D) Attica Correctional Facility

Answer 3

Attica Correctional Facility

Question 4

Inmates often believed that they must __________ in order to have someone pay attention to their needs and bring about change.

A) riot
B) endure their environment
C) prompt correctional officials to institute reforms
D) become rehabilitated

Question 5

Americans in the first half of the 1970s were faced with the prospect of an intractable crime rate and confronted with the reality that their prisons were both inhumane and grossly ineffective-what guiding correctional philosophy at the time would take the blame for this troubling state of affairs?

A) Retribution
B) Rehabilitation
C) Deterrence
D) Incapacitation

Question 6

Attica and other prison uprisings made clear to the public that prisons were disproportionally filled with __________ and __________.

A) white faces; the wealthy
B) racial minorities; the economically advantaged
C) racial minorities; the economically disadvantaged
D) murderers and robbers

Question 7

In practice, the ascendancy of rehabilitation meant that the components of the criminal justice system were now organized to __________ offenders. However, close observers of our correctional system would recognize that this was more myth than reality.

A) reform
B) incapacitate
C) punish
D) spiritually transform

Question 8

Historian David Rothman noted that a look to our past clearly reveals that "__________" far more often than "__________" has/have controlled the daily workings of our correctional process.

A) conscience; convenience
B) hard work; laziness
C) liberals; conservatives
D) convenience; conscience

Question 9

For __________, rehabilitation undermined law and order by "coddling" the criminal.

A) liberals
B) politicians
C) conservatives
D) criminal justice officials

Question 10

For __________, rehabilitation was seen not to allow for the betterment of society's captives but rather to be a major source of the coercive, discriminatory treatment suffered by prison inmates.

A) criminal justice officials
B) conservatives
C) politicians
D) liberals

Question 11

Several alternative proposals vied to replace rehabilitation as the dominant correctional paradigm in the field. What correctional paradigm "won" in the 1970s?

A) Determinate sentencing, rooted in the philosophy of punishment
B) Applying revenge on behalf of the victim, rooted in the philosophy of retribution
C) Indeterminate sentencing, rooted in the philosophy of punishment
D) Making sure everyone knows that punishment is severe and certain, rooted in the philosophy of deterrence

Question 12

Defendant Daniel is tried and found guilty of robbery in a court of law. The judge then sentences Daniel to three years in the Ohio State Penitentiary. This is an example of what type of sentence?

A) Indeterminate sentence
B) Reformative sentence
C) Determinate sentence
D) Maximum sentence

Question 13

If a judge presiding over a criminal case is left free to select any sentence up to but not exceeding a legislatively fixed sentence, this is an example of what type of sentence?

A) Minimum sentence
B) Reformative sentence
C) Indeterminate sentence
D) Maximum sentence

Question 14

Defendant Jennifer is tried and found guilty of arson in a court of law. The judge then sentences Jennifer for a term that could span 2 to 6 years in Dayton Correctional Institution. This is an example of what type of sentence?

A) Determinate sentence
B) Maximum sentence
C) Minimum sentence
D) Indeterminate sentence

Question 15

In determinate sentencing, the __________ formulates a code that, based on the seriousness of each offense, prescribes precisely how much each act should be punished.

A) judge
B) legislature
C) president
D) warden

Question 16

In the late 1800s into the early 1900s, __________ urged that the state's response to a criminal should not depend on the nature or seriousness of the crime committed but on the nature of the criminal's condition and on how quickly this can be cured.

A) judges
B) Quakers
C) Progressives
D) conservatives

Question 17

Indeterminate sentencing was related to the emergence of new ideas on how to achieve an offender's reformation. Within this sentencing philosophy was the idea that treatment of criminals should be based on __________.

A) how sorry the defendant appears to be at trial
B) the unique set of factors that drove each one into crime
C) the seriousness of the crime committed
D) who the victim(s) of the crime was

Question 18

By the middle part of the 1970s, conservatives believed that rehabilitation had resulted in the victimization of the __________, while liberals asserted the opposite: rehabilitation had eventuated in the victimization of the __________. Regardless, both embraced proposals for determinate sentencing.

A) society; criminal
B) criminal; government
C) criminal; society
D) society; government

Question 19

In a __________ model of corrections, all sentences are flat or determinate.

A) justice
B) reformative
C) deterrence
D) bureaucratic

Question 20

While both conservatives and liberals embraced proposals for determinate sentencing, they disagreed in one fundamental respect. What was this inconsistency?

A) How juveniles should be sentenced
B) How men and women should be sentenced
C) How severe or long prison sentences should be
D) How inmates should spend their free time

Question 21

Briefly explain why people started doubting the wisdom and effectiveness of criminal justice policies in the 1960s and 1970s.

Question 22

Why was the climate ripe in the 1960s for a rash of inmate disturbances? In other words, what type of social circumstances prevailed in America during this time that allowed for the inmates' pent-up frustrations and hostility to break through traditional constraints and turn into a series of uprisings?

Question 23

Briefly explain the role the media played in uncovering the brutalizing practices and oppression that inmates experienced during the 1960s.

Question 24

Briefly explain how the conservatives felt about rehabilitation as America moved into the 1970s.

Question 25

Briefly explain how the liberals felt about rehabilitation as America moved into the 1970s.

Question 26

Briefly describe the Progressives' agenda or beliefs about American corrections. That is, how did these individuals feel individuals' should be corrected in the criminal justice system?

Question 27

Under indeterminate sentencing, who determined release for each inmate?

Question 28

Briefly explain the main tenets of the liberal justice model.

Question 29

Briefly explain the conservatives' and liberals' views on determinate sentencing. Did they support this sentencing scheme for the same reasons? Why or why not?

Question 30

According to Cullen and Gilbert, why should we not reject the rehabilitative ideal?

Question 31

Explain in detail the era of inmate uprisings and social upheaval during the 1960s. In your answer, be sure to address the following: (1) inmate insurrections in general, and more specifically, the uprising at Attica; (2) why the uprising at Attica was so significant; (3) what the Attica uprising stood for in American history and the shift that occurred in corrections after this upheaval occurred.

Question 32

Describe in detail the attack on rehabilitation. In your answer, be sure to address the differences between conservatives' and liberals' views on the rehabilitative ideal and on what the two political camps agreed and disagreed.

Question 33

Discuss in detail the false appeal of determinate sentencing. In your answer, be sure to explain why determinate sentencing sounds appealing on the surface, but why, in the end, Cullen and Gilbert argue we should reaffirm rehabilitation.