Justice in America: Quotas, Corruption & Our Modern Corrections System - Lesson by John Gianniny - HS Level

Lesson: Quotas, Corruption & Our Modern Corrections System

Unit Title: Justice in America

Grade Level: High School

Subject/Topic Area(s): Social Studies, Current Events

Time Frame: two 50 minute class sessions

Objective: Students will examine the purpose of the corrections system and identify ways in which the currently expanding 'for-profit' model that exists in the United States is vulnerable to corruption.

Materials: Teacher-made handouts: Key Word Connections, Comparing Motivations

Resources: NYPDOfficer Adhyl Polanco's DN Interview, Cashfor Kids– Jamie Quinn DN Interview, Prisoners of Profit – DN Clip, Rehabilitate or Punish? - APA article, Whythe Increase in the Corrections Populations?, PrivatePrison Companies Have a Lock on the Business, US Statistics, WorldPrison Population list

Key Words: accountability, corruption, deterrence, due process, incapacitation, incarceration, incentive, justice, profit motive, quota, racial profiling, rapport

Materials: Cash for Kids – Jamie Quinn DN Interview & Prisoners of Profit – DN Clip

Essential Questions:

What is the purpose of the corrections system?

What is the difference between rehabilitation and punishment?

Why does the United states have a relatively high rate of prisoners?

How might the motives of private prisons and public correctional facilities differ when it comes to rehabilitating incarcerated persons, duration of sentencing, rehabilitative resources and activities available to incarcerated persons?

In what ways might these differing motivations be evidenced?

How is this topic related to 'America's War on Drugs', 'Stop-and-Frisk', 'the school to prison pipeline'?

Is our corrections system successful?

What would a successful corrections system look like?

Do Now: Students will choose 6 of the key words from the lesson, define them if needed, and make associations between them using the teacher-made handout, Key Word Connections.

Q: What is the purpose of the corrections system?

Procedure:
1. Students will share their connections as a class and make inferences as to what the class discussion will be about. The teacher will ask students, What is the purpose of prison? Would you invest money in a private prison?

2. Students will read the article Private Prison Companies Have a Lock on the Business.

3. Students will watch DN clips (Cash for Kids, Prisoners of Profit).  Class will give feedback to following question: What is your reaction to the videos we just watched?

4. After watching the videos above, students will be asked to consider the article from the Wall Street Journal in relation to the Kids for Cash scandal and information about for-profit youth detention centers. Students will use a teacher-made t-chart, Comparing Motivations to examine the potential motivators of public and private facilities.

Q: How might the motives of private prisons and public correctional facilities differ when it comes to rehabilitating incarcerated persons, duration of sentencing, rehabilitative resources and activities available to incarcerated persons?

Homework Extension: Research -- Students will be asked to do their own research and take a position on whether or not a for-profit corrections model is one that should continue to be supported in the United States. If so, how can we ensure that profit-motives do not obstruct rehabilitative goals for prisoners? If not, please propose an alternative.

Students will present their research with time allotted for feedback the following day in class.

Other Potential Extensions:

1. Write a letter to a prisoner
2. Visit a (public and/or private) prison

Common Core Standards:

RI. 1, 10-11 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

RI 3, 11-12 Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.

RI 7, 11-12 Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

Why the Increase in Corrections Populations?

Several factors affect prison and jail populations, which now total about 2.13 million

men and women.7 First is the nation’s drug problem. Data show that the

number of persons admitted to state prisons for drug offenses has for several

years exceeded the number entering for violent or property crimes. Other commonly

cited factors include truth-in-sentencing laws, violence on television and in

the movies, and a general deterioration of morals and of the family. In sum, the

nation has become more punitive in nature.

Truth in sentencing for prison inmates began in 1984 in Washington State.

The concept, which involves restriction or elimination of parole eligibility and

good-time credits, quickly spread to other states after a determination in 1996

that prisoners were serving on average about 44 percent of their court sentence.

To assure that offenders serve larger portions of their sentence, Congress authorized

funding for additional state prisons and jails if states met eligibility criteria

for truth-in-sentencing programs.8 To qualify, states must require violent offenders

to serve at least 85 percent of their prison sentence. By 1998, 27 states and

the District of Columbia qualified; 14 states have abolished early parole board release

for all offenders.9

A philosophical shift about the purpose of incarceration also contributed to

prison crowding. In response to the apparent failure of rehabilitation policies,

the now-prevailing philosophy sees prisons as places to incarcerate and punish

inmates in an effort to deter crime. This philosophy has resulted in get-tough

sentencing practices (including mandatory sentencing laws), which contribute

to rising prison populations. Legislators have essentially removed the word

rehabilitation from the penal code while focusing on fixed sentences. This shift

from rehabilitating inmates to “just desserts” is based on the view that offenders

make “free will” decisions to commit crimes and, therefore, no longer deserve

compassion and “correction.” U.S. citizens, however, may be leaning more

toward rehabilitative efforts. One survey found that about 48 percent of Americans

believed that it is more important to try to rehabilitate people who are in

prison than merely to punish them (14.6 percent).10