American Corrections 10th Edition

Clear Solutions Manual

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CHAPTER 7
Jails: Detention and Short-Term Incarceration

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, students should be able to:

1. Describe the history the jail and its current function in the criminal justice system.
2. Describe who is in jails, and why they are there.
3. Discuss the kinds of jails in the United States.
4. List the main issues facing jails today.
5. Outline the problem of bail, and list the main alternatives to bail.
6. Outline the problems of jail administration.
7. Describe new developments in jails and jail programs.
8. Critically assess the future of the jail.

KEY TERMS
Lockup
A facility authorized to hold people before court appearance for up to 48 hours. Most lockups
(also called drunk tanks or holding tanks) are administered by local police agencies.

Fee system
A system by which jail operations are funded by a set amount paid per day for each prisoner
held.

Regional jail
Facility operated under a joint agreement between two or more government units, with a jail
board drawn from representatives of the participating jurisdictions, and having varying authority
over policy, budget, operations, and personnel.

Bail
An amount of money, specified by a judge, to be posted as a condition for pretrial release to
ensure the appearance of the accused in court.

Bondsman
An independent business-person who provides bail money for a fee, usually 5–10 percent of the
total.

Release on recognizance (ROR)

Pretrial release because the judge believes the defendant’s ties in the community are sufficient to
guarantee the defendant’s appearance in court.

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Day reporting center

Facility where offenders such as pretrial releasees and probation violators attend daylong
intervention and treatment sessions.

Electronic monitoring
Community supervision technique, ordinarily combined with home confinement, that uses
electronic devices to maintain surveillance on offenders.

Pretrial diversion
An alternative to adjudication in which the defendant agrees to conditions set by the prosecutor
(for example, counseling or drug rehabilitation) in exchange for withdrawal of charges.

Widening the net

Increasing the scope of corrections by applying a diversion program to people charged with
offenses less serious than those of the people the program was originally intended to serve.

Absconders
People who fail to appear for a court date and have no legitimate reason.

Preventive detention
Detention of an accused person in jail, to protect the community from crimes the accused is
considered likely to commit if set free pending trial.

New-generation jail
A facility with a podular architectural design and management policies that emphasizes
interaction of inmates and staff and provision of services.

Podular unit
Self-contained living areas, for 12–25 inmates, composed of individual cells for privacy and
open areas for social interaction. New-generation jails are made up of two or more pods.

Direct supervision
A method of correctional supervision in which staff members have direct physical interaction
with inmates throughout the day.

Therapeutic justice
A philosophy of reorienting the jail experience from being mostly punitive to being mostly
rehabilitative.

Community model for jails

An innovative model for jail administration that promotes a sense of community among staff and
inmates alike, while using community to promote rehabilitative change.

CHAPTER OUTLINE

I. The Contemporary Jail: Entrance to the System

A. Origins and Evolution.

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1. U.S. jails are direct descendants of feudal 12th century England.

a. Shire reeve
i. Operated the gaol (jail).
ii. Held people for trial.
b. Later added on workhouses for vagrants.
c. Brought to the colonies, but functions remained the same.
d. Frequently jails were in the sheriff’s home, and sheriffs were paid fees
to house the prisoner.
2. In the 1800s, the jail began to change in response to the penitentiary
movement.
a. They became facilities for not only holding offenders for trial, but for
serving short terms as well.
b. They also housed vagrants and the mentally ill.
3. The juvenile reformatory movement and hospitals for the criminally
insane siphoned off some offenders.
4. Development of probation removed some offenders, as did adult
reformatories and state farms.
5. Inmates were segregated by gender.
B. Population Characteristics.
1. In 1978 the first complete nationwide census of jails was conducted by the
Bureau of the Census for the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
a. Conducted every five years since.
b. Excluded inmates in federal and state facilities.
c. 86 percent of inmates are males.
d. 2/3 are under 35 years old.
e. 2/5 are white
f. Most have very low incomes.
g. Jail rate (percent in jail as opposed to prison) is high in the west and
south (see Figure 7.2).
C. Administration of the 3,365 jails.
1. 2,700 have a county-level jurisdiction and are administered by an elected
sheriff.
2. An additional 600 are municipal jails.
3. In six states jails are administered by state governments.
4. There are 13,500 police lockups (aka drunk tanks), which can detain
people for 48 hours. Capacities of jails vary.
a. Los Angeles County Men’s Jail holds nearly 20,000 people alone.
b. New York City together with all Los Angeles County jails hold 33,000
people.
5. Many argue that jails have outgrown police administration.
6. The effective administration of jails requires skills in offender
management and rehabilitation that are not generally included in law
enforcement training.
7. Many problems jails face cannot be met with management practices.
a. One in twenty is a sentenced state prisoner held due to prison
overcrowding.
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b. Some jails work on a “fee system” that encourages poor jails to skimp
on food and support services.
D. The Influence of Local Politics.
1. Close links between jail administration, local politics, fiscal pressures, and
political conservatism have a powerful effect on jails.
2. It is hard to wrest control away from a politically sensitive office.
E. Regional jails—multi-jurisdictional and fiscally-sound facility’s; they have
been slow to catch on because local political and correctional leaders,
reformers, and citizens are negatively affected by them.

II. Pretrial Detention—”Rite of Passage” illustrates the experience

A. Pretrial Detention.
1. Process starts after arrest.
2. Sheer terror.
3. 36 percent of deaths in jails are suicide.
B. Special Problems of Detainees.
1. Mental Health—the number of mentally ill inmates is increasing, however,
police have few alternatives for them; unstable people often respond to
the stress of jail with emotional outbursts and irrational behavior.
2. Substance Dependency—over one-half of jail admissions nationally were
under influence of an illegal drug at the time of arrest and over one-half
had a failed history of drug treatment; withdrawal is also a problem for
both alcoholics and drug addicts.
3. Medical needs range from minor scrapes and bruises to major injuries
sustained during the crime and its aftermath; routine health deficiencies
of lower-class citizens; infections; poor nutrition; lack of dental care and
AIDS (just over 1 percent of inmates nationally).
4. Legal Needs—suspects need information about what will happen prior to
their trial, help in securing release through bail or diversion, must have
help in preparing their case, negotiating with prosecutor or directing
defense attorney; people locked up are at a disadvantage in preparing
their defense.
5. Pretrial Detainees’ Rights—unlike prisoners, detainees have not been
convicted; technically they’re innocent. Detention exerts pressure on
defendants to waive their rights and plead guilty, and so undermines their
defense.
C. Release from detention.
1. More than one-half of jail occupants are awaiting trial.
2. The average time between arrest and sentencing is more than six months.

III. The Bail Problem and Alternatives

A. The court primarily is concerned that the defendant appears at the appointed
time to face charges.
1. Judges require the person to post bail to be forfeited if the accused fails to
appear.
a. Two ways to make bail
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i. Post cash.
ii. Bail Bondsman – 10 percent paid to bondsman, who pays the
balance.
2. Problems with this system:
a. Most defendants are indigent and cannot afford even 10 percent of
their bail.
b. Money is a weak incentive for appearance in many cases.
c. Morally, keeping someone in jail just because they cannot afford to get
out seems contrary to our core beliefs.
3. To avoid the problems of bail, some jurisdictions have increased the use of
citations and summonses.
a. Experiments with this approach indicate that it effectively reduces
demands for short-term detention space.
B. Release on Recognizance.
1. The most successful programs have been those that allow defendants to
be released solely upon their promise that they will appear at trial: release
on recognizance (ROR).
a. Generally have higher appearance rates than bailed offenders.
b. However, the rates of release vary due to requirement of a
“connection” to the community such as family and job.
i. Whites are more likely to get ROR.
ii. Women are more likely to get ROR.
iii. ROR varies by region—African Americans are least likely to be
released in the South and West.
2. Some jurisdictions have tried to augment ROR programs with some
supervision.
a. Probation type supervision.
b. Day reporting centers.
c. Electronic monitoring.
C. Pretrial Diversion: a belief that formal processing of people is not always
beneficial.
a. Many crimes are caused by special problems.
b. Stigma of formal criminal labeling works against rehabilitation.
c. Diversion is cheaper than criminal justice processing.
d. Politically sensitive, looks like “getting off easy.”
D. Might produce “net widening” effects. Conduct during pretrial release.
1. People who are awaiting trial would seem to have a special incentive to
behave well.
2. Many defendants do not behave well during their period of release before
trial.
3. 78 percent of defendants on some form of pretrial release show up for
every court hearing, more than one in five do not.
4. These are called absconders, and unless there is some good reason they
missed the court date, a warrant is sent out for their arrest.
5. Almost one-fifth (18 percent) of all people released while awaiting trial
are rearrested before their trial date arrives, two-thirds for a felony.
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6. High rates of arrests for this population leads to questions about the
effectiveness of the pretrial system.
E. Preventive Detention.
1. Preventive Detention: defendants regarded as dangerous or likely to
recommit while awaiting trial are kept in jail for society’s protection.
2. In reality, less than one-fifth of people on release commit another crime.
3. The U.S. Supreme Court approved this practice in Schall v. Martin in 1984.

IV. The Sentenced Jail Inmate

A. Special difficulties for the correctional administrator.
1. Short duration of the term (usually 30–90 days) means treatment is
difficult.
2. Limitations of the jail’s facilities.
3. Very little for inmates to do in the way of meaningful work or recreation.
B. Most misdemeanants have not graduated from high school, and many are
illiterate.
C. The jail facility places limits on program opportunities.

V. Issues in Jail Management

A. Legal Liability: Jail employees may be legally liable for their actions.
1. 1983 Actions—Federal Civil Rights Act.
2. The threat of litigation has forced jails to develop basic humane practices
for managing offenders.
B. Jail Standards: a good way to deflect litigation is to develop standards for jail
operation that indicate the routine practices and procedures.
1. Three reasons:
a. Standards provide a means for management to evaluate performance
of staff.
b. Facilitate the planning and evaluation of jail programs by giving
program.
c. Management a target.
d. Indicate proactive management.
2. Some argue standards should be binding while others argue jails are too
different for such inflexible standards to work.
C. Personnel Matters—Local corrections workers are among the most poorly
trained, least educated, and worst paid employees in the criminal justice
system.
1. Jails are typically understaffed.
2. Personnel turnover is very high.
D. Jail Crowding: The number of people confined in jails nearly reached crisis
proportions in the early 1990s.
1. One reason is the state facilities are refusing to accept sentenced felons
due to overcrowding in their institutions.
2. Crowding produces management problems.
a. Five people in two-person cells.
b. Sleeping in hallways.
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c. Sleeping without mattresses.

3. Possible solutions.
a. Increase the number of release options.
b. Speed up trials.
c. Work release programs to free up at least some of the day.
E. The Jail Facility.
1. Almost 30 percent of all jail cells are 50 years old or more despite an
unprecedented construction boom to replace old facilities.
a. As recently as 1983, there were no radios or television sets in over 50
percent of jails.
b. Conditions prevent inmates from doing anything with their time which
is dangerous.
i. Idle time.
ii. Poor physical security.
iii. Little or no participation in programs.
2. The new-generation jail is both a design and a set of programs that
attempt to use the physical plant to improve the staff’s ability to manage
the inmate population and provide purpose through popular design,
interaction space, and personal space.
a. Podular unit (derived from pod and modular).
i. A living area for a group inmates that defines a post or watch.
ii. Serves as a self-contained mini-jail.
iii. Cell doors open into the common living area where they can
congregate.
iv. Greater opportunity to interact with each other.
b. Direct supervision approach.
i. Officers are in the same room with inmates, not separated by bars.
ii. Inmates given personal space and can stay in their cells to pursue
their interests.
c. New structure offers advantages over the old form.
i. Economically flexible—a whole pod can be shut down when
population is low.
ii. Minimum standards for recreation time can be met.
iii. Supervising staff is less demanding because they have autonomy to
manage the pod.
iv. 20 percent cheaper to construct.
v. Results in less violence and fewer inmate infractions.
vi. Greatest advantages are programmatic.
vii. Officers being closer can determine better when feelings and
behavior need a response.
viii. Reduces inmate–staff conflict.
ix. Research shows this “employee development model” for staff and
inmates produces better control than DiIulio’s control model.

VI. The Future of the Jail

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A. Few government functions in the United States are under assault from as
many camps as jails.
B. The jail’s importance to the criminal justice system has seldom been greater
than it is today.
C. Jail is an expensive item in county and municipal budgets.
D. Two general trends bode well.
1. Many jurisdictions have renovated or replaced jail facilities since the
1970s.
2. Many jurisdictions are joining with others to build and maintain a single
jail to serve the needs of each.

SUMMARY
As the entryway to the corrections system, the jail holds a mixed and changing
population. Sentenced offenders make up only about half of the jail population; the rest are
pretrial detainees. In urban areas, the jail holds people with long criminal histories and released
mental patients alongside alcohol and drug abusers who must suffer the pangs of withdrawal
with minimal medical assistance. Jail operation is generally the county’s responsibility and
administrators are subject to local political pressures. In most jurisdictions, jails are poorly
funded and the facilities are inadequate for the functions they are expected to serve.
Citations, summonses, and release on recognizance (ROR) are among the new
alternatives to traditional bail. Most jails incarcerate misdemeanants who are sentenced for
periods of no more than one year. Treatment and programs are usually ineffective because of the
short sentence and the limited resources of most jails. The prisoners’ rights movement has raised
the question of the legal liability of jail officials. Personnel problems stemming from low pay
and poor working conditions require constant attention. Jail crowding, caused in part by prison
crowding, raises costs and tension. The new-generation jail has been designed as a secure
environment that allows for the interaction of staff and inmates while providing personal space.
Although these facilities are controversial, the advantages they offer to administrators, staff, and
inmates have won them many adherents.

MEDIA LINKS
To see recent statistics about jail populations around the world, go to
http://www.nationmaster.com/red/pie-T/cri_pri-crime-prisoners.

To find out about standards for jails and current issues about jails, visit the American Jail
Association, at http://www.aja.org/.

To find out about direct-supervision jails, visit the website of the National Institute of
Corrections at http://nicic.gov/.

To review Sheriff Arpaio and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office visit http://www.mcso.org/.

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CRITICAL THINKING ACTIVITIES AND PROJECTS

1. Plan a visit to the local jail. Have students write about the experience. Have them address
the following: what surprised them, confused them, angered them, or struck them in any
other way? Was it what they imagined? Why or why not? Allow the students to also ask
questions of the person providing the tour.

2. Invite a bail bondsman to your class to discuss the bail process and his/her involvement
as well as experience with defendants who use this system. Allow the class to ask
questions and debate issues which arise during the discussion.

3. Have your students research past designs of jails. Allow them to discuss the best possible
option for today’s offenders. Discuss the pros/cons of the jail design they believe to be
most effective.

4. Have students visit your local sheriff department’s website to inquire about employment.
Locate the standards for employment and any requirements for the various positions.
Discuss in class the pros/cons to the information which is located (ie. Salary for a
correctional officer who puts their life on the line each day).

5. Require students to contact a local sheriff department. After contacting a person working
at this location, have the student conduct an interview with this person to ask questions
regarding how they became involved in law enforcement, the hiring process, the day to
day activities of their job, the danger, the inmate culture and any other items they might
wish to discuss with regards to the operations of a jail. Report these findings in writing
through a research paper.

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