What do you think?
Rate this book
Corrections in America: An introduction
The 10th edition of this book, popular for the last quarter century, continues to explore the cutting edge of the corrections field. Clear, well-designed, and eminently readable, it carefully balances current and past research with practical examples and issues; this book impressively includes dynamic 4-color graphs and photographs that maintain reader interest and ease understanding. It covers the latest hot topics, including incarcerated terrorist offenders, legal issues in imprisoning terrorists, federal legislation to restrict post-conviction conditions as well as conditions of confinement appeals. Other more conventional topics covered historical perspectives, the court process, imprisonment alternatives, correctional systems and functions, institutional clients and their rights, reintegration systems, and the future of corrections. For corrections officers, institutional employees, and others in the criminal justice system.
- GenresSchoolNonfiction
522 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1978
6 people are currently reading
46 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 30, 2008
One of the few textbooks I can honestly say I would enjoy reading for pleasure. The information is well laid-out and fascinating for those with an interest.
April 21, 2016
I read the 12th edition. I usually don't give two-star reviews, so I wanted to explain. (I typically don't finish any book that is feeling like one or two stars after 3-4 chapters, and it doesn't seem fair to rate a book I don't finish -- but I'm doing the 52 book challenge this year so I decided to push through this time).
This seemed like a decent primer on the correctional system in America, with a decent Eurocentric history of corrections. But the authors' own agenda was pretty evident at times, which seemed odd whether I agreed with them (e.g. more resources should be devoted to rehabilitation as opposed to punishment and control) or disagreed with them (e.g. private, for-profit prisons are a "promising" venture).
The authors also made strange decisions about which terms they would highlight and define in the sidebar. For example, I didn't need them to tell me what "appeal" or "expunge" means, but they felt no need to explain "certiorari" so I had to Google it. :)
Another thing that irritated me was their list of typical traits of female offenders, which included "deficient parenting skills." This obviously was not present on the list of typical traits of male offenders.
And finally, there were lots of typos considering this was the 12th edition. (I mean, excuse any typos in this post — but it's a Goodreads review, not the 12th edition of an educational text.)
So overall... two stars.
This seemed like a decent primer on the correctional system in America, with a decent Eurocentric history of corrections. But the authors' own agenda was pretty evident at times, which seemed odd whether I agreed with them (e.g. more resources should be devoted to rehabilitation as opposed to punishment and control) or disagreed with them (e.g. private, for-profit prisons are a "promising" venture).
The authors also made strange decisions about which terms they would highlight and define in the sidebar. For example, I didn't need them to tell me what "appeal" or "expunge" means, but they felt no need to explain "certiorari" so I had to Google it. :)
Another thing that irritated me was their list of typical traits of female offenders, which included "deficient parenting skills." This obviously was not present on the list of typical traits of male offenders.
And finally, there were lots of typos considering this was the 12th edition. (I mean, excuse any typos in this post — but it's a Goodreads review, not the 12th edition of an educational text.)
So overall... two stars.
April 25, 2014
Corrections isn't much of a topic of interest to me, but I needed another criminal justice course to complete my minor, and nothing else relevant to forensics was being offered besides the hair & fiber analysis class I also enrolled in.
Anyway, even though this isn't really my thing, it wasn't a tedious book to get through. It's a good overview of different aspects of correctional institutions in the US and the different segments of the inmate population.
If you're interested in corrections, criminal court procedures, or law enforcement, I'd recommend this as an introductory text.
Anyway, even though this isn't really my thing, it wasn't a tedious book to get through. It's a good overview of different aspects of correctional institutions in the US and the different segments of the inmate population.
If you're interested in corrections, criminal court procedures, or law enforcement, I'd recommend this as an introductory text.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews