Criminal Justice Trends Paper
Criminal Justice Trends Paper
Criminal Justice Trends Paper
Rosa M. Silva
CJA/484
Virginia Swisher
CRIMINAL JUSTICE TRENDS PAPER 2
The correctional facility is place within the Criminal Justice System that serves to
confine and rehabilitate individuals who are arrested and sent to the facility for
punishment a crime they committed. Texas has Texas Department of Criminal Justice
(TDCJ) which is an overpopulated facilities; several of the officials have tried looking for
ways to reduce the over crowed prisons system. Even though the issue is bigger than it
seems the correctional facility is always working hard to make changes to reduce the
overcrowding. Providing new ideas will assist develop and recognize the past and current
trends to assist with the overcrowding. The important element that the Texas Department
of Criminal Justice is overseeing is shrinking the budget as they work in reducing the
overcrowding. While the overcrowding and budget are not resolved this could only affect
This paper is going to evaluate the past, present, and future trends of the criminal
justice in relation to the Department of Corrections and the outcome on the Department of
Justice. The Department of Justice offers parole as they are released which is a community
justice programs to reduce the current trend of overcrowding. These issues are debated
often in the Capitol by legislatures and advocates to make changes but the number of
people getting incarnated only increase more. It will also discuss the budgetary and
managerial impact that future trends will likely have not only on the Correctional facilities
and on the Criminal Justice System. Lastly, it will include current research data
Past Trends
In the past, crime was looked at different from today. The “Get Tough Youth Programs
It was believed that boot camp and other get-tough programs for the adolescents did not
help prevent the criminal behavior but made it worse. It only showed that the program
treatment were not helping because the crime rates were increasing and the only way the
recidivism rate could b e reduce was to punish those who committed the crimes to protect
the communities. In results from the recidivism a couple of reforms were created and also
implemented into a new law to help reduce crime but failed. The first one is “truth in
sentencing was to restrict individuals from earning time off their sentences” (ACLU,
2020). The second one is the Three Strike legislation is for individuals who have
committed more than three violent crimes, which wouldn’t have a chance a smaller
sentence other than a life sentence. At one point the reform failed because numbers
increased on arrest, convictions and longer sentences which then the” prisons got
overcrowded this reform was designed to target the drug dealers and repeat offenders.
“According to a recent Bureau of Justice Statistics report, the number of prisoners aged 55
or older in state prisons increased 400% between 1993 and 2013” (Carson and Sabol,
2016).
Present Trends/Overcrowding
Presently, the reform trend only caused the overcrowding the prison units are
having now. The Department of Corrections is facing many problems with the
overcrowding of prisoners. One problem they have issues with space for the prisoners and
bedding. Once prisoners are in and doing time it has been known that they do not have any
CRIMINAL JUSTICE TRENDS PAPER 4
rights but the one right they do have is for them to have a particular living space while
doing their time in prison. The prisons have had several issues since the overcrowding
began to get worse because the staff have to work longer hours, mandatory days to work,
Studies done in 2006 have proved that overcrowded prison population has had a
big impact on physiological state to the prisoners (Ohchr.org, n.d.). For example, when a
juvenile is sent to a prison for a violent crime that they committed and later released
without any type of rehabilitation or any counseling that are capable to reoffend later as an
adult. This could have a negative impact with the correctional officers because they have
to see the repeat offenders again and also concerns with the budget.
Future Trends
Trends that are currently happening would include sentence adjustments, improved
community supervision, overcrowding, aging and mentally ill. The trends from the past,
present, and future have been and will affect the correction system. (Lawrence, 2013).
Sentencing Adjustments
prison and which ones will do time in a prison. By focusing who makes it to the prison is a
way to making sure they have space for the dangerous offenders to make sure they keep
communities safe (Lawrence, 2013). With the increasing of drug offenses mandatory
could implement a new policy is for a risk assessment, a treatment, place them in a
CRIMINAL JUSTICE TRENDS PAPER 5
program, and with supervisor level for the offenders to be sent to areas who are willing to
Another trend that is growing like the overcrowding of prisons is probationers and
parolees. They are held accountable for violating conditions however; the violators are
higher penalty, less jail sentencing and placed in a special facility for those who violate
A trend that State Legislation would consider is matching the offenders with
treatment and treatment facilities, which would help to get, is successful with
rehabilitation services (Lawrence, 2013). Also correctional facilities can focus on the
prerelease and reentry when being released because they provide the offenders with tools,
resources, and supervision so they can be prepared as they reenter society. This would also
include earn-time credit, which would give an offender credited time for successfully
Aging
The age group that is growing and fast is the offenders from 65 and older
especially for those who are severing a life sentence. Because of the age those offenders
are the one who affect more the prison system because of medical cost care and the
facilities that house older offenders with physical disabilities (Mackenzie, 2001).
Offenders with mental illness have only increased but the correction officers have
received some training to deal with those who have mental illness (Mackenzie, 2001).
CRIMINAL JUSTICE TRENDS PAPER 6
Correction Officers who have to deal with offenders who suffer from mental disorders has
been challenging as well for the administrators who doesn’t have little to none training on
how to deal with offenders who are housed in their prison system.
Less funding has forces budget cuts to the corrections facilities which a big percent
of the correctional facilities have managed by cutting spending and saving more (Scott-
Hayward, 2009). The Correctional facilities have to eliminate several things within their
system to cut budget down such as cutting down on staff, salary, eliminating pay raises
The impacts of the budget and managerial on the criminal justice system are
considerable. The criminal justice system makes tons of transactions yearly. “Federal
spending is less than 1%, 6% more than the State spending and close to 7% spending of
the local level. Combining levels of spending is almost compared to transportation and
lower than the government spending on health and hospital care” (BJS Princeton Project,
2010). According to BJS Princeton Project, 2010 the spending in corrections grew more
between 1985 through 1990 while the spending on police agencies and officers has slowed
down more than any criminal justice system components (BJS Princeton Project, 2010).
Conclusion
data, creating policies, policy implementation and lastly making sure the performance to
success of all and any new policies. Even though the corrections facilities or the criminal
justice system is not the best system with the developed programs and implementation
CRIMINAL JUSTICE TRENDS PAPER 7
policies this is going to help fix some of the issues within the correctional component and
the criminal system would work and move forward in a positive affect as a whole.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE TRENDS PAPER 8
References
ALCU. (December 17, 2020). The Sad Truth About “Truth In Sentences” Laws in Illinois.
laws-illinois
BJS Princeton Project. (1993). Performance Measures for the Criminal Justice System.
Carson EAnn, William Sabol J. Aging of the State Prison Population, 1993–2013. Bureau
of Justice Statistics 2016
Kreager, D. A., & Kruttschnitt, C. (2018). INMATE SOCIETY IN THE ERA OF MASS
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-criminol-032317-092513
Mackenzie, D. L. (2001). Sentencing and Corrections in the 21st Century: Setting the
Stage for the Future. College Park, MD: Department Of Criminology and Criminal
https://www.vera.org/downloads/Publications/the-fiscal-crisis-in-corrections-
rethinking-policies-and-practices/legacy_downloads/fiscal-crisis-corrections-
rethinking-policies-and-practices-2.pdf
The Associated Press. (October 17, 2004). `Get Tough` Youth Programs Are Ineffective,
CRIMINAL JUSTICE TRENDS PAPER 9
tough-youth-programs-are-ineffective-panel-says.html