Chapter 7: Ethics in Corrections: The Nature of Corrections

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. The most pressing problem in corrections today is ______.

a. the rise of the restorative justice model

b. rapid decline in correctional populations

c. prison population explosions

d. the failure of drug treatment programs

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Prison Explosion

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. The estimated number of state and federal prison inmates on December 31, 2016 totaled ______.

a. 1,462,589

b. 1,505,400

c. 1,685,978

d. 2,854,635

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Prison Explosion

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. Between 1982 and 1999, over ______ state and at least 51 federal correctional facilities were opened.

a. 400

b. 500

c. 600

d. 700

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Prison Explosion

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. By the end of 2015, about _______adults in the U.S. was under some type of correctional supervision.

a. 1 in 100

b. 1 in 37

c. 1 in 63

d. 1 in 233

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Prison Explosion

Difficulty Level: Easy

5. According to the timeline of events, during which decade did crime rates begin to rise for reasons that still remain unclear?

a. 1940s

b. 1950s

c. 1960s

d. 1980s

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Prison Explosion: Timeline of Events

Difficulty Level: Medium

6. According to the timeline of events, during which year did the Safe Streets Act enlarge the federal role in crime control?

a. 1967

b. 1974

c. 1986

d. 1988

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Prison Explosion: Timeline of Events

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. According to the timeline of events, during which year did the war on drugs begin to severely impact the criminal justice system as prosecutions increased?

a. 1967

b. 1974

c. 1986

d. 1988

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Prison Explosion: Timeline of Events

Difficulty Level: Medium

8. According to the timeline of events, during which year did the Department of Justice continue its policy of playing a lead role in campaigning for more punitive crime control policies?

a. 1967

b. 1974

c. 1986

d. 1988

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Prison Explosion: Timeline of Events

Difficulty Level: Medium

9. One of the outcomes of mass incarceration policies has been ______.

a. more death penalty cases

b. prison overcrowding

c. less minorities incarcerated

d. less Whites incarcerated

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Prison Overcrowding

Difficulty Level: Medium

10. Which of the following is not one of the results of overcrowding?

a. The imposition of additional behavioral controls.

b. A decrease in treatment programs.

c. Additional treatment and re-entry programs.

d. Increase in recidivism.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Prison Overcrowding

Difficulty Level: Medium

11. In 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that California prison populations must be reduced to ______% of design capacity within two years.

a. 89.5

b. 123.5

c. 129.5

d. 137.5

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Prison Overcrowding

Difficulty Level: Easy

12. Which of the following states houses the largest women’s prison in the world?

a. Arizona

b. California

c. New York

d. Wisconsin

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Women’s Incarceration

Difficulty Level: Medium

13. The female prison population has ______ since 1990.

a. more than doubled

b. more than tripled

c. decreased by 50%

d. decreased by 25%

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Women’s Incarceration

Difficulty Level: Medium

14. As of December 31, 2012, which of the following categories of crime was the highest percentage of women incarcerated for?

a. drug offenses

b. vice offenses

c. violent offenses

d. property offenses

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Women’s Incarceration

Difficulty Level: Medium

15. Females comprised ______ of the total national prison population by the end of 2016.

a. 11%

b. 13%

c. 7%

d. 3%

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Women’s Incarceration

Difficulty Level: Medium

16. In the federal prison system, ______ of females have been convicted of a drug-related offense, while ______ of men in federal prison are serving time for drug-related offenses.

a. 25% and 14%

b. 14% and 25%

c. 56% and 47%

d. 47% and 56%

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Women’s Incarceration

Difficulty Level: Medium

17. In light of the costs of incarceration, what new class of prisoner has been created?

a. violent

b. property

c. vice

d. debtors

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: New Forms of Incarceration

Difficulty Level: Medium

18. LFOs are ______.

a. legal financial obligations

b. lagging financial obligations

c. legal fundamental obligations

d. legal financial objections

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: New Forms of Incarceration

Difficulty Level: Easy

19. Which individual originally coined the term “total institution” later used to describe life in a maximum security institution?

a. Gresham Sykes

b. Irving Goffman

c. Max Weber

d. James Jacobs

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Maximum Security

Difficulty Level: Medium

20. The ______ prison represents a social system in which as attempt is made to create and maintain total or almost total social control.

a. maximum security

b. supermax

c. medium security

d. minimum security

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Maximum Security

Difficulty Level: Medium

21. Most ______ prisons have been built since 1925.

a. maximum security

b. supermax

c. medium security

d. minimum security

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Medium Security and Minimum Security

Difficulty Level: Medium

22. ______ prisons adopt many of the practices found in maximum security, such as head counts and a high level of supervision and guarding.

a. Maximum security

b. Supermax

c. Medium security

d. Minimum security

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Medium Security and Minimum Security

Difficulty Level: Medium

23. Minimum security inmates are generally ______.

a. nonviolent

b. first-time offenders

c. white-collar criminals

d. all of these

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Medium Security and Minimum Security

Difficulty Level: Medium

24. Jacobs’ (1977) study of the Illinois Stateville Prison describes the early days that exhibited imposition of arbitrary and ad hoc discipline, which was followed by ______.

a. series of prison riots

b. a trend toward more severe penal sanctions

c. a restorative justice period with more lax sanctions

d. a bureaucratized system with rules and regulations

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Stateville Prison: The Changing State of Corrections

Difficulty Level: Medium

25. Warden Joe Ragen sought to make Stateville the world’s most ______ prison.

a. controlling

b. orderly

c. clean

d. punitive

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Early Prison Governance at Stateville

Difficulty Level: Medium

26. As a result of ______ activism and the social activism of the late 1960s, many inmates, especially minorities, were provided with a political rhetoric and ideology that radicalized prisons.

a. judicial

b. prosecutorial

c. inmate

d. celebrity

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Stateville and Prisoner’s Rights, 1960s

Difficulty Level: Medium

27. As is the case with police officer and many occupations, prison officers have ______.

a. an occupational subculture.

b. a strong interest in weeding out unethical officers.

c. a strong interest seeing that external oversight is strong.

d. a strong interest in creating and enforcing a strict disciplinary system.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Prison Officer Subculture

Difficulty Level: Medium

28. When prison officer recruits as a whole were asked to respond to hypothetical dilemmas involving inmates, most approved of a prison officer acting in a ______ manner toward inmates.

a. retributive

b. sympathetic

c. callous

d. empathetic

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Prison Officer Subculture | Prison Officer Socialization

Difficulty Level: Medium

29. Which of the following is not one of Kauffman’s (1988) five types of prison officer attitudes?

a. polyannas

b. black hats

c. hard asses

d. burnouts

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: A Closer Look: Kauffman’s Prison Officer Types

Difficulty Level: Medium

30. According to Kauffman (1988), guards holding positive attitudes toward inmates but negative attitudes towards their fellow prison officers are known as ______.

a. pollyannas

b. white hats

c. hard asses

d. functionaries

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: A Closer Look: Kauffman’s Prison Officer Types

Difficulty Level: Medium

31. According to Kauffman (1988), guards who show hostility toward inmates but identify closely with fellow prison officers are known as ______.

a. pollyannas

b. white hats

c. hard asses

d. functionaries

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: A Closer Look: Kauffman’s Prison Officer Types

Difficulty Level: Medium

32. According to Kauffman (1988), prison officers who cope with prison by closing their minds to it, including both inmates and guards are known as ______.

a. white hats

b. hard asses

c. functionaries

d. burnouts

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: A Closer Look: Kauffman’s Prison Officer Types

Difficulty Level: Medium

33. According to Hepburn (1985), which type of power involves prison officers who are invested with authority to command as a result of their position as a guard of prisoners?

a. legitimate

b. coercive

c. reward

d. expert

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Power and Authority in Prison: Controlling the Inmates

Difficulty Level: Medium

34. According to Hepburn (1985), which type of power is based on inmate perceptions that prison officers have the capacity to punish prisoner disobedience?

a. legitimate

b. coercive

c. reward

d. expert

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Power and Authority in Prison: Controlling the Inmates

Difficulty Level: Medium

35. According to Hepburn (1985), which type of power derives from the prisoners’ perception that prison officers have some special skill or expertise?

a. legitimate

b. reward

c. expert

d. referent

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Power and Authority in Prison: Controlling the Inmates

Difficulty Level: Medium

36. Lombardo (1989) developed a typography of prison officer authority comprising personal authority and ______ authority.

a. referent

b. legalistic

c. compliant

d. rewards

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Power and Authority in Prison: Controlling the Inmates

Difficulty Level: Medium

37. Those professing a belief in ______ authority as well as those favoring legalistic authority agreed that full enforcement of institutional regulations would effectively cause the institution to cease operating because all inmates would be forever locked down for rule violations.

a. personal

b. legalistic

c. compliance

d. rewards

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Power and Authority in Prison: Controlling the Inmates

Difficulty Level: Medium

38. Valuable ______ such as drugs would engender more conflict.

a. personal

b. legalistic

c. compliance

d. rewards

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Rewards and Punishments

Difficulty Level: Medium

39. In the prison environment, prison officers are often forced to tolerate minor rule violations, petty stealing, and making concessions to inmate leaders in order to ______.

a. gain respect of inmates

b. retain their discretion

c. treat inmates ethically

d. maintain power

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Enforcing Rule Violations

Difficulty Level: Medium

40. Prison officers have a myriad of ways of retaliating against troublesome inmates, short of writing tickets for rule violations. These are termed forms of ______ control.

a. governmental

b. social

c. informal

d. formal

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Informal Controls

Difficulty Level: Medium

41. The most common occasion for such ______ violence was within an inmate’s cell block at a time when he was about to be removed from segregation.

a. power

b. provoked

c. compliant

d. rewarded

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Informal Controls

Difficulty Level: Medium

42. Correctional officers often engage in “corruption of authority,” meaning they ______.

a. deliberately refrain from enforcing prison rules

b. engage in many corrupts acts when exercising their authority

c. strictly enforce prison rules, but do so unethically

d. are prompted to act unethically due to the authority they are given

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Corruption of Authority

Difficulty Level: Medium

43. In many institutions, prison officers have engaged in “corruption of authority.” This means that the prison officers, for a variety of reasons, have ______.

a. begun taking monetary bribes from prisoners

b. refrained from enforcing certain prison rules and regulations

c. begun directly disobeying orders from superiors

d. become members of prison gangs

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Corruption of Authority

Difficulty Level: Medium

44. The ______ role calls for impersonal relationships, a controlling demeanor, and complete enforcement of prison rules.

a. treatment

b. custody

c. corruption

d. discretion

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Corruption of Authority

Difficulty Level: Medium

45. According to Aviram (2015), the biggest private prison provider is ______.

a. Management Training Corporation

b. Correctional Treatment Facilities

c. Corrections Corporation of America

d. Correctional Institutions of America

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Private Prisons

Difficulty Level: Medium

46. Which of the following is not an ethical issue arising from privatization of prisons?

a. Will the state receive the benefits for which it paid when retaining a private correctional company?

b. How will private prisons deal with the issue of use of deadly force?

c. Is it appropriate for anyone but the state to meet out punishment?

d. Will private prisons increase the demand for a constant flow of inmates?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge | Comprehension

Answer Location: Private Prisons

Difficulty Level: Medium

47. According to Weber (1964), opposed to classical liberal philosophy is the view that the state has the sole right to use ______ power.

a. legitimate

b. coercive

c. reward

d. expert

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Private Prisons

Difficulty Level: Medium

48. Opponents of ______ raise the issue of the symbolism surrounding punishment in the form of the uniform and insignia of correctional staff and the judiciary that express the public nature of punishment.

a. retribution

b. mass incarceration

c. probation

d. privatization

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Private Prisons

Difficulty Level: Medium

49. By 2008, all states other than ______ and ______ prohibited inmates from casting a vote while incarcerated for a felony.

a. Alaska; California

b. Maine; Idaho

c. Maine; Vermont

d. Vermont; Michigan

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Disenfranchising Inmates

Difficulty Level: Medium

50. Public opinion surveys now show that 8 in 10 Americans support ______.

a. voting rights for those who have completed their sentence

b. voting rights for those on death row, once they are released

c. continued denial of voting rights for those who have completed their sentence

d. none of these

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Reforms

Difficulty Level: Medium

51. Public opinion surveys show that ______ out of every 10 Americans support voting rights for those offenders who have completed their sentence.

a. 2

b. 4

c. 6

d. 8

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Reforms

Difficulty Level: Easy

52. As compared to most European nations, the U.S. has ______.

a. extremely high rates of imprisonment

b. extremely low rates of imprisonment

c. about average rates of imprisonment

d. slightly lower than average rates of imprisonment

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge | Application

Answer Location: Table 7.3, Prison Population Rate Per 100,000 Population

Difficulty Level: Easy

True/False

1. The U.S. rate of incarceration for females is increasing faster than the rate for males.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Women’s Incarceration

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. About 33% of all inmates are serving sentences in medium-security prisons. True

False

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Medium Security and Minimum Security

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. Prison officers and prison officials often experience ethical problems because of the conflict between their obligations to rehabilitate on the one hand and punish and control on the other.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Corruption of Authority

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. As compared to earlier years, inmate control in prisons today is largely vested in younger inmates and gangs.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Enforcing Rule Violations

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Because formal controls are effective at most prisons, prison officers rarely have to ignore minor rule violations in order to gain compliance with other rules.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Enforcing Rule Violations

Difficulty Level: Medium

6. The justification for the creation of the costly supermax prison is clear. They were constructed to house “the worst of the worst”.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Maximum Security

Difficulty Level: Medium

7. Recruits unable to adapt to prison values and compete the process of socialization were subject to ostracism.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Prison Officer Subculture and Prison Officer Socialization

Difficulty Level: Medium

8. Expert power may be undermined by the unwillingness of prisoners to acknowledge the competence of prison officers.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Power and Authority in Prison: Controlling the Inmates

Difficulty Level: Medium

9. The most common occasion for unprovoked violence in prison was out in the recreation yard during movements.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Informal Controls

Difficulty Level: Medium

10. The task of the state is to protect institutions.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Private Prisons

Difficulty Level: Medium

Short Answer

1. Which country has the highest incarceration rate in the world?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Prison Explosion

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. What is the nickname of the article that was published in 1974 and led to the downfall of rehabilitation?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The Prison Explosion: Timeline of Events

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. Name one outcome of mass incarceration policies.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Prison Overcrowding

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. What new form of incarceration has been a pathway through civil contempt proceedings against court debtors?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: New Forms of Incarceration

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Give an example of a supermax prison.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Maximum Security

Difficulty Level: Easy

6. What is a major argument in favor of the supermax model?)

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Evaluating the Success of the Supermax Prison

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. When did Stateville prison open?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Stateville Prison: The Changing State of Corrections

Difficulty Level: Medium

8. The notion that an inmate subculture exists was first proposed by:

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Corrections Subculture

Difficulty Level: Medium

9. Sykes (1958) does not think that the use of ______ offers an adequate basis for prison officers to enforce controls.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Rewards and Punishments

Difficulty Level: Medium

10. Prison personnel face ethical issues because of a conflict between their ______ and custody roles.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Corruption of Authority

Difficulty Level: Medium

Essay

1. Define the “corruption of authority” problem for prison officers and present one example.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Corruption of Authority

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. Discuss and describe how opioid abuse affects correctional populations and how the system is responding to this problem. What is the key ethical issue the system is facing here?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge | Comprehension | Application

Answer Location: Treating Opioid Abuse in Correctional Institutions

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. Discuss three principles from the American Correctional Association Code of Ethics. Provide an example of a prison situation to which each principle would apply.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: A Closer Look: American Correctional Association Code of Ethics Preamble

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. Discuss the effects that prison overcrowding has had on corrections.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge | Comprehension

Answer Location: Prison Overcrowding

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Argue for or against the use of private prisons.

Cognitive Domain: Analysis

Answer Location: Private Prisons

Difficulty Level: Hard