Community Corrections: Getting Involved (From State of Corrections: Proceedings of ACA Annual Conferences, 1989, P 130-136, 1990, Ann Dargis, ed. -- See NCJ-122583)

• NCJ Number: 122604
• Author(s): R J Lauen
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 7 pages
• Sale Source: American Correctional Association
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The involvement of community members in corrections policymaking is a crucial part of efforts to address the problem of jail and prison crowding as well as other corrections issues.

Abstract

This involvement should not consist of placing a few highly visible community members on an advisory board. Instead, corrections officials who expect to place more corrections programs in neighborhoods that have never had them must invite local community members to help them run the programs. Corrections officials must change their attitudes and must include local community members in the process of selecting clients for work release and pre-parole offenders for placement in community programs. To accomplish this, they must become educators; be patient; and learn about the fears, the aspirations, the cultural history, and the politics of community members. Corrections officials must further create a bond with community members and enter the political debate on crime and punishment; they should turn outward to the community rather than inward to their jails and prisons. Tables and 5 references.