NCJ Number
237435
Journal
Critical Issues in Justice and Politics Volume: 2 Issue: 2 Dated: June 2009 Pages: 21-40
Date Published
June 2009
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This article examines the Crossroads Correctional Center in Cameron, MO.
Abstract
The Crossroads Correctional Center is a maximum security male facility located in Cameron, MO. The facility is relatively new, having opened in March 1997 with an operational capacity of 1,500 inmates. One of the more notable aspects of this facility is that it was the first Missouri prison to install a lethal perimeter electric fence, thus adding an innovative dimension of security that seeks to prevent inmate escapes. But does this facility serve as a model of progressive penology or is it just one among numerous other correctional facilities housing criminal offenders who are receiving their "just desserts?" This paper examines the apparent contradictions between Missouri's applied just desserts model of sentencing and the State's restorative justice movement, in an effort to draw attention to the realities of and the unintended consequences associated with applying the justice model to criminal offenders sentenced to long terms in one of Missouri's maximum security facilities. (Published Abstract)