Superior Council for Correctional Administration - The Conditions of Executing Prison Sentences - The Open Environment

• NCJ Number: 73322
• Journal: Revue de science criminelle et de droit penal compare Issue: 3 Dated: (July-September 1979) Pages: 607-626
• Date Published: 1979
• Length: 20 pages
• Corporate Author: France Conseil Superieur de L'administration Penitentiaire
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: French
• Country: France
• Note: This text is extracted from a general report presented by Christian Dablanc, director of correctional adiministration, at a meeting of the Superior Council of Correctional Administration on December 15, 1978.

Annotation

The French correctional system was faced in 1978 by the intensification of existing problems, such as prison overcrowding, compounded by new ones created by the ongoing implementation of the 1975 penal reforms.

Abstract

This 1978 state-of-the-art review and general report on French corrections examines the complex and changing environment in which penal sanctions involving incarceration are carried out. The rising crime rates, with consequent, steady increase in the prison population, unavoidably delay the full implementation of the correctional reforms mandated by the 1975 law (e.g., individualized treatment programs for inmates, segregation of dangerous criminals, educational and recreational programs, and full employment of all prisoners in some prison industry). Criminal justice practitioners are planning to solve these problems, at least in part, by maximizing the use of alternatives to incarceration, especially as substitutes for short prison terms. In 1977 large numbers of inmates were placed in correctional facilities at different security levels according to their personal and criminal histories, committing offenses, and personality evaluation. The increased use of suspended, reduced, and split prison sentences reduced the number of institutionalized offenders, who, as a consequence, found their situation improved with regard to treatment programs aimed at their social reintegration, including education, counseling, recreation, physical fitness, medical and psychological services, and meaningful and gainful prison work. Insufficient funding, understaffing, and obsolete or non-existent equipment reduced the effectiveness of correctional reforms, however. The planned intensification of research into all aspects of the socalled open environment for some offenders (i.e., probation and supervised liberty), including an in-depth analysis of probationers' problems and those of their families, will, it is hoped, result in improved, individualized probation programs and new, more effective administrative structures for their implementation.