What You'll Learn
The Concept
When students hear 'corrections,' they frequently think first about prisons. The correctional system is considerably broader. The Bureau of Justice Statistics defines corrections as the supervision of people arrested for, convicted of, or sentenced for criminal offenses and distinguishes generally between institutional corrections and community corrections.
Institutional corrections include prisons and jails. Community corrections principally includes probation and parole. BJS identifies these as the two primary forms of community supervision. Probation generally allows an individual to remain in the community subject to court-imposed conditions. Parole generally involves conditional supervision following release from incarceration.
Community corrections affects millions of Americans. BJS estimated that approximately 3.77 million adults were under probation or parole supervision at year-end 2023.
Correctional policy reflects several competing or complementary philosophies of punishment. Retribution emphasizes deserved punishment. Deterrence attempts to discourage future offending. Incapacitation restricts an offender's opportunity to commit crimes in the community. Rehabilitation seeks to reduce future offending by changing behaviors, circumstances, skills, or criminogenic needs. Restorative approaches focus more heavily upon repairing harm and accountability among affected parties where appropriate.
One of the most frequently discussed correctional concepts is recidivism. Yet recidivism is not one single measurement. Researchers may measure rearrest, reconviction, return to prison, parole violation, probation violation, or another form of subsequent justice-system involvement. The time period also matters — a one-year follow-up will produce different information from a ten-year follow-up.
BJS research tracking people released from state prisons has demonstrated that arrest and return-to-prison measures vary substantially depending upon the follow-up period and definition used. Therefore, the statement 'this program reduced recidivism' is incomplete without asking: How was recidivism defined, among whom, and over what period?
That question illustrates why research literacy is essential throughout criminal justice. Correctional policy debates frequently involve competing claims about what works — and those claims can only be evaluated by examining how outcomes were measured.
Real-World Application
A state legislature is considering funding a reentry program that claims to reduce recidivism by 30 percent. Before accepting that claim, a policy analyst should ask: How was recidivism defined — rearrest, reconviction, or return to prison? Over what time period? Compared to what baseline population? A 30 percent reduction in rearrest over one year is a very different finding from a 30 percent reduction in return to prison over five years. The same program could produce both statistics.
Why It Matters
For Police Officers
Officers interact with people on probation and parole regularly. Understanding the conditions of supervision, the goals of community corrections, and the research on what reduces reoffending helps officers make better decisions about how to engage with this population.
For Students
Corrections is one of the largest components of the criminal justice system by budget and population affected. Understanding its scope, its philosophies, and the complexity of measuring its effectiveness is essential for any student who wants to engage seriously with criminal justice policy.
Think About It
Which philosophy of punishment — retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, or rehabilitation — do you think should be the primary goal of corrections? What evidence supports your position?
Why does the definition of recidivism matter so much when evaluating correctional programs? Give an example of how two different definitions could produce very different conclusions about the same program.
More than 3.7 million Americans are under probation or parole supervision. What challenges does this scale create for the correctional system, and what does it suggest about the importance of community corrections?
Sources & Further Reading
Bureau of Justice Statistics. Probation and Parole in the United States. bjs.gov.
Bureau of Justice Statistics. Recidivism of Prisoners. bjs.gov.
National Institute of Justice. Corrections Research. nij.gov.