Study Guide: Exam 3 Technology and the Criminal Justice System Professor Byrne Spring 2015

Exam Format: Multiple Choice( 60%) and Essay/Short Answers( 40%)

Required Reading in Text: Chapters 10,11,12, 13.

Required Links, online reading, and Websites to visit: See Schedule and be sure to review the following:

Technological innovation and Offender Reentry

Top of Form

Maximum Impact: Targeting Supervision on Higher-Risk People, Places and Times

Key Terms to review:

  1. Types of contraband detection devices used in prison/jail; effectiveness
  2. Types of duress alarm systems for corrections officers in indoor and outdoor settings
  3. Types of language translation devices for use within prisons and in community corrections
  4. Inmate-staff ratios in US vs. Ireland: are they about the same?
  5. Super-max prison: what is it? extent of use
  6. Inmate classifications systems: external and internal; % of prisoners classified as max, mod, min;
  7. Types of special population housing; extent of use
  8. Extent of Inmate health problems (prevalence of various mental and physical health problems)
  9. Electronic supervision tools in community corrections; types and extent of use; effectiveness
  10. The use of polygraph tests and penile plethysmographs in sex offender treatment
  11. Kiosks to monitor offender location, using biometric devices; extent of use in NYC
  12. Risk Assessment in community corrections:Instruments used for drug offender classification, sex offender classification, mentally ill offender classification, and multiple-problem offender classification
  13. Maximum Impact: Key findings and recommendations from Byrne review
  14. California vs, Johnson: What was the Supreme Court decision? Link to current debate on tracking of prisoner radicalization?
  15. Escape/flight risk: How often does it happen and why?
  16. LSI_R: what is it?
  17. Field Search: what is it?
  18. % of drug offenders in federal and state prison populations
  19. % of probationers who successfully complete probation: is it getting higher or lower over time?
  20. % of parolees who successfully complete parole: are parolees more likely to fail today than in the past?
  21. Number of offenders under correctional control in the US; % in prison and % under community supervision
  22. Cost of corrections; common strategies used to reduce corrections costs; justice reinvestment
  23. The Methamphetamine Remote Recovery Project,E-Treat and Ann-e
  24. Cell phones in prison: detection strategies; prisoner phone service cost issues; video calls
  25. Compstat and reentry: key principles

Sample Essay Questions:

  1. Provide an overview of hard technology and soft technology innovations in prisons, and then highlight the research on the impact of these technology innovations on prison performance.
  2. Provide an overview of hard and soft technology innovations in community corrections and then highlight the research on the impact of these technology innovations on the performance of community corrections.

Here are a few Sample Study Questions for short answer section ( answers in text and ppts):

1. ______are identification cards that contain the inmate’s photograph and that are integrated with a circuit chip that stores pertinent information about each prisoner.

A. Plethsysmographs

B. Smart Cards

C. Courtools

D. All of the above

E. None of the above

2 Approximately half of all new prison admissions nationwide each year are for technical violations of the conditions of probation and/or parole. To eliminate this source of new prison admissions, the legislature in the state of ______passed a law that essentially outlaws this practice.

A. California

B. Massachusetts

C. Washington

D. Arizona

3. According to a recent review by Stowell, due to its versatility and ability to communicate in both indoor and outdoor environments, duress notification systems based on______may be forthcoming.

A. RFID

B. MDT

C. SYSTRAN

D. CMC

4. The use of video surveillance was found to be as an effective way to help reduce levels of violence (perpetrated by inmates and guards) in jails and prisons.

A. True

B. False

5.______operates by translating key phrases spoken into the machine by an officer into one of 50 different languages . The ______is not a dynamic language translator, meaning that it cannot be used for the purposes of carrying on a direct conversation with an inmate. Rather, the ______stores thousands of pre-recorded phrases in the various languages, which can be used to obtain “basic information” during the questioning of non-English-speaking inmates .

A. SYSTRAN

B. Voice Response Translator (VRT)

C. JNET

D. All of the above

E. B and C only

6. The current trend in handling many high-risk inmates, approximately 10% 0f the prison population (or 200,000 inmates nationally), has been to remove them from the general prison population and to place them in ultra-secure housing units known as supermax prisons.

A. True

B. False

7. In addition to its role in preventing drunk driving, the______device functions as a surveillance tool for community supervision officers. A memory chip in the mechanism can store data that can be retrieved each time the vehicle is serviced. Examples of data that can be downloaded include number and outcome of vehicle starts, driver’s blood alcohol content per test and retest, tamper attempts, and total number of hours of operation

A. GPS

B. Plethysmograph

C. Sousveillance

D. Ignition interlock

8. According to the results of a recent NCCHC review of correctional health care , the rate of schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders is______times greater among prisoners as compared to the U.S. population., while the rate of bipolar disorder is______times greater .

A. three to five; 1.5 to 3

B. ten to fifteen; 10 to 12

C. three to five; 10-12

D. ten to fifteen; 1.5 to 3

9. The prevalence of Infectious disease among prisons is a serious problem, with the rate of AIDS 5 times higher, Active tuberculosis 4 times greater, Hepititis C 9-10 times higher, and the rate of HIV infection 8-9 times higher than the U.S. population.

A. True

B. False

10. The ______is the most common means of assessing the nature and extent of the offender’s deviant sexual arousal, a practice known as phallometric assessment

A. Privatization

B. Portocaval Shunt

C. Plethysmograph

D. None of the above