This course is intended as an introduction to the corrections system and will provide an overview of current institutional practices, policies, and legal issues.
The course focuses on the relation of corrections to the criminal justice system, theories underlying correctional practice, and the role of institutions within the corrections system. Specifically, this course provides an overview of the field of corrections. It reviews the historical development of crime and corrections, sentencing, jails, prisons, correctional policies, agencies, prison life, and challenges facing correctional populations.
It will further explore the principles and practices of treatment accorded to offenders in various types of correctional settings. More specifically, the course will enable students to critically examine the serious disproportion of inmates who have been wrongly convicted and study the fallibility of the Canadian justice system. Students will also examine common procedural errors resulting in wrongful convictions and will be able to critically scrutinize new mandates that have been recommended.