ABSTRACT
Introduction and Overview Several challenges exist for corrections managers across the United States as they identify and implement “best practices” in the classification, treatment, and control of the prison population under the authority of the state. There have been several national commissions formed over the past decade to investigate the causes and consequences of incarceration, the nature and extent of prison violence, and most recently, the overuse of segregation to control offenders. As a result of the recommendations of these commissions, state corrections managers are being asked to critically examine their correctional management and control strategies, focusing primarily on the development of policies and procedures that make prisons safer, support positive offender change, and prepare individuals for reentry to the community. These recommendations for changes in the area of prison classification, control, treatment, and reentry can be viewed as essential features of a new treatment-focused crime control strategy. Corrections managers and public officials now recognize the inherent limitations of the four decade long punishment-focused crime control strategy, referred to by some commentators as the “great prison experiment” (Byrne, 2013; Clear and Frost, 2014).
