Deck 15: Creating Effective Systems of Corrections

Question 1

B.C. Corrections uses an educational campaign based on evidence-based practices to explain the "pains" that offenders will experience under a new form of community supervision. What challenge to developing evidence-based practices does this educational campaign strategy overcome?

A) defining success
B) concerns about costs
C) the public desire for retribution
D) lack of awareness about evidence-based practices

Answer 1

the public desire for retribution

Question 2

The Correctional Service of Canada uses the positive findings of a pilot project to foster organizational support for a new evidence-based treatment program. What challenge to developing evidence-based practices does this strategy overcome?

A) defining success
B) fear of the unknown
C) cooperating with researchers
D) policy makers' resistant to new strategies

Answer 2

fear of the unknown

Question 3

Which practice is defined as "policies, strategies, and programs that have been shown by evaluation research to be effective in achieving specified objectives"?

A) what-works practice
B) lessons-learned practice
C) evidence-based practice
D) tradition-based practice

Answer 3

evidence-based practice

Question 4

According to the United Nations Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners, "Prisoners shall have access to the health services available in the country without discrimination on the grounds of their legal situation." How has Canada's record of dealing with prisoner's health issues been described?

A) consistently adequate
B) failed to be consistently adequate
C) found to be above average
D) NOT assessed as Canada is NOT part of the U.N.

Question 5

What failure of provincial and territorial governments has led to the increase in the numbers of incarcerated offenders who have mental health issues?

A) the failure to provide alternative facilities, programs, and services
B) the failure to correctly interpret the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act
C) the federal government failure to address mental health in the medical community
D) the failure to properly address the Mental Health Act and its impact on patients

Question 6

How many psychiatrists are available for the total population of the Northwest Territories?

A) 1
B) 10
C) 20
D) 30

Question 7

Which province had the highest incarceration rate at 213 per 100,000 adults?

A) Ontario
B) British Columbia
C) Québec
D) Manitoba

Question 8

What were Canada's operating costs for adult corrections in 2012-13?

A) $125 million
B) $173 million
C) $202 million
D) $253 million

Question 9

What term refers to the Alberta government's actions in the 1990s to reduce expenditures, eliminate the budget deficit, and restore public confidence, which resulted in a 32 percent decrease in institutional populations?

A) rehabilitation
B) decarceration
C) reintegration
D) recidivism

Question 10

Which term is defined as, "the search for the 'magic bullet' that will reduce recidivism, lower costs, and deter offenders from future criminal behaviour"?

A) quick fix
B) populism
C) panaceas
D) punitive penology

Question 11

Which is an example of a correctional practice that is used despite its ineffectiveness in helping offenders and protecting communities?

A) probation
B) day parole
C) temporary absences
D) community notification

Question 12

What challenge to developing evidence-based practices is illustrated when recently hired probation officers are willing to use a new form of probation supervision, but experienced officers continue to rely on the old methods?

A) fear of the unknown
B) complacency among line staff
C) policy makers resistant to new strategies
D) lack of awareness of evidence-based practices

Question 13

Recommendations by the federal Office of the Correctional Investigator, provincial ombudspersons, auditors, and commissions of inquiry to resolve issues in Canada's corrections are NOT binding, and their reports are often "shelved." What would be the best way to resolve this situation?

A) Disband these groups.
B) Give these groups more authority to fulfill and implement their recommendations.
C) Identify new organizations that will be better able to assess the situations.
D) Allow the issues to change on their own.

Question 14

What term refers to the ancillary issues that offenders experience as a result of being incarcerated and the collateral damage to offenders' families?

A) the pains of imprisonment
B) dealing with hard time
C) self-injurious actions
D) nothing to hope for

Question 15

What practice is exemplified when an offender must wear an electronic monitoring device as a condition of release?

A) static security
B) dynamic security
C) techno-corrections
D) techno-surveillance

Question 16

Which agency has a role in providing oversight into the activities of the Correctional Service of Canada, although its recommendations are NOT binding?

A) The Supreme Court of Canada
B) The Office of the Correctional Investigator
C) The Citizens Advisory Committee of Canada
D) The Organization of Provincial Ombudspersons

Question 17

What type of breach is revealed when an investigation finds that a provincial correctional system has subjected inmates to inhumane and unsafe confinement, and has violated national and international standards for systems of correction?

A) a breach of rule of law
B) a breach of the right to equality
C) a breach of onus of impartiality
D) a breach of the duty to act fairly

Question 18

What percentage of the $4 billion that is spent annually on correctional systems is spent on community corrections?

A) approximately 6 percent
B) approximately 8 percent
C) approximately 10 percent
D) approximately 12 percent

Question 19

Which challenge in reforming correctional institutions is best exemplified when an evaluation of treatment program reforms finds that the programs are NO longer delivered as originally designed because there are too few treatment facilitators?

A) financial resource constraints
B) political resistance to correctional change
C) a lack of "buy-in" among corrections staff and management
D) public opposition to prison reform that provides treatment and rehabilitation for offenders

Question 20

Which term refers to the notion that a correctional service is constantly seeking improvement, working with successes, and gaining insights from initiatives that did NOT achieve their intended goals?

A) a learning organization
B) disseminating policy/procedures
C) aggressive reinvention of the system
D) making things better through adjustment

Question 21

Which challenge is unique to provincial/territorial systems of corrections?

A) addressing the needs of women offenders
B) the very short periods of time offenders spend in custody
C) managing the high-risk needs of offenders for lengthy periods of time
D) managing large numbers of gang and organized crime-affiliated inmates

Question 22

Which correctional system initiative holds considerable promise but requires additional evaluation to confirm its effectiveness?

A) problem-solving courts
B) the STICS model of probation practice
C) circles of support and accountability
D) correctional interventions designed according to the principles of RNR

Question 23

Which term describes the process "whereby politicians point to public pressure as their justification for enacting tougher laws and correctional policies"?

A) penal populism
B) positivist penality
C) electoral negativism
D) philosophical penology

Question 24

Which province experimented with prison privatization in 2001?

A) Alberta
B) Québec
C) Ontario
D) British Columbia

Question 25

Canadian prisons continue to be beset by violence, and many incarcerated people are afflicted by mental illness, addiction, homelessness, and poverty. Which of the following represents the best hope for improvement in the overall system?

A) let the system run itself
B) forward thinking or vision to the future
C) encourage government intervention to harden the system
D) encourage non-governmental agencies to get involved in corrections

Question 26

Research, commissions of inquiry, high-profile deaths, and the subsequent reports have outlined the many systemic failures of Canada's correctional system. Outline and discuss these failures.

Question 27

Outline and describe some of the interferences that are standing in the way of substantive correctional reform.