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Intro to Criminal Justice

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Introduction to Criminal Justice
Gina Hypolite
CJA/204
September 8, 2014
John Seale

Introduction to Criminal Justice
Upon my research I have found that most of the United States has prisons and are operated by both the federal and state governments. The incarceration is a concurrent power under the Constitution of the United States. Imprisonment is a main form of punishment for a guilty plea or being found guilty of felony offenses. Less serious offenders, including those convicted of misdemeanor offenses, can or will be sentenced to a short term in a local jail or have an alternative form of sanctions such as community corrections. Examples of these are half way houses, probation, and/or restitution. In the United States, prisons are operated at various levels of security, ranging from minimum-security prisons that mainly house non-violent offenders to Supermax facilities that house well-known criminals and terrorists. The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. There are more people incarcerated in the United States than any other country. As of 2006, a record 7 million people were behind bars, on probation or on parole. Of the total, 2.2 million were incarcerated. Prisoners that are behind bars are in many different types of facilities. These vary by security level, administration of inmates, type of housing, and weapons and tactics used by corrections officers. In California the federal government uses a security number scale. Each prisoner is given a number to show what level of security they need. This ranges from one being the lowest level to six which of course would be the highest level of security needed.
State prison systems operate similar systems. California, for example, classifies its facilities from Reception Center through Levels I through IV (minimum to maximum security) to specialized high security

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