Writing Homework Help

STAND-ALONE PROJECT

MJ601 Survey of Criminal Justice

Stand-Alone Project: A View from the Inside (200 points)

This Stand-Alone Project is comprised of four (4) parts. For this project, you will have the opportunity to explore the inside of a correctional institution. To successfully complete this Activity you must write a paper that meets the following criteria. Be sure to provide a bibliography identifying the date, time, and location of your research along with the names of personnel and/or inmates interviewed. Your Stand-Alone Project should be both grammatically and mechanically correct, and formatted using APA style. If there is a Part A, your response should identify a Part A, etc. In addition, you must appropriately cite all resources used in your response and document in a bibliography using APA style. (200 points) (A 10-page response is required for the combination of Parts A, B, C, and D.)

Part A Employee Interview: Arrange an interview with an employee who works inside a correctional institution, such as a prison, jail, correctional camp, halfway house, or juvenile detention facility. Choose someone who works directly with inmates. This interview can be done over the phone if an in-person visit is not possible. In advance of your visit, prepare a list of questions to ask correctional facility personnel. Your goal is to find out as much as possible about the following from the correctional facility personnel. Below are some sample questions/topics; you should develop more questions/topics. Outline your interview questions and relate the answers you received.

a.Why he or she chose the position currently held

b.How he or she approaches the job (philosophy, attitude)

c.What typical problems he or she encounters

d.What correctional techniques and philosophies he or she thinks work best and why

Part B Correctional Facility Tour and Inmate Interview: Arrange a tour of the correctional facility and, if possible, talk to one or more of the inmates. If you are unable to arrange an in-person tour, please view a virtual tour of a prison or jail, such as this one: : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8S4xjic0P8

Note: If you are able to conduct an interview, the points for this section will be divided between the tour and the interview; otherwise, the entirety of the points will be assigned to the tour.

1.Tour: You will need to record your impressions of the correctional facility, examine your preconceived notions, and explain how your impressions of incarceration were either confirmed or changed as a result of your visit.

2.Inmate Interview: In advance of your visit, prepare a list of questions to ask correctional facility personnel and the inmates if you have the opportunity to speak to those incarcerated. If you are provided the opportunity to interview a prisoner, then ascertain the following information:

a.Why is the inmate incarcerated?

b.When did his/her incarceration begin?

c.Is there a release date? If so, when?

d.What are the inmate’s plans upon release?

e.Does the inmate receive any training for life “on the outside”?

f.How does the inmate feel he or she is treated by the “correctional system”?

g.Besides the obvious lack of freedom of movement, what are the worst things about being incarcerated in the inmate’s opinion?

Part C Visit Summary and Analysis: At the conclusion of your paper, write a summary and analysis comparing and/or contrasting your views before the interviews and/or virtual tour/ visit with your views after the interviews and visit. If you have no difference in views before and after the visit and interviews, you must still provide a detailed discussion for this section, in which you evaluate and explain how your views have remained the same. Support your explanation with examples.

Part D Locate ten (10) scholarly articles that are devoted to one aspect of incarceration or perhaps one theory of punishment. Once you have compiled your articles, draft an argument in which you take a stance for or against the topic you have chosen. For example, if you decide to discuss educating prisoners while they are incarcerated, you must take a stance either agreeing with providing this education or disagreeing with same. You must support your opinion with evidence and research. You may also supplement your argument with the results of the interviews you conducted at the correctional facility. If you chose education for prisoners, for example, did either the employee or inmate you interviewed share an opinion or offer evidence to back or refute the benefits derived from obtaining an education while incarcerated?

You have wide discretion to select a topic that interests you. You could discuss education/training of prisoners, prisoner reintegration (from the perspective of the inmate or the community), prison overcrowding, prisoners’ rights, alternatives to incarceration, charging juveniles as adults, exoneration through DNA evidence, etc. Just make certain that you keep your focus narrow.

Grading Rubric

Please refer to the rubric below for the grading criteria for this assignment.