Criminal Law Summative Task: Designing the Ideal Prison

In the criminal law unit, we are examining the questions:

How does the criminal justice system really work?

How well does it serve and protect Canadians?

Are we successfully rehabilitating our offenders so that they become productive members of society?

One of the pressing issues in the criminal justice system in Canada right now is prison reform, so we are going to address it here.

This table is the ‘New Vision’ for Correctional Services Canada.

Transformation of CSC: A New Vision
1. Stronger focus on how all our efforts contribute to public safety (our primary goal)
2. Consistency in the key fundamentals of delivering correctional services in a national organization
3. Higher level of integration in various aspects of our work:
o Particularly between the institutions and the community
4. The parameters of professional judgment and exercising of creativity will be strengthened and clearly enunciated
5. Issues of accountability will be clearer for everyone involved in delivering correctional services in a national organization

Assignment Criteria:

  1. You are required to investigate 2-3 foreign prison systems, in addition to the characteristics of the current Canadian penal system.
  2. Utilising the media and the Internet, you want to note information on living conditions, statistics (recidivism rates, deaths in prisons etc.), educational and rehabilitation programs offered etc in these foreign prison systems. This research will help to provide the context for designing an ideal Canadian prison. You will use the both the positive and negative aspects of these systems to help in designing ‘the ideal prison’. You should briefly touch upon this information at some point during your presentation- ie. how your knowledge of these prison systems influenced your decisions with regards to creating your prison.

Some helpful websites to visit: John Howard Society Amnesty International as well as Correctional Service Canada and the CBC: course!

We will also watch Shawshank Redemption to help illustrate some of the problems that have plagued North American correctional institutions for years. (Institutionalisation, abuse, lack of rehabilitation opportunities, harsh living conditions, overcrowding)

  1. You will work in a group of 3-4 students to complete this task. Each team will be responsible for preparing and presenting a proposal for an ideal prison. The proposal must include the architectural layout (cells, dining facilities, recreation areas, surveillance equipment, guards and staff etc) as well as a detailed description of the programs offered (health, training, counselling, rehabilitation etc.) and the philosophy and mission statement of your correctional facility. As a group, you can decide whether your prison will be a minimum, medium, or maximum security facility and whether it will house female or male inmates.
  1. In your group you need to answer the following questions:
  2. How will our prison be different?Why?How will our prison help to deliver the 4 main purposes of sentencing better than our current system?What measures do we have in place to measure success? How do we know if our program choices are addressing prisoner needs?How are we incorporating CSC’s new vision?(Chapter 11)
  1. It is important for your team to ensure that both; your prisons programs and architecture receive attention.

Prison Design Assessment Rubric:

CRITERIA / LEVEL 4 / LEVEL 3 / LEVEL 2 / LEVEL 1
Content of ideal prison
(K/U) / -Extensive factual information, covering all outlined criteria / -A good range of factual information, covering most outlined criteria / -A fairly good range of factual information, covering the majority of outlined criteria / -Insufficient factual information, omitting many of the outlined criteria
Layout of ideal prison plan
(C) / -Highly accurate, realistic, effective blueprint of prison
-Includes all required elements (labels, scale, legends) / -Accurate, realistic, and effective blue print of prison
-Includes most of the required elements / Generally accurate and realistic blueprint of prison
-Includes some of required elements / Inaccurate and/or unrealistic blueprint of prison
-Include few or none of the required elements
Creativity
(T/I) / -Highly original prison design and features
-Extensive evidence of creative thinking skills / -Mostly original prison design and features
-Clear evidence of creative thinking skills / -Some original prison design and features, with some borrowing from existing format
- Some evidence of creative thinking / -Prison design and features mainly copied from existing format
-Little or no evidence of creative thinking
  1. For the presentation portion of this assignment, your group will act as independent consultants from various sectors of law enforcement that have been asked to submit your proposal to Correctional Services Canada in the hopes of winning the bid to reform the Canadian penal system. We will determine a class winner! You essentially need to ‘sell’ your idea to the class (CSC). You may want to consider having a logo for your prison and slogan. Creativity is an asset in this assignment.
  2. We should leave the presentation understanding what a day in the life of a prisoner would be in your facility. Therefore, you should have a typical daily schedule/list of responsibilities for an inmate laid out for us.
  3. All ideas for prison programs should be supported by research.

Oral Presentation Assessment Rubric

CRITERIA / LEVEL 4 / LEVEL 3 / LEVEL 2 / LEVEL 1
Content
(K/U) / Demonstrates a thorough knowledge of the ideal prison plan, philosophy and of program proposals. An impressive range of programs and a solid architectural layout. / Demonstrates considerable knowledge of the ideal prison, programs and architecture / Demonstrates some knowledge of the ideal prison plan and of program proposals / Demonstrates limited knowledge of the ideal prison plan and of program proposals
ORAL (C) PRESENTATION / Very strong oral presentation, with solid eye contact, clear articulation, and appropriate body language / Good oral presentation, with eye contact, clear articulation, and appropriate body language / Fairly good oral presentation, with some eye contact, and generally clear articulation and/or appropriate body language / Poor oral presentation, with limited eye contact, and a lack of clear articulation and/or appropriate body language
PRESENTATION MATERIALS (T/I) / Presentation employs models and graphics very effectively
Technology is used skilfully with no errors / Presentation effectively employs models and graphics
Technology is used skilfully with few errors / Presentation employs appropriate models and graphics
Technology is used, with some errors / Presentation does not employ appropriate models and graphics
Technology is used, but with many errors
APPLICATION / Presentation organised very effectively
Successfully generates considerable interest / Presentation organised effectively
Generates considerable class interest / Presentation organised fairly effectively
Generates some class interest / Presentation not organised effectively
Generates very limited class interest