Course Code: CRIM 2005
Academic Year: 2025-2026
This course examines the role of prisons and community corrections within the Canadian Criminal Justice system. It explores the historical and current controversies related to prisons and the evolution of community corrections since inception. After describing the essential features of the corrections system; institutional and community, the course moves into a series of debates about the purposes of modern prisons and the role community corrections plays within the whole correctional process. The course looks at what prisons are meant to do? What do they actually do? What should they be doing instead? The course also compares it to the various components within the continuum of community corrections; critically analyzing areas such as probation, pre-trial release, conditional release and other forms of community supervision. The cost, benefits and challenges of prisons vs. community corrections is explored.