Chapter 3

Front 1

Alexander Maconochie

Back 1

A British naval captain who served as governor of the penal colony on Norfolk Island, who instituted a system of early release that was the forerunner of modern parole. Maconochie is known as the “father of parole.”

Front 2

discretionary release

Back 2

Conditional release because members of a parole board have decided that the prisoner has earned the privilege while still remaining under supervision of an indeterminate sentence.

Front 3

Irish System

Back 3

Developed in Ireland by Sir Walter Crofton, the Irish system involved graduated levels of institutional control leading up to release under conditions similar to modern parole. The American penitentiaries were partially based on the Irish system.

Front 4

just deserts

Back 4

The concept that the goal of corrections should be to punish offenders because they deserve to be punished and that punishment should be commensurate with the seriousness of the offense.

Front 5

justice model

Back 5

The correctional practice based on the concept of just deserts and even-handed punishment. The justice model calls for fairness in criminal sentencing, in that all people convicted of a similar offense will receive a like sentence. This model of corrections relies on determinate sentencing and/or abolition of parole.

Front 6

mandatory release

Back 6

Conditional release to the community under a determinate sentence that is automatic at the expiration of the minimum term of sentence minus any credited time off for good behavior.

Front 7

marks system

Back 7

A theory of human motivation organized by Maconochie that granted credits for good behavior and hard work, or took away marks for negative behavior. Convicts used the credits or marks to purchase either goods or time (reduction in sentence).

Front 8

medical model

Back 8

The concept that, given proper care and treatment, criminals can be cured into productive, law-abiding citizens. This approach suggests that people commit crimes because of influences beyond their control, such as poverty, injustice, and racism.

Front 9

medical parole

Back 9

The conditional release from prison to the community of a prisoner with a terminal illness who does not pose an undue risk to public safety.

Front 10

Norfolk Island

Back 10

The notorious British supermax penal colony 1,000 miles off the coast of Australia that housed the most incorrigible prisoners.

Front 11

Parole

Back 11

Release of a convicted offender from a penal or correctional institution, under the continual custody of the state, to serve the remainder of his or her sentence in the community under supervision, either by discretionary or mandatory release stipulations.

Front 12

parole d’honneur

Back 12

French for “word of honor,” from which the English word parole is derived.

Front 13

Sir Walter Crofton

Back 13

An Irish prison reformer who established an early system of parole based on Alexander Maconochie’s experiments with the mark system.

Front 14

ticket-of-leave

Back 14

A license or permit given to a convict as a reward for good conduct, which allowed him to go at large and work for himself before his sentence expired, subject to certain restrictions and revocable upon subsequent misconduct. A forerunner of parole.

Front 15

Transportation

Back 15

The forced exile of convicted criminals. England transported convicted criminals to the American colonies until the Revolutionary War and afterward to Australia.

Front 16

Zebulon R. Brockway

Back 16

The American prison reformer who introduced modern correctional methods, including parole, to the Elmira Reformatory in New York in 1876.