VIRTUAL CORRECTIONS: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF STATE CORRECTIONS DEPARTMENT HOME PAGES

VIRTUAL CORRECTIONS: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF STATE CORRECTIONS DEPARTMENT HOME PAGES

Keith N. Haley

John D. Collins, Ed.D.

*Article is also a paper presented at the 2000 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences in New Orleans, LA

Paper is copyrighted. All rights pertain.


INTRODUCTION

If there was any doubt left that the "Dot-Com" society had arrived, the holiday shopping season of 1999 removed it. The planet and much of its activity has moved to the World Wide Web. We buy books, read newspapers, find houses, identify neighborhood sex offenders, locate jobs, find employees, listen to CD's and radio stations, watch news and movies, take education and training courses, store data files for the road, and then there are all of those pornography sites. Who knows what goes on there? We, of course, communicate asynchronously around the globe by email, with many people having several email addresses. Time magazine topped off this affirmation of a World Wide Web (WWW) revolution by naming Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon.com, the magazine's man of the year for pioneering Internet retailing (Lohr, 1999). Did you know that there is even a man who has decided to spend the entire year online inside of a house in Dallas? He wants to demonstrate that it can be done, depending only on e-commerce to supply him with groceries, furniture, entertainment, etc. (Associated Press, 2000)? He is known as the Dot Com Guy and you can monitor him at where else but http://www.dotcomguy.com/

The list of human activities associated with the WWW is indeed endless and unfathomable since new services and types of commerce are added on a daily basis. Businesses can have the capability, if they wish, to instantaneously deliver information to the parts of their organizations that need it (Gates, 1999). In my own case, I am at last disposing of my dictionary, thesaurus, book of quotes, and other reference books for writing that clutter my desk since all of them and many more are available on the WWW at no charge. Even the entire Encyclopedia Britannica is finally online and operating as a portal for news and information. Not all, of course, see this passion for instant and up-to-date information as entirely desirable if it means we become slaves to our employers and misfits to our families and friends (Streitfeld, 2000).

The year 2000 may indeed be the first presidential campaign substantially utilizing Internet technology. Senator John McCain collected $810,000 in campaign pledges within one hour after he was declared the winner of the New Hampshire primary (How the Web Is Changing Presidential Campaigns, 2000).

Criminal justice agencies have been rapid adopters of technology, in general, and the Web, specifically. In recent years the services that law enforcement and corrections departments have provided citizens and their employees is nothing short of phenomenal. At law enforcement web sites citizens can report crimes, request vacant house checks, obtain licenses, apply for police employment, and view the latest crime statistics with maps specific to their own neighborhoods (Haley and Taylor, 1998). Never mind that you can become a virtual student of the police department in your area or anywhere else if they have a richly developed web site. You can even listen to many of these agencies dispatch live on the Internet by going to http://www.apbonline.com/ Finally, some agencies will send you daily emails to update you on crime concerns in the community.

The interactivity between the citizen and the police is one of the most promising developments for Internet technology. Emergency announcements, e-mail contact, and crime prevention services via the Web are now widely employed.

Corrections has also been quick to turn to technology for solutions to some of its most pressing problems (Dalton, 1997). James Gondles, Jr. (1999) declares in an editorial piece in Corrections Today, “For those of us who have been in the corrections field for many years, we cannot help but be amazed by the technology that is now routinely available.” During his keynote address to the membership, President Reginald Wilkinson (1998) told the American Correctional Association that they now have in their toolboxes technology that did not exist five years earlier and that correctional systems are using computers unlike ever before. Public and worker safety being of primary concern, the corrections profession has long since gone high tech with electronic fences, electrical shock weapons, home electronic monitoring, man-down radios, and prison video cameras. Much more is on the horizon, although Becker (1997) believes corrections systems have been slow in adopting the Internet into their operations. A virtual prison can not be too far off. Two Ohio criminal justice professionals, and graduate students at Tiffin University, have written a paper designing such an institution (T. Heimberger and L. Heimberger, 2000).

Haley and Taylor (1998) studied law enforcement agency web sites from all regions of the United States and determined that many valuable services are provided residents, victims, students, and scholars by means of a department home page. Has corrections provided a similar utility to its several clientele? The potential is there. Clayton (1997) suggests that corrections “organizations can use web sites to increase awareness about themselves, generate cost savings, undertake community outreach, programs, place themselves on equal footing with other groups, recruit personnel, manage public relations activities, and reach a wide range of people.”

Utility of a Corrections Web Page

Why would anyone want to visit a state corrections department web page? A number of reasons come to mind. Families and friends of prisoners and correctional employees may be interested in finding out what the living conditions and work environment of their loved ones is like. Taxpayers and voters may be curious about how their dollars are spent and if prison existence is living up to the promise of our current “get tough” philosophy. Applegate, Cullen, and Fisher found that the public wants rehabilitation as part of correctional policy, but it also supports punishment for offenders. The support has long since become expensive. State corrections budgets have tripled between 1986 and 1996, growing from $7 billion to $20 billion ten years later (Eckl, 1998). Corrections now consumes an average of about 6% of state budgets. Florida’s Department of Corrections is so determined to be sure that you understand how tough and cost-effective things are that they post a “myths of prison” document on their web site. Moreover, staff of a large state corrections system will be able to study their own organization to a degree that was not easily possible just several years ago. Many of the state corrections web sites contain detailed organization descriptions, annual reports, budget information, and research documents, and statistical data.

There are other good reasons. Academics can now obtain descriptive and statistical data on state corrections home pages that heretofore were available only for the most persistent scholar. At many web sites, a citizen can see who is in prison, who is on parole or about to be paroled, or who has escaped. Nearly every state corrections system is looking for employees and they post the jobs on their web sites. Online education via the Internet can address learning and skill building for staff and inmates, with specialized education available at the Education and Student Center at the Corrections Connection Network at http://www.correcitions.com/ (Halasz, 1997). Finally, you might be curious about how many residents there are in your state prison system in contrast to others. We are, of course, on record-breaking ground since the year 2000 opens with 2 million people in custody nationwide.

Purposes of State Corrections Web Sites

A cursory examination of state corrections department web sites demonstrates that they serve several distinct purposes:

1. Share their philosophy, mission, and other perspectives on corrections, a big-ticket item in state budgets;

2. Pass on useful information to the public such as visiting hours, directions to the prison, and escapees;

3. Present a positive and progressive image of the agency, its leaders, and its workers to the public;

4. Provide politically advantageous information to the public, such as the incapacitation rates and the cost per inmate;

5. Portray a web savvy and technologically modern state corrections system.

METHOD

Objectives of the Paper

The objectives of the paper are to:

1. Describe the content of state corrections department web sites;

2. Identify and evaluate the amount and types of useful information displayed for citizens, corrections professionals, and clients;

3. Evaluate the aesthetic and technological qualities of the sites, such as art, color, site layout, framed displays, audio, streaming video, scrolling news tickers, and virtual reality capabilities;

4. Identify the strong and unique features of each site;

5. Discuss the meaning and implications of the content of state corrections department web pages.

Selection and Examination of Study Web Sites


The Universal Resource Locators (URL's) of the state corrections department web sites were identified by going to The Corrections Connection site at http://www.corrections.com/ This site contains a plethora of information, resources, news, research, and links concerning the corrections profession. One of the pages at the site contains the URL's of all 50 of the states' corrections sites.

Since it was not possible to include in this study all of the state corrections department web sites (many contain hundreds of pages of information), 26 corrections department web sites were included in the study, almost evenly divided among a commonly accepted regional division of the United States: Northeast; Midwest; South, and West. Some were visited numerous times because of the large amount of information available or in order to update the study. Many of the most populated states have the web sites that contain tomes of information. A State Corrections Web Site Recording Instrument (see Appendix A) was constructed and used to study each state corrections department home page. The instrument was designed with a check-off format that would allow the researchers to identify the presence or absence of 41 web page features and includes a narrative section for describing special features about each of the sites. Because corrections and criminal justice are associated with some of the most volatile issues in society, the authors included a check-off feature as to whether or not the web page displayed information about the death penalty, sex offenders, escapees, offender databases, imprisonment costs, and parole notices, which have become a part of a growing list of information requests from victims and frightened citizens (Noack, 1999). These items are major points of concern for the public and the corrections community. The State Corrections Web Site Recording Instrument (SCWSRI) is an adaptation of a recording device used in a previous study of law enforcement agency web sites (Haley and Taylor, 1998). The instrument was pre-tested and modified before beginning to record data in this study. Relevant literature sources from books, journals, monographs, periodicals, newspapers, and the World Wide Web were also consulted in order to complete the research.


RESULTS

A total of 26 corrections department web sites were included in this study. Table lists the corrections department web sites by region of the United States.

Table 1. State Corrections Department Web Sites by U.S. Region
____________________________________________________________________ Corrections Department
____________________________________________________________________

Northeast 6

Connecticut
Delaware
Pennsylvania
Maine
Massachusetts
Vermont

Midwest 6

Ohio
Wisconsin
Illinois
South Dakota
Kansas
Nebraska

South 8

Alabama
Florida
Texas
Oklahoma
Mississippi
Virginia
West Virginia
Arkansas

West 6

Alaska
California
Arizona
Colorado
Washington
Oregon

TOTAL NUMBER OF AGENCIES = 26




Descriptive and Public Relations Information

From even a cursory examination of several state corrections department web pages, you would gain a favorable impression of the agencies and likely be surprised at the amount of information that is available to the citizen, employees, victims and their families, and inmates and their families. Table 2 lists the kinds of descriptive and public relations information that is available on the web sites of the state corrections departments in this study.

Table 2. Descriptive and Public Relations Information
_______________________________________________________________________ Type of Information: Number and Percent
_______________________________________________________________________
Mission/Values 24 (92.3%)
History/Description 17 (65.4%)
Executive’s Message 14 (53.8%)
Facts/Figures 23 (88.4%)
Who’s Who 19 (73.1%)
What’s New 20 76.9%
_______________________________________________________________________

What an agency looks like on its World Wide Web site is, in fact, not real. In fact, when something is “virtually true,” it’s not quite true. Such is the case in this study. We would be naïve to think that the purpose of a corrections web site is anything but making the agency look good by showing its best face. That is the case with state corrections department web pages as it is with online portrayals of business, education, or other public service organizations.

Mission writing has not escaped the confines of state corrections departments. In order to be accredited by the American Correctional Association, a department’s mission and values have to be defined. In this study, 24 (92.3%) of the state corrections departments have a mission statement, often supplemented by a list of values, displayed on their web sites. It should be no surprise that those statements include references to insuring public safety, providing a humane, safe, and sanitary treatment environment for the inmate population, and effecting rehabilitation of the sentenced offenders in order that they become law-abiding and productive members of society. Making available opportunities for rehabilitation goes at least one step farther than the traditional approach to corrections that might be described simply as “keep them inside, don’t let them hit each other, and feed them correctly.”

Even though the mission-writing mania has arrived in corrections, two of the 26 agencies in this study did not list a mission. Chances are very good that they do business about the same way that agencies do that have lengthy mission statements posted on the web site.

Seventeen (65.4%) of the corrections departments posted a history or detailed description of their agency and its work. Facts and Figures concerning the departments were listed on 23 (88.4%) of the web sites, to include such items as how many institutions there are in the state and how many inmates are in confinement. Adapting to the parlance of the WWW, you might even find these data listed in a FAQ’s section. Nineteen (73.1%) of the departments included a Who’s Who section where the names of the wardens, assistant wardens, and other division heads are identified.

An Executive’s Message from the state corrections department director, secretary, or commissioner was found on 14 (53.8%) of the web sites. This is also a common feature on law enforcement agency web pages, but some of the chiefs and sheriffs had audio and video messages for web surfers and other law enforcement professionals to enjoy. Sometimes the welcome message conveyed new developments in that state’s corrections business, but more often than not it was a standing sort of “welcome” and “we care” introduction to corrections in the state. To convey recent developments, 20 (76.9%) of the corrections departments had a What’s New section in the form of a news ticker, a recent developments page, or a full-blown newsletter.

Corrections Professional and Technical Information

Students of criminal justice and corrections professionals will be delighted to find the amount of professional and technical information available on the corrections department web sites in this study. They will find detailed information about correctional programs, institutions, research, and legislation. Without Internet technology, this kind of information would be very difficult to obtain and perhaps not even be sought.


Table 3. Corrections Professional and Technical Information
_______________________________________________________________________ Type of Information: Number and Percent
_______________________________________________________________________
Corrections Programs Information 20 (76.9%)
Parole Board 15 (57.7%)
Agency Links 20 (76.9%
Legislation 17 (65.4%)
Prison Industries/Work 23 (88.4%)
Research/Reports 19 (73.1%)
Private Prisons 6 (23.1%)
_______________________________________________________________________

Twenty (76.9%) of the corrections web sites contained substantial information about corrections programs, to include details about drug rehabilitation programs, boot camps, pet therapy, specific counseling modalities, etc. Parole board facts were found on 15 (57.7%) of the sites.
Information concerning prison industries and work programs can be found on 23 (88.4%) of the state corrections department web sites, leaving little doubt that the state corrections departments want the taxpayers to know that prisoners are working to help earn their keep. Those web site browsers and researchers that will want to access corrections research and technical reports will find that information on 19 (73.1%) of the sites while 17 (65.4%) of the sites carry information about corrections legislation. Much less prevalent is information about private prisons, naturally since the private prison industry is not found in a majority of the states. Only 6 (23.1%) of the state corrections web sites contained information about private prisons. Finally, in order to see what corrections colleagues are doing around the nation, 20 (26.9%) of the state web sites had agency links.


Communication and Other Useful Information for Citizens, Victims, and Inmates Families


Any public service agency in a democracy has the obligation to
provide useful information to citizens in order that they can make intelligent decisions about their lives. State corrections departments may be somewhat ambivalent about their responsibilities in this area since they want to be open and informative but they also must remain cognizant of their public safety role. Too much of the wrong kind of information may, in fact, jeopardize security. But with 80 million people worldwide using the Internet (Wolk, 2000), and perhaps 200 million within three years, it may become difficult to shield all but the most sensitive information. The state corrections web sites in this study were indeed helpful in providing useful information for citizens, victims, and the families of inmates. Table 4 below contains that information.

Table 4. Communication and Other Useful Information for Citizens, Victims, and
Inmates’ Families
_______________________________________________________________________ Type of Information: Number and Percent
_______________________________________________________________________
Institutions 24 (92.3%)
Maps/Directions 14 (53.8%)
Pictures 19 (73.1%)
Victim’s Assistance 14 (53.8%)
Site Search 8 (30.7%)
Employment 24 (92.3%)
Offender Database 8 (30.7%)
Communication 26 (100%)
E-mail 20 (76.9%)
Phone/Address 26 (100%)
Escape Notices 4 (15.4)
______________________________________________________________________

Twenty-four (92.3%) of the web sites had separate and distinct web pages for each of their prisons, penitentiaries, and reformatories, with 19 (73.1%) of the states posting one or more pictures of their prisons. Fourteen (53.8%) had maps and/or clear directions to the prisons in order that inmates’ families, prospective employees, and other visitors can easily find the institution. In the current U.S. economy, finding capable workers is a not easy. You may not be surprised that 24 (92.3%) of the state corrections department web sites have open corrections positions posted. You can work as a corrections officer just about anywhere you want with Ohio offering the highest starting salary at about $26,000 per year. It is interesting that a parole officer with a baccalaureate degree starts at the same salary in Ohio.

A lot of information is available for victims, inmates, and their families. Victims assistance was plentiful on 14 (53.8%) of the web sites. Eight (30.7%) of the sites actually allowed anyone to view the corrections system offender database, often including pictures of the inmate. Eight (30.7%) of those sites also had a site search capability allowing web surfers to type in the topic they were interested in accessing.
Any public service agency nowadays must provide public access in a variety of ways uncommon just several decades ago. All 26 (100%) of the web sites posted some means of communicating with the central offices of the state corrections system, regional offices, and individual institutions. Addresses and phone numbers were available on all 26 (100%) of the web sites. Twenty (76.9%) had posted email addresses for many of their personnel and offices. Important for victims and their families, as well as the public at large, 4 (15.4%) posted special escape notices on their corrections web sites. The remaining 22 state corrections departments did not have any special escape notices, perhaps thinking that it is an embarrassment and chose not to display the information in the form of a special notice such as a ticker tape. In the next section the matter of an escapee database will be addressed.

Public Safety and Politically Sensitive Information

Some information on the state corrections web sites in this study is of vital concern to citizens relative to public safety and may indeed be politically volatile. Capital punishment, sex offenders, escapes, and the costs and conditions of confinement are matters the general public and politicians are more than likely to be concerned with. Table 5 below gives us a measure of how prevalent these “hot-button” issues are on state corrections department web sites.

Table 5. Public Safety and Politically Sensitive Information
______________________________________________________________________ Type of Information: Number and Percent
______________________________________________________________________
Sex Offender 13 (50.0%)
Capital Punishment 15 (57.7%)
Death Row Roster 10 (38.5%)
Escapee Database 10 (38.5%)
Costs 19 (73.1%)
Prisoner 18 (69.2%)
Probation/Parole 7 (26.9%)
Community Corrections 6 (23.1%)
Restitution 4 (15.4%)
______________________________________________________________________

Thirteen (50%) of the web sites in this study had information about sex offenders, either material dealing with their confinement and treatment or actually listing them in a database, sometimes with pictures. Capital punishment was addressed on 15 (57.7%) of the web sites. Ten (38.5%) provided a death row roster that often included criminal history details. Some states actually listed every person that has been executed in the state’s history. In this presidential election year, capital punishment has already appeared as a major issue since Governor George W. Bush has presided over far more executions than any of the other governors. Support for capital punishment remains high among voters although recent exonerations of condemned inmates has cast some doubt on the whole process. An emerging position on the death penalty for politicians this year may go like this, “Tough enough to support the death penalty, but not bad enough to actually do it.” Evidence the fact that the number of death row inmates continues to grow with no likelihood at all of ever reducing the numbers. Nevertheless more than half of the states in this study displayed capital punishment information, a few a lot more prominently than the others did.

If you are not able to obtain information about escapes from a special news bulletin or ticker tape, 10 (38.5%) of the corrections web sites displayed an escapee database, nearly always with a picture, description, and other pertinent details.

Even in a strong economy, the general public is worried about the costs and conditions of confinement. Few people realize, however, the size and cost of the corrections enterprise. The state corrections systems are also interested in the public’s perception of what prison life is actually like. In short, the public doesn’t want prisoners to have it too good. Some of the state corrections web sites deal tactfully with this issue by giving a synopsis of what daily prison life is like. In Texas, for example, prisoners get up an hour or two earlier (3:30 AM) than in any of the other states and the web site lets you know that if you look around.

Nineteen (73.1%) of the web sites in this study listed the costs of confinement, probation and parole, or other community corrections methods. Eighteen (69.2%) identified the costs per prisoner or for the prison system itself. Seven (26.95) posted the costs for probation and parole services. Six (23.1%) had information on the costs of community corrections operations while 4 (15.4%) identified the amount of restitution prisoners made to victims and communities.

Aesthetic and Technological Features

The ability of the World Wide Web to distribute information, shape opinion, and facilitate commerce has grown astronomically since the first national Internet Service Provider (ISP) came on the scene in 1992. While most state department corrections web sites are not likely to win major awards for their aesthetic and navigation feature, some are indeed sophisticated sites. California, Ohio, and Florida are a few in the top tier. Hosting and maintaining a high-quality web site is not an easy task. Haley and Blough (1999) found in their study of police department web masters that they were proud of their work but often felt frustrated in trying to keep the site current and accurate. Table 6 lists aesthetic and technical features found on the web sites of the state corrections departments in this study.

Table 6. Aesthetic and Technological Features
______________________________________________________________________ Type of Information N Percent
_______________________________________________________________________
Pictures/Graphics/Art 22 (84.6%)
Audio 0 (0%)
Video Presentation 2 (7.7%)
Color Variety 20 (76.9%)
Virtual Reality 0 (0%)
Frames 9 (34.6%)
News Ticker 2 (7.7%)
Navigation Dialogue Box 6 (23.1%)
_______________________________________________________________________
Twenty-two (84.6%) of the corrections web sites contained pictures, graphics, or art work of some kind that added to the text features of the site. In this age of inexpensive web construction software, placing graphics on a web site is easy and you have to wonder why four of the sites excluded any graphics, pictures, or art work. It is also surprising that none (0%) of the sites contained any audio files, unlike some law enforcement web sites that contain music and audio welcome messages from the chief executive. Two (7.7%) contained a video presentation in the form of a slide show or a so-called virtual tour of institutions. None (0%) were actual virtual reality tours. Twenty (76.9%) displayed three or more colors on their web pages. To aid navigation throughout the site, 9 (34.6%) of the sites employed frames which allow the web surfer to save a lot of time by going to other sections of the web site from any page that they are viewing without having to go back to a start page or do a lot of scrolling. News tickers appeared on 2 (7.7%) of the corrections web sites. Six (23.1%) contained a navigation dialogue box permitting the site visitor to easily negotiate the shoals of a multi-layered web site.


Special Features

Exploring the Web can be fascinating and no less so when surfing the content of state corrections department home pages. The displays are, of course, meant to leave the web surfer or corrections professional with a positive image of the state’s prisons and community corrections agencies. Still there are surprises and oddities that can be discovered on these web sites that are, without doubt, little known facts and matters of interest to the student of corrections. Table 7 below lists some of these discoveries.


Table 7. Interesting and Unique Features Found on State Corrections Department
Web Sites
_______________________________________________________________________ Feature/Fact State Corrections Agency
_______________________________________________________________________

1. Only state with “rehabilitation” in its title Ohio
2. Lists last meal menus of condemned inmates Arizona, Texas
3. Lists every execution in state’s history Arizona, Oklahoma
4. Mother Teresa visited its Walpole Prison Massachusetts
5. Prison was site of governor’s radio show Minnesota
6. To stay modern, has a Technology Transfer Unit California
7. Posts lasts statement of condemned inmates Texas
8. One third of its executions since 1923 were for rape Maryland
9. Posts pictures of those executed California, North Carolina
10. Spanish language option for many web pages Arizona
11. Largest corrections system: $4.6 billion dollar California
budget; 45,852 employees; 162,381 inmates
12. Inmates have an arts and crafts web store Arizona
13. Notes January 8, 1997, as the day it executed three Arkansas
condemned murderers
14. Largest death row holding 555 inmates California
15. Has only braille machine repair service in West California
16. Has a corrections system ombudsman for inmates Texas
17. Has a diversity calendar for inmates and staff Washington
18. Posts all published articles of its agency director Ohio
19. Its public safety center contains a women’s prison, South Dakota
highway patrol post, sheriff’s department, city police
department, and state criminal investigation unit
20. Executes its inmates at a different location than Kansas
its death row to reduce death row staff stress
21. Inmates build a 768 sq.ft. house for $22,000 for all South Dakota
senior citizens who request it
_______________________________________________________________________

DISCUSSION

Public Relations

We should not be surprised to find that “virtual corrections” as found on the state department web sites in this study is indeed better than the “real corrections.” In almost every state you will clearly get the impression that inmates are fed well, live in safe and adequate housing, have a plethora of education and training opportunities, and have more chances for recreation than most of us, unless, of course, they are confined in the highest level of security. In “real corrections”, however, we would be able to see the cell extractions of recalcitrant inmates, hear the whining and screaming of those requiring mental health attention, or read the too infrequent reports of sexual assaults inside the walls. But prison is not so bad because in the last analysis how we live is always relative to how we perceive others living. The authors visited a Romanian prison in Bucharest in November 1999, and found conditions to be indeed Spartan in contrast to any prison in the United States. Yet in a society where the average income is about $100 a month and schoolteachers are on strike for $81 a month, Romanians also complain about the plush conditions of their prisoners’ existence.

While the onslaught of prison litigation has slowed in the United States, two decades of lawsuits have substantially improved the physical conditions of prison life. Any person is able to go to the state corrections web sites included in this study and find that half of the prisons from and exterior examination look far better than our nation’s schools. No federal courts are likely to be forcing the school systems to fix up their facilities. But those two big-ticket items, schools and prisons, are often competitors for the biggest portions of state budgets. Prisons have won in every encounter.

Politics have also strongly influenced the look of some state corrections departments’ web pages. In states such as Florida and Minnesota, where crime rates are relatively high, the governors actually appear on the corrections department web pages. Governor Jeb Bush’s picture is right next to the corrections director’s. In Minnesota, Governor Jesse Ventura’s picture is shown in the context of his broadcast of his radio show from prison. In seems that in states with high crime rates and prison populations, the governors want to be seen “minding the store” when it comes to public safety. It is very easy to tell also that Governor Bush is a strong advocate of capital punishment. The story of Florida’s electric chair controversy is easily located on the web site. In other states with the death penalty, but having few, if any, executions, the information is buried in some obscure location on the web site. This is an indication, no doubt, as to how troubling the death penalty is for Americans. We have it, but for the most part, we don’t do it. As people come to know more factual information about the death penalty and a strong, meaningful alternative to execution is offered, Bohm (1999) thinks that there is a possibility that the United States may cease with the punishment. In the last analysis, penality is always a balancing act (Lucken, 1998). The weight of the arguments on either side of the capital punishment debate is not static.

Corrections Technical Information

The state corrections department web sites in this study are rich depositories of technical information about corrections. Any undergraduate or graduate student will have at mouse click away annual reports, statistical studies, performance measures, department histories, innumerable charts and graphs, and newsletter and magazines reporting on almost every corrections topic imaginable. Spending time on these sites is an education. Some of the sites have thousands of pages and many more archived reports in PDF format.

One of the habits criminal justice professionals have is to inquire as to what is being done in a similar agency. By looking at another state’s web site they are able to glean a tome of information without making a phone call or traveling any farther than their department computers. “Would you mail me some information,” is a much less frequent request in corrections and law enforcement since the advent of storing information on the World Wide Web. Staying out front is a lot easier in the dot-com (dot-gov) society.

Distribution of Useful Information

The cost of mailing information to other corrections professionals, lawyers, judges, victims, and offenders’ families must have dropped drastically in the second half of the 1990’s. Not only is much of the information that is useful to those mentioned above available on a web site, but the information is easily updated and distributed.

On the other hand, the posting of staff names, phone numbers, addresses, and email listings has undoubtedly increased the communication between professional corrections staff and the community. As Internet access increases in the next several years, keeping up with the communications in corrections departments may be difficult. Police department web masters report that answering email inquiries alone consumes a large portion of their workday (Haley and Blough, 1999).

Finally, finding a corrections job is substantially easier than it once was. The jobs in corrections seem to be there for the asking. Connecticut was the only state with no positions available. Some states, such as Texas, had hundreds of openings.

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

Maybe what we all seek on the World Wide Web is something better than our own stark reality. People design and post personal web pages and they are often straight braggadocio and exaggeration, as if now posted on the web, they can believe it. Others frequently communicate in chat rooms and stretch the truth about their background and achievements. Business web sites put forth an image of quality, value, and service that they can hardly live up to. Maybe it’s something to shoot for, or perhaps only crass marketing.

On the Web we seek an easier and better life. Virtually speaking, we can find it. We can shop where we do not go. We can see where we have not been. We can feel what we have not really experienced. The Web enables us. In the same way, virtual corrections may indeed be better than reality. The state corrections web sites in this study all portray a corrections system better than it probably is. After all, the web sites are critiqued by only the state corrections personnel themselves, yet still the web pages are rich in detailed and useful information for citizens, victims, inmate families, and corrections professionals.

What you may now routinely glean from most of the web sites in this study was nearly impossible to obtain just several years ago. No agency would have been able to offer so much information to so many people without the Web’s phenomenal capacity for distribution.

We can conclude from this study that the images portrayed of a state corrections system, its institutions, and its personnel are overwhelmingly positive. Citizens will also feel welcome in visiting the web site of their state corrections agency. They will also find that the state corrections enterprise appears well organized, efficient, and confident. As least, it will seem that way. If they want to know more about the care and custody of offenders in their state, the web site will have hundreds of pages of reports, inmate data, performance reviews, research studies, and other descriptive information for those who would care to examine them. Names, addresses, and phone numbers of corrections administrators are equally accessible. In most cases, attractive pictures of the institutions are available on nearly all of the sites that might leave a viewer wondering why prisoners would complain about the conditions of their confinement. If a web surfer just so happened to have recently visited one of the nation's many dilapidated school buildings, they may conclude that prisons aren’t all that bad. But still there is that problem of not being able to go home at night. With 2 million people in custody in the nation’s prisons and jails on any given day, we must believe that the costs of confinement are worth it.

The web sites in this study will also allow corrections professionals to have an opportunity to study their own state system, or another state’s. They also can find a plethora of employment vacancies in other states, knowledge in today’s economy that must frustrate corrections directors who are trying hard to locate and retain qualified staff.

Politically sensitive issues such as the death penalty and sex offenders are prominent on a state’s corrections agency home page, or they are latent. There does not seem to be a middle ground. But you will have no difficulty figuring out that the paramount value portrayed on all of the web sites is public safety. It is the first order of business in every mission statement. That should be comforting to all of us.

Three years ago computer and Internet technology was primitive in contrast to what is now possible with high speed processors and cable modems. In 1997, one of the authors completed his paper on “police stations in cyberspace” for an Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences meeting while watching the Superbowl on the World Wide Web by means of slides changing ever so infrequently. It was a primitive webcast. This year at about the same time, Merlin, the author’s talking and reading animated agent, sits on the computer screen, occasionally cracking jokes. Merlin also snores a little when he is not working. He reads and pronounces text in the English language from my email, my word-processing documents, and web pages better than most of us. Merlin helped proofread my paper. These kinds of animated characters are about to enter are world in force.

Negroponte (1995) forecasts that we will soon have hologram-like agents in our service who will do our word processing, web surfing, information and household management, and some of our home chores by ordering robots to do physical tasks. We will also be able to select the agent of our choice, adding language and personality features according to our mood and preferences. I recently chose Al Morale, another agent that sits on my desktop computer screen and quite frankly "sucks up," telling me in clear speech with animation how smart I look and how great my work is. That sort of occasionally comforting employee is getting harder and harder to find.

Finally Ursula Owre Masterson (2000) tells us about the long-awaited debut of Ananova, a digitally created beauty who will soon be reading the news on British online news sites. She will also soon be working as the "perfect go-between for man and machine," in other ways, even appearing on the screen of our web telephones. Ananova is billed as the Internet's first "synthespian."

In a few years it is very likely that a "virtual warden" may greet us as we log on to the web page of his institution. He will invite us on a personal tour of the prison, and, of course, insist that "our images" join him as we walk down the ranges and tiers of the institution. We will meet inmates and staff. We can try out solitary confinement. We can pick up reams of information about corrections. Then, when we are tired of visiting, we can thank the warden, check out back through the main sally port, disconnect, and leave. Welcome to "virtual corrections."


REFERENCES

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Associated Press. 2000. “Man Plans to Live a Year Online.” January 1.

Becker, K. 1997. “Internets, Extranets, Futurenets.” Corrections Today, August, pp. 74-79.

Bohm, R. 1999. Deathquest: An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Capital Punishment in the United States. Cincinnati, OH: Anderson Publishing Company.

Clayton, S. 1997. “Are You on the Net Yet?” Corrections Today, August, pp. 64-67.

Dalton, E. 1997. “Leaders Convene to Assess Correctional Technology Needs.” Corrections Today, July, pp. 82-83.

Eckl, C. 1998. “The Cost of Corrections.” State Legislatures, February, pp. 30-34.

Gates, W. 1999. Business at the Speed of Thought.” New York, NY: Warner Books, Inc.

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Halasz, I. 1997. “Internet Use in Education and Training.” Corrections Today, August, pp. 92-98.

Haley, K. and R. Taylor. 1998. “Police Stations in Cyberspace: A Content Analysis of Law Enforcement Agency Home Pages.” Pp. 125-147 in Criminal Justice Technology in the 21st Century, edited by L. Moriarity and D. Carter. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas Publishers.
Haley, K. and S. Blough. 1999. “Caught in the Web: The Pride and Perils of a Police Department Webmaster.” A paper presented at the annual meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, March, Orlando, Florida.

Heimberger, T. and L. Heimberger. 2000. “Virtual Panopticism.” A paper presented at the annual meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, March, New Orleans, Louisiana.

“How the Web Is Changing Presidential Campaigns.” Time.com, February 7. pp. 2-7.

Lohr, S. 1999. “The Internet Wears Out Its Welcome.” The New York Times, December 26.

Lucken, K. 1998. “Contemporary Penal Trends: Modern or Post Modern?” British Journal of Criminology, Winter 1998, pp. 106-124.

Masterson, U. 2000. “Coming Soon, Internet’s First Synthespian.” MSNBC.com, March 2.

Negroponte, N. 1995. Being Digital. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.

Noack, D. 1999. “Parole Notices Go Online.” APB news.com, October 22.

Streitfeld, D. 2000. “A Web of Workaholic Misfits.” The Washington Post, February 16, p. A01.

Wilkinson, R. 1998. “Best Practices: Tools for Correctional Excellence. Corrections Today,” October, pp. 56-58

Wolk, W. 2000. “For Web Users, Freedom Has Its Price.” MSNBC.com, January 17.













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