Why I Use the Word “Corrections” (Even Though It Makes Me Uneasy)

Although corrections is one of my primary scholarly research areas, I’ve never been entirely comfortable with the term. And yet, I still use it.

So, what do most scholars, practitioners, and journalists mean when they use corrections? Broadly speaking, the term refers to the institutions/facilities (i.e., prisons, jails, detention centers), policies, practices, programs, laws, and people  (i.e., inmates; correctional officers and administrators; and other correctional workers) related to incarceration.

That said, the shift from terms like penology and punishment to corrections wasn’t neutral. It was a deliberate rhetorical move, designed to humanize the system during a politically sensitive era. The idea was to recast the purpose of incarceration as something rehabilitative rather than purely punitive.

The core problem with the term “corrections” is that very few people sentenced to a correctional facility are actually “corrected.” This raises several questions. Most importantly, what exactly are the goals of corrections? What should people be “corrected” to, and to what end?

Traditionally, corrections are said to have four principal goals: punishment, public safety, deterrence, and rehabilitation. Most criminologists, correctional staff, and incarcerated individuals would agree that the system is very effective at punishing people. But when it comes to the other three objectives, the system largely falls short.

Rehabilitative programs, if they exist at all, are often underfunded, poorly implemented, and overshadowed by institutional priorities that emphasize security and control over transformation.

And when we talk about “correcting” people, what are we imagining them being corrected into? Presumably, into law-abiding citizens. But that’s a harder sell in a society where political and corporate elites regularly break the law and do not face meaningful consequences. When crimes of the powerful go unchecked, the moral authority of the system erodes, and so does the assumption that being “law-abiding” is a universally agreed-upon ideal.

In this situation, the term corrections doesn’t just overpromise. It obscures.

So, where does that leave me and us?

I still use the term corrections, not because I believe in what it implies, but because it provides a shared reference point. I want people to quickly understand what topic I am discussing, and the word corrections allows me to communicate this efficiently and improve the likelihood that I will be understood.

Moreover, I don’t believe that any appropriate alternative terms have the same traction in mainstream discourse.

Thus, I use the term with caution. I stay aware of what it hides and encourage others to do the same.

Photo credit:

Photographer: California Department of Corrections

Title: Overcrowding in California State Prison