NCJ Number
78552
Journal
American Bar Association Journal Volume: 67 Dated: (August 1981) Pages: 988-991
Date Published
1981
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Centralized training for correctional personnel and inmate educational programs are discussed by Chief Justice Warren Burger as priorities for correctional reform and offender rehabilitation.
Abstract
The National Institute of Corrections was established in 1972 to conduct regional seminars for middle and upper echelon prison personnel. The time is ripe to extend the correctional training enterprise to include a National Academy of Corrections to train correctional personnel much as the FBI has trained State and local police. This is especially needed for States that have meager resources for correctional personnel training. The academy should also provide technical assistance to State and local institutions on a continuing basis. The cost of establishing such an academy could be minimized by making it an adjunct of the FBI Academy at Quantico, Va. Classrooms and dormitories could be used interchangeably by the FBI police training program and the correctional academy. The faculty could be composed of not more than 12 permanent staff, with the balance of the training conducted by an ad hoc faculty of specialists drawn from the State and Federal systems. In the area of offender rehabilitation, priority should be given to basic academic education and vocational training. Every inmate who cannot read, write, spell, and do simple arithmetic would have required schooling in these subjects. Vocational training in skilled and semiskilled crafts should also be expanded as a mandatory program for inmates, such that no prisoner would leave an institution without some qualifications for employment in the construction, manufacturing, or service industries.