NCJ Number
83146
Date Published
1980
Length
141 pages
Annotation
A series of presentations by authors with contrasting views considers the nature and purpose of prisons, whether prisons can rehabilitate, and alternatives to prison.
Abstract
The inmate writers draw on their own experience to portray prison life as dehumanizing and criminalizing, as it reinforces predatory and survival behavior. Prison administrators, on the other hand, believe that under court edicts prisons are becoming more humane as the rights of inmates are being identified and implemented. In considering the purpose of prisons, one author views them as having no useful purpose whatever, while others differ on what the purposes of prisons should be and what they actually are. One author, a psychiatrist, rules out punishment as having any meaningful purpose, although protective restraint is accepted as a necessary aspect in treating persons with a history of violent behavior. Another writer argues that punishment is a necessary part of justice and society's affirmation of outrage at injurious criminal behavior. While some presenters view corrections as a total failure in its rehabilitation efforts, others view rehabilitation as having occurred when applied according to proven concepts, a circumstance acknowledged to be rare in prisons. Others argue that the criminal personality is particularly resistant to change, since predatory and defensive behavior is so thoroughly a part of the criminal's efforts to deal with and manipulate his/her environment. Presentations dealing with prison alternatives examine the treatment of offenders in eastern cultures, where the emphasis is upon physical punishment rather than restraint; Swedish prisons, where incarceration is infrequent, short, and intensely rehabilitative; and probation as an expanded alternative to prison. Throughout the presentations, the editor supplies guidance for critiquing the basis for each writer's presentation.