Factories With Fences (From Dilemmas of Punishment, P 349-356, 1986, Kenneth C Haas and Geoffrey P Alpert, eds. - See NCJ-101644)

• NCJ Number: 101648
• Author(s): W E Burger
• Date Published: 1986
• Length: 8 pages
• Sale Source: Waveland Press, Inc.
• Publication Type: Presentation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: This address was delivered at the commencement exercises of Pace University on June 11, 1983, at Madison Square Garden, New York. It was first published in the Pace Law Review, V 4, N 1 (Fall 1983).

Annotation

Contemporary prisons should be designed for inmate academic education, vocational training, and the production of goods for sale, so as to increase inmates' self-esteem and prepare them to earn a legitimate income upon release.

Abstract

Barriers to the development of prison industries should be addressed by repealing statutes which limit the amount of prison industry production or the markets for such goods and also the laws that discriminate against the sale or transportation of prison-made goods. Business and labor leaders must cooperate to permit the wider use of prison production enterprises. Although such enterprises may compete with private industry in some markets, the impact should be minimal. Inmates who learn vocational skills and work habits in prison industries will not only be prepared to enter similar employment upon release but will have upgraded their self-esteem, an important trait for normative adjustment. Although inmates should not be compelled to participate in prison work programs, prison incentives and disincentives should encourage such participation. Inmates who choose to participate and perform well in prison industries should receive privileges and shortened sentences. 2 footnotes.