More Warehouses, or Factories With Fences? (From Privatizing the United States Justice System: Police, Adjudication, and Corrections Services From the Private Sector, P 330-335, 1992, Gary W Bowman, Simon Hakim, et al., eds. - See NCJ-137785)

• NCJ Number: 137805
• Author(s): W E Burger
• Date Published: 1992
• Length: 6 pages
• Sale Source: McFarland & Company, Inc.
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The United States should change its correctional policies and practices from the current system that emphasizes "warehouses" to one in which prisons become "factories with fences" where inmates are trained and involved in useful production.

Abstract

Crime currently produces huge direct and indirect costs for both victims and society. Reducing crime in the immediate future will require more effective law enforcement, which in turn will produce a demand for more correctional facilities. However, the correctional system has not prevented the rise in reported crime rates. Rehabilitation programs have not fallen short of expectations. However, Sweden and other North European countries have done much more than the United States in inmate education and training. Placing a person in prison involves the moral obligation to do what can be reasonably done to change the person before reentry into society. Psychopaths may be beyond the reach of any program, so the programs should aim mainly at other offenders. Therefore, prisons should be made places for basic education and vocational training, and our thinking and the reactionary laws that prevent this from happening must change. The author is the former Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. 3 references