NCJ Number
78996
Journal
Atlas World Press Review Volume: 26 Issue: 3 Dated: (March 1979) Pages: 37-42
Date Published
1979
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Excerpts from the British and French press discuss problems in the prison system while reports from Western European nations, Israel, and Canada focus on innovative correctional programs.
Abstract
This collection of articles published in the foreign press begins with an editorial from the London Times which views prison conditions and conflicting penal theories as problems with no immediate solutions. Increased funds to alleviate overcrowding and establish alternative programs, as well as shorter sentences for first offenders, are suggested. The contradictory goals of rehabilitation and revenge are addressed in an interview with a French criminologist who works in a high security prison. He recommends prison terms of 5 to 10 years as punishment for professional criminals, but believes that persons who commit sexual crimes or crimes of passion do not belong in the penal system. Indicators of recidivism and prevention efforts are also mentioned. Examples of innovative correctional approaches are then described, such as community-based work programs for inmates in Canada's provinces and a West German experiment in which hardcore offenders manned a schooner during a week's voyage on the Baltic Sea. Other programs discussed include a token economy used in Israel's military Megiddo Prison, inmate participation in running a women's prison in Spain, and a progressive Danish penitentiary which permits daily contact between male and female inmates.