Prisons Should Rehabilitate (From America's Prisons: Opposing Viewpoints, P 30-37, 1991, Stacey L. Tipp, ed. - See NCJ-159858)

• NCJ Number: 159861
• Author(s): T W White
• Date Published: 1991
• Length: 8 pages
• Sale Source: Greenhaven Press
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article argues that the U. S. crime rate and prison population will decrease only if the correctional system begins to institute effective rehabilitation programs for inmates.

Abstract

The article discusses early goals of the American correctional system, the failure of the medical model of rehabilitation, and events that led to a balanced model of correctional rehabilitation. This balanced approach, which emphasized equally the need for retribution, deterrence, and rehabilitation, ostensibly placed the responsibility on the offender for succeeding or failing in his or her attempts at societal reintegration. According to free market principles, this approach posited that rehabilitative resources would be supplied based on upon inmate demand or participation. The author contends, however, that the free market approach has failed to rehabilitate or to punish offenders and that drastic measures to institute true rehabilitation are needed to reduce crime and criminality in the U.S.