Prisons in the Theater of American Justice (From Violent Crime in America, P 54-67, 1983, Kenneth R Feinberg, ed. - See NCJ-93158)

• NCJ Number: 93163
• Author(s): M E Sherman
• Date Published: 1984
• Length: 14 pages
• Sale Source: National Policy Exchange
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

Instead of viewing prisons as symbols of law and order, U.S. correctional policy must break the automatic link between prison and punishment, focus the prison's crime control potential on violent offenders, and restore the social service ideal to its proper voluntary place in a humane criminal justice system.

Abstract

The crisis which brought prisons to the public eye in the early 1980's was not the disparity between performance and expectations, but the gap between need and resources. Four ideas are competing in this ritual debate: the overuse of incarceration, the failure to imprison enough criminals given high crime rates, imprisonment of the wrong offender groups, and inhumane conditions. In essence, the critical problem is a combination of the third and fourth issues -- the prison population is composed in part of the wrong groups, and this in turn aggravates the conditions crisis. Competing suggestions regarding who belongs in prison promote symbolic rather than utilitarian goals, thus doing a grave disservice to potential victims of crime. Alternatives such as probation, parole, and community corrections appear to have drawn less serious offenders into the system, instead of relieving pressures on the traditional corrections system. Restitution, house arrest, and service to the community may be better options for nonviolent offenders. Individuals convicted of murder and robbery are clear candidates for incarceration, along with adults convicted a second time for burglary, larceny, and drug offenses. The maximum sentence length should be 5 years, although time served could be longer under special circumstances. Finally, inmate services and programs should be expanded and made voluntary. Even with a more principled prison policy, populations and budgets will remain large. Congress should give close attention to the details of any funding scheme and could require that Federal money not be used to increase the total capacity of the State system, thus ensuring that funds are applied to improvement of existing conditions. The paper contains 12 footnotes.