Is rehabilitation an unreasonable goal?

Great Debates
1

The most recent thread on capital punishment has me thinking of another prison issue. I saw a documentary a year or so ago on Alcatraz. In it was interview footage from some of its former residents. They all said how terrible it was, how cruel and inhumane the conditions. One elderly gentleman was asked if he ever went back to prison after his few years there and his answering expression was one of shock and horror as he said “Oh no!”

Today, we are often presented with stories about the benefits received by inmates–college education, job training, sports equipment, TV priveleges, prison theaters, conjugal visits to name a few. Lots of people see this and scowl, especially when presented with an average $20,000 price tag (1994 data) per prisoner.

Society has taken the path that prison should be used for rehabilitation, not punishment, but given the high cost and recidivism rates swinging from 40% to 60%, is this reasonable? How does that jibe with “Three Strikes” laws, or mandatory drug sentencing? Would we better off spending a tenth as much and making prisons a hellishly uninviting place to return to?

2

What was the recidivism rate at the time the gentleman you mention was in prison? A sample population of one isn’t terribly accurate for purposes of comparison.

3

What was the recidivism rate at the time the gentleman you mention was in prison? A sample population of one isn’t terribly accurate for purposes of comparison.

4

In looking to answer my own question, I found a couple of relevant tidbits:

From http://www.bestweb.net/~cureny/educatn.htm (any emphasis added is mine)

A 1994 report by Miles Harer, (“Recidivism Among Federal Prison Releases in 1987,” Fed. Bur. of Prisons, Office of Research and Evaluation, 1994) concluded that recidivism rates were inversely related to educational program participation while in prison. The more educational programs successfully completed for each 6 months confined, the lower the recidivism rate.

A report of the Adult Probation Dept. of the Superior Court, Pima County, Arizona concludes that offenders given literacy training in 1994 had a lower new felony arrest rate (23%) compared to a control group (40%). Offenders given a GED education in 1994 had a lower new felony arrest rate (15%) than a control group (40%). The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports a 43% recidivism rate for adult offenders on probation nationally in 1994 (based on felony arrests).(from “The Impact of Correctional Education on Recidivism, 1988-1994” Office of Correctional Education, U.S. Dept of Ed.)

A 1994 State of Texas report (Tracy and Johnson, Windham School System) found that the recidivism rate for those who received both a GED certificate and completed a vocational trade was over 20% lower than for those who did not reach either milestone. (ibid))

That Texas report also showed that two years after release, the overall recidivism rate for degree holders was a low 12%, and inversely differentiated by type of degree: associate, 13.7%; baccalaureate, 5.6%; masters, 0%.

A 1991 study by the NY State Dept. of Correctional Services showed that three years after earning a college degree in inmate college programs, offenders were significantly less likely to recidivate (26%) than non-degreed inmates (45%). (ibid)

In a letter to the Utah State Legislature, Jeffrey Galli, of the Utah State Office Of Education (and formerly a prison warden for 22 years) writes: "Data received from independent evaluators indicate that Project Horizon (a comprehensive education and training program) reduces recidivism from 20 % to as much as 26%. (ref.: KT Adult Learning Quarterly,winter 1996).

A 1983 study at Folsom Prison in California showed that none of the prisoners there who earned bachelor’s degrees recidivated, compared to the 55 percent recidivism rate of the rest of the prisoners released (Lawyer and Dertinger, “Back to School or Back to Jail,” ABA Criminal Justice, Winter 1993, p. 21).

Rearrest of young parolees has also been shown to be related to the amount of prior education. Based on a sample of parolees between the ages of 17 and 22, who were paroled from prisons in 22 states in 1978: an estimated 48% of the parolees who had attended some college were rearrested, compared to 61% of the high school graduates, and 71% of those who had not completed high school. (Bu. of Justice Statustics Special Report, “Recidivism of Young Parolees.”)
I’ll try to find more later, but those statistics, if significant, seem to argue heavily in favor of rehabilitative and educational efforts.

5

True, but his wasn’t the only voice expressing that attitude, just the most memorable because of the comical way he said it. I haven’t been able to come up with a good source of recidivism rates on the web, in an admittedly short search of about a half hour. I’ve found a few from individual states, but nothing on a national scale. To top that off, the states use different methods of collecting data. They differed on how long after release the recidivism was counted, whether they tracked people arrested subsequently in other states, and so forth. None mentioned excluding inmates who died after release. The lowest I saw was 37 point something percent for one year in Texas, and the highest mentioned a 60-70% rate (without citing any primary source however.) As far as recidivism rates pre-1950, I didn’t see anything.

6

Those statistics are persuasive, however it can be argued that the inmates that complete those programs are the ones most likely not to come back in the first place.

PeeQueue

7

They certainly do argue in favor of education. I wonder whether there is anything available for the flipside, like recidivism studies done on the inmates released from the worst prisons of the past. In searching for this I came across a couple of pages that attested that Alcatraz wasn’t a deterrent, but that isn’t clear whether they are speaking of before a crime was committed, or after someone had already been incarcerated there and released. Nowhere have I yet seen numbers, and even if the iron hand approach worked then, that doesn’t mean it would now.

Maybe I should be looking for recidivism rates in places like Turkey, where jail is reputedly like the old bread and water days.

8

True, but without those educational programs, many of these people would not have a great chance at gainful employment in the legal economy. If you’re constrained to bagging groceries or flipping burgers for the rest of your life, I can see how crime would look awfully attractive.

I don’t think we can give up hope on rehabilitation. Obviously there are many prisoners who cannot be rehabilitated, and perhaps we should decide that society owes them nothing, and drop them off in the tundra with no survival gear. But we should definitely err on the side of rehabilitation if there are any who can be “saved” (to borrow a religious term). For the few who can do good with their future, we may still have to support many who are incorrigible in the prison system.

9

Would we better off spending a tenth as much and making prisons a hellishly uninviting place to return to?

How hellish? The Constitution expressly prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.