The Prison Problem

The problems with prisons are (at least nearly) universal.  I don't know of any country that can say their prison system is just what they want, that it accomplishes anything really useful for the society.  Certainly the prisons here in the US are a total travesty.  So, why is that?

Well, I think we don't really know what we want from our prisons.  The way I see it, a prison might be expected to provide any one of three services (but only one): Rehabilitation, Penitence, and Deterrence.

In the Rehabilitation model, a convict is sent to prison for some period with the expectation that at the end of that period, he or she has been taught how to behave in a way that society will find acceptable.  Furthermore, the convict will have been re-conditioned in some way so that the expected behavior will be desirable to him or her.

In the Penitence model, the convict is supposed to know what behavior is expected of him or her by society and only requires the enforced time to consider the error of his or her ways and reflect on the connectedness of his or her behavior with the general welfare in which he or she participates.

In the Deterrence model, the convict is subjected to an environment so horrific that the expectation is that he or she will aspire to avoid being subjected to it ever again.  Needless to say, this is really the only model that is ever put into practice.

There may have been a time when we expected our prisons to operate in accordance with the Penitence model, hence the sobriquet: penitentiary.  I sense a heavy overlay of Christianity in this model and, as such, a set of assumptions about people that is more ideologically than empirically based.  Certainly the current state of prisons as overcrowded, chaotic, and dangerous is not consistent with contemplation and introspection.

Likewise, although I'm certain that parole boards honestly expect rehabilitation, the prisons are in no way designed to facilitate anything of the kind.  The educational opportunities that are afforded to convicts, when there are any, are rudimentary.  The vocational training is haphazard, without regard to what job opportunities might exist for the eventual ex-convict.  More importantly, there is no attempt to treat, other than by punishment, the personality traits that led the convict to think that the behavior that brought him or her to prison was reasonable.  Without that, there is no reason to believe that he or she might not think so again.

So, we have Deterrence.  But we don't really since there is no evidence to support the idea that prison has a deterrent effect.  That is odd, of course, since, from all accounts, prison is really horrible.  So either an ex-convict doesn't believe he or she will be caught again, or conditions are at least as bad for him or her "on the outside".  That's a sobering thought.  Either way the whole thing doesn't work and we should try to find out why.