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Cover Story
Rehabilitate or punish?
Psychologists are not only providing treatment to prisoners; they're also contributing to debate over the nature of prison itself.
By ETIENNE BENSON
Monitor Staff
July/August 2003, Vol 34, No. 7
Print version: page 46
It's not a very good time to be a prisoner in the United States.
Incarceration is not meant to be fun, of course. But a combination of strict sentencing guidelines, budget shortfalls and a punitive philosophy of corrections has made today's prisons much more unpleasant--and much less likely to rehabilitate their inhabitants--than in the past, many researchers say.
What is the role for psychologists? First and foremost, they are providing mental health services to the prison population, which has rates of mental illness at least three times the national average.
More broadly, they are contributing a growing body of scientific evidence to political and philosophical discussions about the purpose of imprisonment, says Craig Haney, PhD, a psychologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
"Psychology as a discipline now has a tremendous amount of information about the origins of criminal behavior," says Haney. "I think that it is important for psychologists to bring that information to bear in the debate on what kind of crime control policies we, as a society, should follow."
The punitive turn
Until the mid-1970s, rehabilitation was a key part of U.S. prison policy. Prisoners were encouraged to develop occupational skills and to resolve psychological problems--such as substance abuse or aggression--that might interfere with their reintegration into society. Indeed, many inmates received court sentences that mandated treatment for such problems.
Since then, however, rehabilitation has taken a back seat to a "get tough on crime" approach that sees punishment as prison's main function, says Haney. The approach has created explosive growth in the prison population, while having at most a modest effect on crime rates.
As a result, the United States now has more than 2 million people in prisons or jails--the equivalent of one in every 142 U.S. residents--and another four to five million people on probation or parole. A higher percentage of the population is involved in the criminal justice system in the United States than in any other developed country.
Many inmates have serious mental illnesses. Starting in the late 1950s and 1960s, new psychotropic drugs and the community health movement dramatically reduced the number of people in state mental hospitals. But in the 1980s, many of the mentally ill who had left mental institutions in the previous two decades began entering the criminal justice system.
Today, somewhere between 15 and 20 percent of people in prison are mentally ill, according to U.S. Department of Justice estimates.
"Prisons have really become, in many ways, the de facto mental health hospitals," says former prison psychologist Thomas Fagan, PhD. "But prisons weren't built to deal with mentally ill people; they were built to deal with criminals doing time."
The mentally ill
The plight of the mentally ill in prisons was virtually ignored for many years, but in the past decade many prison systems have realized--sometimes with prodding from the courts--that providing mental health care is a necessity, not a luxury, says Fagan.
In many prison systems, psychologists are the primary mental health care providers, with psychiatrists contracted on a part-time basis. Psychologists provide services ranging from screening new inmates for mental illness to providing group therapy and crisis counseling.
They also provide rehabilitative services that are useful even for prisoners without serious mental illnesses, says Fagan. For example, a psychologist might develop special programs for substance abusers or help prisoners prepare for the transition back to the community.
But they often struggle to implement such programs while keeping up with their regular prison caseloads. "We're focused so much on the basic mental health services that there's not enough time or emphasis to devote to rehabilitative services," says Robert Morgan, PhD, a psychologist at Texas Tech University who has worked in federal and state prisons and studies treatment methods for inmates.
Part of the problem is limited resources, says Morgan: There simply aren't enough mental health professionals in most prisons. Haney agrees: "Many psychologists in the criminal justice system have enormous caseloads; they're struggling not to be overwhelmed by the tide."
Another constraint is the basic philosophical difference between psychology, which is rehabilitative at heart, and corrections, which is currently punishment-oriented.
"Right now there's such a focus on punishment--most criminal justice or correctional systems are punitive in nature--that it's hard to develop effective rehabilitative programs," says Morgan.
Relevant research
To help shift the focus from punishment to rehabilitation, psychologists are doing research on the causes of crime and the psychological effects of incarceration.
In the 1970s, when major changes were being made to the U.S. prison system, psychologists had little hard data to contribute.
But in the past 25 years, says Haney, they have generated a massive literature documenting the importance of child abuse, poverty, early exposure to substance abuse and other risk factors for criminal behavior. The findings suggest that individual-centered approaches to crime prevention need to be complemented by community-based approaches.
Researchers have also found that the pessimistic "nothing works" attitude toward rehabilitation that helped justify punitive prison policies in the 1970s was overstated. When properly implemented, work programs, education and psychotherapy can ease prisoners' transitions to the free world, says Haney.
Finally, researchers have demonstrated the power of the prison environment to shape behavior, often to the detriment of both prisoners and prison workers.
The Stanford Prison Experiment, which Haney co-authored in 1973 with Stanford University psychologist and APA Past-president Philip G. Zimbardo, PhD, is one example. It showed that psychologically healthy individuals could become sadistic or depressed when placed in a prison-like environment.
More recently, Haney has been studying so-called "supermax" prisons--high-security units in which prisoners spend as many as 23 hours per day in solitary confinement for years at a time.
Haney's research has shown that many prisoners in supermax units experience extremely high levels of anxiety and other negative emotions. When released--often without any "decompression" period in lower-security facilities--they have few of the social or occupational skills necessary to succeed in the outside world.
Nonetheless, supermax facilities have become increasingly common over the past five to ten years.
"This is what prison systems do under emergency circumstances--they move to punitive social control mechanisms," explains Haney. "[But] it's a very short-term solution, and one that may do more long-term damage both to the system and to the individuals than it solves."
Further Reading
Bureau of Justice Statistics: www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs
Stanford Prison Experiment: www.prisonexp.org
The Sentencing Project: https://www.facebook.com/thesentencingproject
Criminal Justice/Mental Health Consensus Project: www.consensusproject.org
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Punishment fails. rehabilitation works..
James Gilligan , a clinical professor of psychiatry and an adjunct professor of law at New York University, is the author of, among other books, " Preventing Violence " and " Why Some Politicians Are More Dangerous Than Others ."
Updated December 19, 2012, 11:43 AM
If any other institutions in America were as unsuccessful in achieving their ostensible purpose as our prisons are, we would shut them down tomorrow. Two-thirds of prisoners reoffend within three years of leaving prison, often with a more serious and violent offense. More than 90 percent of prisoners return to the community within a few years (otherwise our prisons would be even more overcrowded than they already are). That is why it is vitally important how we treat them while they are incarcerated.
How could we change our prison system to make it both more effective and less expensive?
The only rational purpose for a prison is to restrain those who are violent, while we help them to change their behavior and return to the community.
We would need to begin by recognizing the difference between punishment and restraint. When people are dangerous to themselves or others, we restrain them – whether they are children or adults. But that is altogether different from gratuitously inflicting pain on them for the sake of revenge or to “teach them a lesson” – for the only lesson learned is to inflict pain on others. People learn by example: Generations of research has shown that the more severely children are punished, the more violent they become, as children and as adults. The same is true of adults, especially those in prison. So the only rational purpose for a prison is to restrain those who are violent from inflicting harm on themselves or others, while we help them to change their behavior from that pattern to one that is nonviolent and even constructive, so that they can return to the community.
It would be beneficial to every man, woman and child in America, and harmful to no one, if we were to demolish every prison in this country and replace them with locked, safe and secure home-like residential communities – what we might call an anti-prison . Such a community would be devoted to providing every form of therapy its residents needed (substance abuse treatment, psychotherapy, medical and dental care) and every form of education for which the residents were motivated and capable (from elementary school to college and graduate school). Getting a college degree while in prison is the only program that has ever been shown to be 100 percent effective for years or decades at a time in preventing recidivism. Prisoners should be treated with exactly the same degree of respect and kindness as we would hope they would show to others after they return to the community. As I said, people learn by example.
My colleague Bandy Lee and I have shown that an intensive re-educational program with violent male offenders in the San Francisco jails reduced the level of violence in the jail to zero for a year at a time. Even more important, participation in this program for as little as four months reduced the frequency of violent reoffending after leaving the jail by 83 percent, compared with a matched control group in a conventional jail. In addition to enhancing public safety, this program saved the taxpayers $4 for every $1 spent on it, since the lower reincarceration rate saved roughly $30,000 a year per person. The only mystery is: Why is this program not being adopted by every jail and prison in the country? Why are taxpayers not demanding that this be done?
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The Purpose of a Prison: Rehabilitation and Punish Essay
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Introduction
Rehabilitation.
There are various reasons for prison to exist. Brown (2012) viewed prison as a place where society is protected against criminals. A prison’s main aim is to rehabilitate people who happen to be destructive to the economy. By rehabilitating them, the prison offers the inmates various opportunities to learn skills. By learning these skills they may avoid having bad traits, become law-abiding citizens and thus contribute to the growth of an economy.
Rehabilitation is important to make criminals less harmful and productive. This is one of the purposes of prisons, especially for young adults. In prisons, the young people are taught to be responsible for their deeds in the society they live in, they are taught to avoid their involvement in criminal activities (Brown, 2012). The inmates rehabilitated attend some programs which offer educational services. Apart from learning, they develop emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically.
The educational programs available in the prison are of great benefit to the inmates and the society as such. The inmates acquire various skills in masonry, carpentry, and construction. All these skills make the inmates productive thus contributing to the growth of an economy.
A prison is supposed to be designed in such a way that the harsh conditions in it should be a form of punishment for inmates. However, in most prisons this is not the case because they eat three meals a day and the majority of prisoners watch television. However, the seclusion from their families and restriction of movement is quite sufficient punishments for them. Lack of freedom to call whenever they want, play games, go out or have leisure time is also a perfect punishment for prisoners. There are other forms of punishment where some inmates get strokes of canes. They are also given heavy work by the police wardens (Muncie, 2001).
Prisons are supposed to reduce and eliminate crimes in society. They prevent people from committing crimes for fear of going back to prisons (Muncie, 2001). Reducing crimes is supposed to be the main reason for running the prison. Despite this, the inmates should be protected from abuse by their counterparts. The abuse includes rape, beatings, and killings.
Brown, M. (2012). Imprisonment and detention in Marmo, M., de Lint, W. and Palmer, D., Crime and Justice . Sydney: A Guide to Criminology Law Book Co.
Muncie, J. (2001). Prison Histories: Reform, Repression and Rehabilitation in McLaughlin .London: Open University.
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IvyPanda. (2022, May 5). The Purpose of a Prison: Rehabilitation and Punish. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-purpose-of-a-prison-rehabilitation-and-punish/
"The Purpose of a Prison: Rehabilitation and Punish." IvyPanda , 5 May 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/the-purpose-of-a-prison-rehabilitation-and-punish/.
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IvyPanda . 2022. "The Purpose of a Prison: Rehabilitation and Punish." May 5, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-purpose-of-a-prison-rehabilitation-and-punish/.
1. IvyPanda . "The Purpose of a Prison: Rehabilitation and Punish." May 5, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-purpose-of-a-prison-rehabilitation-and-punish/.
Bibliography
IvyPanda . "The Purpose of a Prison: Rehabilitation and Punish." May 5, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-purpose-of-a-prison-rehabilitation-and-punish/.
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Moral Rehabilitation in Prison
- Larrabee, A K (2006). “Punishment vs Rehabilitation in the Criminal Justice System.” Associated Content.
- Christensen, T. (2003-2011). Conjecture Corporation. : Mangino, Mathew ProQuest Newspaper Database. , p. (2006, December 6 Cartmell, P. (2011). Rehabilitation
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An emphasis on rehabilitation is key to successful prison reform
Credit: TNS
As someone who has dedicated my life’s work to advocating for justice and fairness toward all human beings, I think Georgia is at a crucial tipping point for prioritizing the well-being of both those who live and work in our prisons.
Georgia’s prisons and carceral system are facing crisis-level challenges, from understaffing to overpopulation, crumbling infrastructure to underfunded mental health care. This is a multifaceted problem that extends beyond prison walls, and it will take a multifaceted approach and cooperation between many entities to solve.
Credit: Handout
Addressing the massive overcrowding of our facilities will take the coordinated help of prosecutors, judges, law enforcement and local communities as we watch prisons turn into dumping grounds for those we don’t seem to know what to do with. Instead of using our crisis hotlines and community response resources for people experiencing mental health crises, law enforcement is being asked to step in and handle delicate situations that their jobs should not require of them. Our legal experts are being overburdened with caseload after caseload of individuals in need of medical help, not incarceration. Those with mental health care needs are being funneled into packed jails and prisons instead of being sent to hospitals or treatment centers to receive the mental health care they need.
Law enforcement, prosecutors and judges have tremendous power to become good stewards of those who truly need mental health care instead of prison. We must work together to keep people out of prison who don’t deserve to be there in the first place, starting at the neighborhood level, using the community response resources we have at our disposal.
Once inside the prison system, there is a clear connection between safety in our correctional facilities and the mental health of those in our care. The stress and trauma of incarceration exacerbate existing mental health conditions and, in many cases, contribute to new ones. We must provide compassionate, comprehensive mental health services and psychiatric care as a standard part of Georgia’s prison system. As someone who works daily on the streets of Atlanta with those living with substance use disorders, I’ve seen firsthand the transformative impact of implementing detox programs and providing greater access to addiction treatment medication throughout the state. Our prison system must evolve to address these needs and help put more Georgians on the track toward complete rehabilitation.
Georgia prides itself on being fiscally responsible, but I believe this repeated failure to invest in our corrections system is not only costly, it’s also fiscally irresponsible — and deadly.
Investing in enhanced educational and vocational training programs for incarcerated individuals and addressing the crumbling and unsafe environments in which they live is a wise investment in the future safety of all Georgians. Continuing to underfund prison educational/vocational programs will only perpetuate the cycle of recidivism and overcrowding, leaving people without the resources they need to reintegrate into society and leading them right back into the dire living conditions they face in our prisons. Living and working in dilapidated buildings with inside temperatures of well over 100 degrees or below freezing, sleeping in rooms overflowing with human excrement, coping without basic medical treatment and attempting to survive severe malnutrition are compounding mental health issues and creating environments of extreme violence. Those who serve and live in corrections facilities are dying. This is unacceptable.
The journey to reform might not be politically expedient, but it is essential to the future of our state. The lives of those in our care and the well-being of our communities depend on our collective commitment to the just, fair and compassionate treatment of all humans. As we begin our work in the Senate Study Committee on the Safety and Welfare of All Individuals in the Department of Corrections , I call on my legislative colleagues on both sides of the aisle, Gov. Brian Kemp, the Department of Corrections, countless law enforcement entities, prosecutors, judges and all people of good conscience to join me in this work of ensuring that we take every necessary step to improve our corrections system.
When we fail to care for the most vulnerable among us, we fail as a society. Georgia can and must do better.
Sen. Kim Jackson, a Democrat, represents the 41st Senate District, which includes portions of DeKalb County and a small portion of Gwinnett County.
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Home > CIPS > epo > HSP > Honors Sch Theses > 913
Honors Scholar Theses
Punishment vs. rehabilitation: a discourse on american prison reform & comparative analysis to swedish incarceration.
Lauren Hipplewitz Follow
Date of Completion
Spring 5-1-2022
Thesis Advisor(s)
Kristin Kelly; Matthew Singer
Honors Major
Political Science
The infrastructure of the United States prison system continues to evolve through a series of policy changes and reforms. Throughout these developments, however, the institution continues to remain rooted in the philosophy of harsh penalization. This thesis incorporates a comparative analysis between the concept of perpetrator punishment within the American federal prison system to the concept of rehabilitative justice found in the Swedish system. I conceptualize the underlying “goals” of imprisonment within the United States and Sweden and examine how they serve as an operational foundation for both institutions. I analyze American prison reform that took place during the “War on Drugs” under the Reagan administration in the 1980s, as this was a major pivotal point in modern incarceration. Using a similar timeframe to examine prison reform that occurred in Sweden, I highlight the key differences between domestic and Swedish policy. I argue that these resulting differences are symptomatic of the distinct cultural values positioned at the heart of each system.
Recommended Citation
Hipplewitz, Lauren, "Punishment vs. Rehabilitation: A Discourse on American Prison Reform & Comparative Analysis to Swedish Incarceration" (2022). Honors Scholar Theses . 913. https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/srhonors_theses/913
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Home / Essay Samples / Law / Prison System / Punishment VS Rehabilitation: the Need for Reforms in Prisons
Punishment VS Rehabilitation: the Need for Reforms in Prisons
- Category: Law , Social Issues , Crime
- Topic: Prison System , Prison Violence , Punishment
Pages: 3 (1513 words)
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Bibliography
- Albert, M. (2016). Inmates in NY Get an Ivy League Education Behind Bars. Retrieved from CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-york-state-prisons-expanding-higher-education-program-for-prison-inmates/
- Bedford Hills College Program. (2011). Retrieved from Prison Studies Project: http://prisonstudiesproject.org/2011/08/bedford-hills-college-program/
- Harlow, C. (2003). Education and Correctional Populations. Retrieved from The Bureau of Justice Statistics: http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=814
- Marklein, M. B. Students Behind Bars. USA Today
- National Institute of Justice. Retrieved from https://www.nij.gov/Pages/welcome.aspx
- Page, D. (2012). The Prison of the Future. Law Enforcement Technology.
- Santora, M. (2013). New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/24/nyregion/citys-annual-cost-per-inmate-is-nearly-168000-study-says.html
- Subramanian, R., & Mai, C. (2017). The Price of Prisons. Retrieved from Vera Institute of Justice: https://www.vera.org/publications/price-of-prisons-2015-state-spending-trends
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