Fear and Discouragement Don’t Rehabilitate Prisoners
American Prisons: A Failure of the Greatest Magnitude
The state and federal prison systems of America are in tatters. Inmates are being transformed into hardened convicts. Recidivism rates continue to rise. And all the while, the concept of prison rehabilitating offenders has become a running joke, ongoing dialogue on prison reform aside.
It’s pathetic, plain and simple. Inmates are real people that go through real struggles and aren’t provided the tools they require to succeed, but still the American people expect prisoners to be rehabilitated upon their release from custody. It’s laughable to think that inmates could leave prison without any type of additional education, vocational training, or treatment program and succeed in an unfamiliar and unaccepting world outside prison walls. American corrections simply provides no structure or protocol to promote recovery, and the significant stigma against former prisoners acts in a way that practically ensues that all will return to a life of crime and recidivate.
The Onion Presents its Case: Prisons Don’t Make People More Employable?
It’s crucial that prison policies, procedures, and governing principles changes to assist former inmates in leading a better, more productive, and law-abiding life after their term of incarceration has concluded. In fact, the need for reform is so obvious that even “The Onion” — the satirical newspaper — wrote an entire article characterizing the thought process of those who think that prison provides inmates with the tools required to leave prison and not return to a life of crime.
“It just doesn’t seem possible that an inmate could live for a decade and a half in a completely dehumanizing environment in which violent felons were constantly on the verge of attacking or killing him and not emerge an emotionally stable, productive member of society.”
