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RE: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet on Felon Education and Recidivism
Yep. I think that there are some people that are beyond help, but for most of the people in jail they are desperately in need of some help. I'd really like to see jail be more of a 'broken life rehab center' than a 'punishment center'. I think most non-violent offenders don't even belong in a jail. They really just need some help. A jail for punishment should be reserved for the violent people that are beyond hope.
That's a tough one for me. I don't know if I can accept that anyone is completely beyond hope, but there are certainly those who are too dangerous to let them loose in society.
I'm with you on the rest though. Rehabilitation is in the name of our prisons (The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, for example), yet very little rehabilitation is taking place. Yes, there are programs that aim to do that, but for too long, the majority of the programs have been administered by folks just looking for a paycheck and not actually caring about the people they are serving.
We are fortunate that the people we are working with in Grafton Correctional Institute and Judge Russo's Reentry Court seem to be genuinely concerned about helping folks succeed.
Out of curiosity, what sort of punishment do you think appropriate for those who are beyond hope? It seems to me the lack of hope might be punishment enough.
I'm not a fan of using punishment because I don't think it's a good tool for rehabilitation, but for the really dangerous people I'd say the punishment should be the isolation from others for safety reasons.
I agree that punishment isn't a good tool for rehabilitation. All the studies I've seen show that consequences and punishment are vastly different, and only the former is effective at changing behavior.
Identifying the difference can be tricky though.