Reappraisal of Prison Policy

Report Outline
Questioning of Basic Assumptions
Changing Philosophy of Corrections
Critical Issues Facing Penologists
Special Focus

Questioning of Basic Assumptions

Growing Doubts About Value of Rehabilitation

Government officials across the country are currently reevaluating the purpose of the prison. Many of the basic assumptions about prisoner rehabilitation are being questioned. After extensive interviews with leading opinion makers in the field of criminal justice, Corrections Magazine. a journal of prison affairs supported by the American Bar Association, has reported that substantial agreement exists on several points:

There is little or no evidence that correctional “treatment” programs work.

The gradual restructuring of the American correctional system over the last 50 years around the notion of individualized and enforced treatment for all offenders was a mistake.