NCJ Number
86493
Journal
PAPPC (Pennsylvania Association on Probation, Parole, and Correction) Journal Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Dated: (Fall 1982) Pages: 37-43
Date Published
1982
Length
7 pages
Annotation
If there is to be a reallocation of funds from institutions to community-based correctional services, then repressive public attitudes must be changed through public education by corrections professionals and citizen participation in social control functions.
Abstract
Strong repressive public attitudes have been instrumental in encouraging politicians to support harsher, more punitive measures as the primary means for dealing with crime. The public's interest in controlling crime is commendable but unenlightened. Criminal justice professionals know that more and longer prison sentences are not cost-effective and that innovative, decentralized, community-based services offer greater promise of success. Corrections professionals have the data and experience that should be the basis for a public education program that will accurately inform public attitudes. The media should be included in action plans for progressive and supportive public attitudes. Corrections professionals can document for the media that criminal justice agencies in the aggregate are a multibillion dollar industry. Criminal justice professionals and the media owe the public the highest quality of continual monitoring, analyses, and reporting on the justice industry, so that public attitudes may serve the interests of cost-effectiveness in that industry. Many corrections professionals are cynical about change in public attitudes from an emphasis on punitive imprisonment to support for community supervision and service; however, surveys indicate that the public is steeped in religious traditions that emphasize love and restoration. Such values can become the point of contact for public support of a more enlightened corrections policy.