NCJ Number
93666
Journal
PAPPC Journal Volume: 3 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1984) Pages: 50-58
Date Published
1984
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This overview of the trial and error approaches that have dominated American corrections -- the treatment, punishment, reintegration, and humane prison models -- concludes that none have been effective, since crime and recidivism rates have increased steadily since the 1950's.
Abstract
The treatment model assumes that aberrant behavior has some root cause in a physical, mental, educational, or occupational handicap of the offender. This model lost considerable support in the 1970's and 1980's, because its premises to change and cure were unacceptable to most of the lower class who comprise the majority of the prison population; it created an anomaly by thinking that positive change can occur in a coercive and unnatural environment. Furthermore, studies have shown that treatment has little effect on reducing recidivism. The punishment model is gaining momentum, as evidenced in mandatory sentencing, concerns about sentencing disparities, and increased public demand for restoration and use of the death penalty. However, much of this model's support is due to the increasing notoriety of the treatment model's failure to reduce recidivism or crime. Reintegration was the philosophy underlying community-based corrections and was stimulated by LEAA programs, overcrowded prison conditions, and problems such as prison riots which suggested that incarceration was not always the best solution. The humane prison model contends that incarcerated offenders should be treated fairly and humanely, given useful and meaningful work, and provided with counseling services. All these models have failed, possibly because they have no relationship to life outside the institution, cannot overcome the deleterious effects of imprisonment, teach skills that are obsolete on the job market, and may have no relationship to the parolee's proclivity for a life of crime. The paper includes 11 footnotes.