NCJ Number
79438
Date Published
1981
Length
0 pages
Annotation
Benjamin J. Malcolm, Vice-chairman of the President's Parole Commission, expresses views on parole based on his extensive experience as the Commissioner of Corrections for New York. The presentation essentially rebuts the current criticism of parole and the practice of indeterminate sentencing.
Abstract
Those who consider indeterminate sentencing a failed experiment to be abandoned because offenders should be sentenced to definite rehabilitative treatment in prison ignore the fact of recidivism, which proves that prisons do not rehabilitate. If rehabilitation is to occur, it must be in the community. The concept of rehabilitation is a misnomer because it implies return to a state of socialization most offenders have never known. Causes of recidivism stem from both the prison environment and the hostility of the community to released ex-offenders. The impact of determinate sentencing in the six States where parole was abolished was immense on the costs of having inmates serve large percentages of their sentences in prisons. The 'Rockefeller Law' of New York, mandating 15 years to life for drug distribution, is currently being repealed because it delivered many less serious offenders into correctional system for long periods. A parole approach that allows for periodic review of individuals for release is preferable. Audience questions follow the presentation.