Issues in corrections: administration, rehabilitation, and recidivism reduction

Prison

The modern prison system represents a macrocosmic understanding of how to punish the collective sins of society. Within any environment, the strength of its contents is a direct reflection on the worst of its contents as well. The importance of the cathartic rehabilitation that occurs during learning, growth, understanding and forgiveness dictates how one would be rehabilitated in any system, prison or not. The sheer numbers of prisoners within the United States represents a concept of punishment that appears to exceed rational thought and reasoning. Are our citizens that troubled? Do we really need such an extensive prison system that is lost in bureaucratic inefficiency and sadistic behavior? The purpose of this essay is to examine these questions in an attempt to compare and contrast the present penal and prison systems and whether these methods are striving towards any type of collective goals. Furthermore these goals themselves will be analyzed to determine whether or not incarceration and punishment is philosophically aligned with today's general mind frame.

Any collective group must decide where it's authoritative power is located. Humanity's subjugation to law must be examined before understanding how a group can determine what is punishable and what is allowable. Law was most likely not designed for man to be subjugated to or under, however laws can be used as a tool for mankind. When these tools are misused or abused, unsatisfactory results will no doubt arise. Foucault (1971) supported this idea of relative justice and equity. Through his concept of power developed through knowledge, a successful philosophical standpoint may be derived from this idea of individual application to each law. Discipline, essential in the development of his theory, is explained as a tool for this type of management.

Anderson (2000) explained a consequence of ignoring the essence of law as private prisons have exploded as an economic force to maintain and feed certain sect of society. Privatization of a social responsibility demonstrates resistance to understanding this problem of punishment in prisons in an effective manner. Throwing money at a problem, while it may temporarily appear to be helpful, usually masks symptoms of the problem while not treating the root issue. Concepts of good and bad and how the relative application of moral ethics seem to be of more importance in determining solutions to these types of problems. Anderson agreed with this concept: "increasingly, the prison system has become our response to the societal and economic problems of poor people, especially in minority communities. But this sort of response does not look beyond incarceration as an answer. Far better, he emphasized, would be a response focused on making investments that strengthen families and communities."

Harmony and balance are jeopardized when the economic strength of a community is based upon the amount of criminals contained in its local private prison. There is no economic justification for lowering recidivism rates in this prison. In fact the opposite is true. The more crime will bring about more prisoners. More prisoners will bring more capital and more jobs to the community. Police forces and local statutes and regulations will no doubt intensify if economic interests are placed before more important ideas. The idea of fairness and justice must be presented in a way that can be upheld by the leadership in society. No one should expect the criminal to behave in a way opposite from its role models and leadership. When these role models and leadership ideas falter and become obsolete or harmful in any way, it is up for those who can recognize this to alert others in correcting this untruth.

Sykes (1971) described a bleak picture for prisoners in today's modern correctional institutions. Depriving conditions, Sikes explained, highlight how a person within a correctional institution is slowly but surely deprived of his or her humanity. Losing freedom, autonomy and the ability to coexist with others in peace plays a serious role in hindering growth and potential understanding. In some ways this seems rather sadistic. Logic dictates that two wrongs do not make a right under any circumstances. Subscribing to this fallacy by punishing with an equal or greater force than the originating crime, tends to deflate the moral purposes behind rehabilitation and prisoner relationships. Having understanding that all persons have both good and bad within them will help alleviate the stress of living up to unfair expectations that prisoners often are expected to obey.

The infamous Stanford prison experiment continued to demonstrate the inefficiency and lack of understanding of improper treatment of those who fall out of societal restrictions. The fear, violence and aggression stemming from this experiment clearly shows how innocence is relative. Zimbardo (1973) concluded in his report about his experiment that "if our mock prison to generate the extent of pathology it did in such a short time, and the punishment of being imprisoned in a real prison does not a crime for most prisoners indeed, it far exceeded!" (p.96). The metamorphosis of the relationships between those in the dominating role and those in a submissive role is clearly demonstrated in this example. Assuming roles appears to be a natural psychological event for those entering into an objective reality, or the real world. When the ideas of punishment, severity, and revenge are introduced into this formula, chaos, retribution and unsatisfactory behavior seems to arise.

It is most likely unwise to think that an authoritative figure can have a real impact upon any individual without inspiring that individual to adopt self-learning processes. It is my opinion that the best way to rehabilitate and fix these unfortunate, but informative processes is to approach the problem from the inside out. Reestablishing morals and ethics within the individual will no doubt give him or her the tools to carry on a life without the need for an authoritative figure to watch over their shoulder. Respecting those who wish to attain this level of freedom should be important to see for those within the administrative processes to identify.