Some wise man once observed that we’ve never figured out whether we want our prisons to rehabilitate offenders or punish them.
And as a result, they mostly do neither. Yes, some young offenders do reform themselves behind bars. But many of the inmates may not see prison as that bad. Half the ex-convicts paroled in Michigan wind up back in prison within two years. I once interviewed petty thieves and street prostitutes about their lives.
They regarded the six months or so they occasionally had to spend in prison somewhat the way I regard paying taxes. It was a necessary annoyance, part of the price you pay for doing business.
However, prison also can and does turn young kids who have made stupid mistakes into hardened career criminals.
Several years ago, a not-very-bright Pontiac boy named Nathaniel Abraham was convicted of committing a murder at age 11. He was tried as an adult, and the judge could have sent him to an adult prison, but refused to do so. Next year, when he turns 21, Nathaniel will have to be released from any state supervision.
I hope to be proven wrong, but am not overly optimistic about his future. However, imagine what he would be like had he survived eight years in a maximum security prison meant for grown men.
Obviously the Michigan Prisoner Re-Entry Initiative is a good idea. Michigan’s prison population is almost four times what it was in 1982. That’s largely due to changes in the laws that filled our prisons with small-time drug dealers. While the cost of keeping all these people locked up may have been a major reason for starting this program, it is something we should have been doing all along.
As I understand it, the program helps inmates line up jobs and housing months before they get out, then monitors what they do and counsels for up to two years after they are released. What was happening before is that these folks would simply be turned loose on the streets, usually without any job or connections; often without any support system or place to live. Actually, the wonder of it is that only half the former inmates soon wound up back in the slam. We need to do whatever it takes to give as many of them as possible a shot at decent, productive lives.
Even if it means higher taxes. Yes, there are some people who need to be locked up forever, for our own good. But most convicts eventually will be released, and we ought gladly to pay whatever it takes so that they end up part of society.
That’s a completely selfish statement. My middle-class, middle-aged lifestyle is far better served by Nathaniel Abrahams with a stake in the system than it would be by more desperate, resentful, unskilled former convicts on the streets. This is not, by the way, about coddling criminals. This is just the purest, practical common sense.
Jack: Normally I agree with you. I appreciate your common--or not so common--sense. But I'll bet 99% of criminals are mentally deficient. What used to be called stupid. Drug-addled parents, senseless peer-group influence, bad family agencies (which may be an oxymoron). Well, you get my drift. When you have folk who don't care about themselves, they are far less likely to care about others. May their tribe decrease. Thanks.
Danny
Posted by: Danny Rendleman | July 27, 2006 at 02:19 PM