by Irina Kosyakina
In “Prisons Should Rehabilitate,” Warren E. Burger advocates the fundamental principles of the rehabilitative approach to corrections. Burger claims that a prison system based on such an approach would result in fewer monetary spending by advocating the fact that the current structure of prisons, warehousing, should be replaced with a factory-based arrangement. (Burger 18) Furthermore, aside from lowering the costs of maintaining such a correctional facility, the recidivism rates would also decline, seeing that the criminals would be trained in basic skills. (21) Burger argues that society has a “…moral obligation…” (19) to rehabilitate the inmates before they are released back into society, otherwise they will undoubtedly resort back to the life of crime in order to survive. Moreover, it has been observed that prisoners come out into society more angered and with more problems than they initially began with. Berger blames these problems on the warehousing structure of most prisons, in addition to the growing rate of recidivism. (22)
Burger’s justification for his reasoning comes from his, as well as society’s belief that people who are unemployed have a higher rate of committing crimes than those that are employed. Because these individuals lack basic skills that would guarantee them a moderate-paying job, they resort to the life of crime in order to support either themselves or their families. Federal prison statistics for the year 2006 put drug offenses and robbery as the highest numbers of offenses committed by inmates. This suggests that individuals who resort to these crimes are unable to employ themselves at a decent job, probably because they lack basic skills. Burger suggests that by building factory-based prisons, the inmates would be taught such skills required to earn a decent living the legal way. (21) The weakness of his reasoning is revealed in practice, where ex-prisoners would be denied a job because of their criminal record, even though they possess the necessary basic skills to be employed at a certain company. Thus the recidivism rates would stay at the level at which they are now if society does not change its distrust of ex-cons. Then again, such distrust would diminish when rehabilitative measures would prove themselves successful.
Stephen Chinlund claims that the justice way of corrections is the necessary measure in his article entitled “Prison: Punishment and Resocialization Must Go Together.” Chinlund claims that through this system, both the society’s desire for revenge, and the prisoner’s desire for rehabilitation would be accomplished. (281) Chinlund opens his argument by stating that prisons are designed to accomplish several tasks; to punish the individual for their actions, to deter others from doing a similar crime, to deprive the individual of their freedom, and to rehabilitate the individual in order for them to return back to society. (279-280) Furthermore, Chinlund advocates the fact that rehabilitation should lead to resocialization, but it must be a voluntary process in order for it to be the most successful. (285) Trying to resocialize a criminal who does not want to be would surely be unsuccessful, and even if it does succeed who is to say for how long. Such an individual may break at any time, resulting in a desire to commit more crime, sending him right back to the prison.
Chinlund validates his reasoning in the fact that incarceration by itself is a sufficient form of punishment. Not only does society get its revenge, but also the loss of the individual’s freedom is a harsh reality for them to face. (278) The weakness of such an assumption comes from the fact that not all individuals fear incarceration. Some actually go out into the world committing more crimes in order to feel the secure, predictable atmosphere of their prison cell. Furthermore, Chinlund presumes that harsh jail penalties will deter other individuals from committing crimes. (278) On the other hand, some seek jail time in order to appear superior in front of their peers due to the fact that society has adopted a sort of “coolness” that goes with coming out of prison. This is seen as a more prominent staple in gang societies, where going to jail might as well be one of the association rituals. Nonetheless, the majority of the population fears prison, thus Chinlund, and society, are justified in their reasoning that prison alone is a sufficient form of punishment as well as a good tool of deterrence.