PRISONS CANNOT REHABILITATE CRIMINALS

Most people want to believe prisons serve to rehabilitate criminals. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the early days of our country with its religiosity, lawbreakers were imprisoned to do penance for their sins - hence the name penitentiary - but today's society is a far cry from that period in our history. Now, jails and prisons exist to punish those who chose to break our laws and to protect society from those who do.

Prisons do not rehabilitate criminals. Even though that is what we want, prisons cannot rehabilitate anyone because they are a highly structured institutional society. In the totalitarian nature of prisons, inmates are directed when to get up and go to bed, when to shit, shave and shower, when and what to eat, and when, where and how to move about. In the prison society, its members are not responsible for providing themselves with food, shelter, clothing and medical attention.

When inmates are released after several years in prison, they find it hard to adjust to an unstructured free world society. Unless they have the availability of half-way houses and close parole supervision, they are not likely to fend for themselves like the rest of us. Inmates who have been incarcerated for many years become so institutionalized that they fear being released from prison.

There have been many cases where inmates only a few days away from being released have attempted to escape knowing full-well they will be captured and sentenced to serve additonal time. There have also been cases of elderly long-term inmates refusing parole or pleading with the authorities to allow them to remain in prison upon completion of their sentences.

If prisons cannot rehabilitate criminals, then what can they do other than to warehouse inmates? They can and should provide the tools which will enable an inmate to rehabilitate himself once he has been released into the free world. Those tools should include a literacy program, a GED and higher education program, addiction treatment, psychotherapy (if deemed appropriate), tattoo removal and work skills training. Even with such programs in place, California still experiences a recidivism rate of around 50 percent.

Without gainful employment, an ex-convict will have little chance of staying out of prison. That is why tattoo removal is very important. Visible tattoos, especially those commonly obtained in prisons, are largely responsible for preventing ex-cons from obtaining the jobs they so desparately need to make it in the free world.

The work training programs in prison must be offered only for the kind of jobs which are in high demand. For example, many prisons offer inmates upholstery training. Umless the inmate is going to be released to a state which has a large furniture manufacturing industry, that program is absolutely worthless. Most upholstery businesses are small family (mom, pop and son) operations which provide few, if any, employment opportunities for an outsider.

Employers must stop making it difficult for ex-cons to rehabilitate themselves. Employers generally lobby to prevent the establishment of prison industries and training programs which could compete with the private sector. When California prison officials tried to start up new programs in which inmates could obtain a state barber or beautician liscense, private schools successfully lobbied against the establishment of these programs.

Because employment is absolutely essential to the successful rehabilitation of criminals, employers must be more willing to take chances on hiring ex-cons. Unemployment is one of the leading causes of recidivism. All the prison training programs and tattoo removals will have been in vain when ex-cons are unable to obtain gainful employment. Since those released from prison are said to have paid their debt to society, society must ensure that ex-cons are given a real chance to lead productive lives in the free world.