Wednesday, April 09, 2008
U. S. SHIFTING PRISON FOCUS TO RE-ENTRY INTO SOCIETY
The New York Times reports U.S. Shifting Prison Focus to Re-entry Into Society. With the imminent passage of the "Second Chance Act," the federal government is retreating slightly from the “get tough” laws enacted in the 1970s and ’80s, which placed more emphasis on punishment than on rehabilitation and resulted in federal and state governments spending billions of dollars to build prisons. The article notes:
The New York Times reports U.S. Shifting Prison Focus to Re-entry Into Society. With the imminent passage of the "Second Chance Act," the federal government is retreating slightly from the “get tough” laws enacted in the 1970s and ’80s, which placed more emphasis on punishment than on rehabilitation and resulted in federal and state governments spending billions of dollars to build prisons. The article notes:
The new push to help prisoners reintegrate into society has been driven in part by financial concerns: states cannot afford to keep building more prisons. It also reflects concern for the victims of repeat offenders and for the wasted lives of the offenders themselves, who are disproportionately black and from neighborhoods of concentrated poverty.
