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It
seemed like the perfect solution. Build more prisons and America
would be a safer place. In fact, as the nation's incarceration rate
has quadrupled over the last two decades, the crime rate has fallen
for eight straight years.
But only now are politicians and criminologists beginning to confront
an unexpected consequence of the get-tough-on-crime philosophy that
created the prison-building boom. More prisoners in prison means
that, eventually, more prisoners will be let out.
 Often,
Parole Is One
Stop
on the Way Back to Prison
PART I of 3
By FOX BUTTERFIELD
L OS ANGELES, - This year, a record 600,000 inmates will be released
from state and federal prisons nationwide, up from 170,000 in 1980.
As the former prisoners return, largely to the poor neighborhoods
of large cities, there is mounting evidence that they represent
what some criminologists and prison officials now call the collateral
damage of the prison- building boom.
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Because
states sharply curtailed education, job training and other rehabilitation
programs inside prisons, the newly released inmates are far less likely
than their counterparts two decades ago to find jobs, maintain stable
family lives or stay out of the kind of trouble that leads to more
prison.
Many states have unintentionally contributed to these problems by
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abolishing
early release for good behavior, removing the incentive for inmates
to improve their conduct, the experts say. In addition, parole officers
are quicker to revoke a newly released inmate's parole for minor violations,
like failing a drug test, meaning more inmates are returned to prison
time and again, creating what some experts say is a self-perpetuating
prison class. |
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