The American Prison System: Punishment Or Rehabilitation?

Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa and philanthropist, once said: ¨It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.¨ This quote is especially true in America. The American prison system focuses on punishment, not rehabilitation. In a way, it is like a glorified time-out. People are kept locked up for months or years, contributing nothing significant to the world, with restrictions placed on their freedom. We treat our ´lowest´ citizens like children. This method is robbing our country of very capable and useful people and costing our country money. Furthermore, it is not useful. Many citizens return

As a result, many released prisoners return to prison soon after being released. According to an article by James Gilligan, a professor of psychology at New York University, ¨two-thirds of prisoners reoffend within three years of leaving prison, often with a more serious or violent attempt.¨ According to Gilligan, ¨we need to start recognizing the difference between punishment and restraint. When someone is dangerous to themselves or others, we restrain them. The punishment in prisons, however, involves inflicting pain on inmates for revenge or to ´teach them a lesson´. As a result of this, the only thing prisoners learn is to inflict pain on others because humans learn by example.¨ This makes it easy to see that punishment is not the answer. Restraint may be an option, but only if that person poses a danger to either themselves or others. Furthermore, one can extrapolate that we should treat prisoners with even more kindness. After all, people do learn by

As stated before, many prisoners who are not rehabilitated return to prison soon after being released. In order to be given a sentence, they must commit a crime-- something that endangers other people. Therefore, our country is less safe when un-rehabilitated prisoners run amuk. Gilligan mentions that ¨the majority of those prisoners who reoffend do so with a more serious and violent crime than they were originally guilty of.¨ This could be the result of a variety of factors, including anger as the result of incarceration and poor treatment and the ideas spread among inmates within prisons. Either way, it is certainly not good for the American population. Rehabilitation can stop this cycle by teaching prisoners healthier ways to interact with the world and help them create a new sense of identity. Instead of seeing themselves as ´bad´ or ´criminals´, which perpetuates the belief that they have few choices but to commit crimes, they can see themselves as worthy of change and a better