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Show Ramsey Clark assails prisons Former U.S. Attorney General , m(ev Clark charges in the Member Playboy that the ",ion's prisons are "warehouses ; human degradation" that have ied completely to rehabilitate minals. Clark writes in "When Punishment Punish-ment is Crime" that "the use of prisons to punish only causes crime...It is one of the greatest ironies of our time that, concerned con-cerned as we are about crime, we so neglect the one area within the whole system of criminal justice that offers the best opportunity to cut the crime rate. The most important crime statistic is that 80 percent of all felonies are committed by repeaters." Clark argues that the idea of punishment must be dropped in favor of rehabilitation if we ever hope to reduce our crime rate. The theory of rehabilitation is based on the belief that healthy, rational people will not injure others," he says. "Rehabilitated, an individual will not have the capacity - will not be able to bring himself - to injure another nor to take or to destroy property." pro-perty." Clark points out that human itarian considerations aside, it is our own selfish advantage to implement im-plement reforms because of the appalling cost of our present prison system. The keystone to any rehabilitation system, according to the author, is the indeterminate sentence, which sets a maximum limit on a prison term but no minimum. The prisoner is released whenever competent com-petent authorities judge him ready. |
