I'm talking about behavior modification. They don't have to like it but some (not all, I agree) can be motivated to work. There is a lot worse punishment available than sitting on their butt in jail being feed while you and I support their families and pay for their crimes.
What did you find dislusional? That we not only provide high quality basketball courts, or that we give them music instruments that they in turn can turn in to weapons...guitar strings make excellent garrot wire.
Bidinotto does EXCELLENT research. I could post what is written in Tennessee inmate handbooks. I've got two of them.
further excerpts from the RD article
Socializing with the outside world is also a feature of prison life. In Louisiana, the Angola prison Drama Club players (whose president is a convicted murderer) visits colleges and theaters. On the grounds of the Penitentiary of New Mexico near Santa Fe, some 1200 inmates and their guest whoop it up at the annual "Outta Joint" picnic. At last year's festivities, they were entertained by a clown, a puppet show, a political satire performance and eight bands.
Last March 19, in the $2 Million visitor' center at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Norfolk, the Lifers Group held its annual "Lifers Banquet." Some 33 convicts, mostly murderers, and 49 invited guests enjoyed catered prime rib dinners.
"Inmates are sent here as punishment, not for punishment, says Joseph T. Smith, Deputy Superintendent for Programs at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in New York State. In truth, nothing seems too much for society's predators.
How did the pendulum swing so far from the austere, even harsh conditions of the past? John J. DiIulio, a prominent political scientist at Princeton University who has studied and written about prisons for 15 years, explains: "Prisons used to emphasize inmate discipline and forced labor, and wardens ruled the cellblocks with an iron fist. Beginning in the 1960s, federal judges ruled only that prisoners were entitled to nutritious meals, basic health services and protection against arbitrary discipline at the hands of guards. But a number of federal judges went beyond such reasonable reforms and began ordering that prisoners be provided with expensive, untested treatment programs and a wide range of recreational opportunities regardless of the cost.
Last year, the Boston Globe reported, Massachusetts set up a Correctional Recovery Academy in its state prisons at a price tag of $1000 per inmate. A major component was yoga.
At the Dade Correctional Institution near Miami, members of the Inmates' Cultural Club have developed a taste for opera. Prison librarian Rolando Valdes obtained a series of federal grants and purchased a 50 inch TV and laser disc equipment. Each Saturday night, he conducts opera appreciation classes in the prison library. Funded by another government grant, several inmates have even written their own opera, El Caido-a tale of a prisoner who rehabilitates himself. Says co-composer Elton Edwards, a "lifer" convicted of murdering a home owner during a robbery, "its been great therapy for us."
Therapy for mental health, aggressive behavior, domestic violence, sex offenses and substance abuse has grown into a prison cottage industry. Yet after decades of attempting behavior modification, the overall results of rehabilitation and therapy are meager. When asked by Reader's Digest how many sex offenders he has rehabilitated in his years on the job one New York State prison counselor bluntly responded, "None."
Inmates, for their part, are not fools: participation in education and therapy can chip time off their terms. "The saying among inmates is 'get a program,' says criminologist Charles Logan of the University of Connecticut. "They know that it will help with the parole board."
Studies by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics have shown that between 60-70 percent of inmates revert to crime after release. (My note: current recidivisim rate is 68% according to the BJS) A model federal prison at Butner, N.C. applied every known rehabilitation technique to inmates for over a decade. The results: no reduction in recidivism and no improvement in convicts' employment prospects.
After extensive study of prison rehabilitation criminologist Logan concludes: "Despite claims to the contrary, no type of treatment has been effective in rehabilitating criminals or preventing future criminal behavior."