The Dilemma of Prison Reform

By Thomas O. Murton

From the Preface: “One might reasonably ask, "Why study the prison?" Most penologists would respond with statistics indicating that 95 percent of prison inmates ultimately return to the street. The more astute observer would avow that all inmates except those who die in the prison system will return one day to the free society. Self- preservation would dictate that concern for oneself should inspire the citizen to take a personal interest in reforming the prison.

Furthermore, perhaps one should examine the quandary in which the penologists find themselves in attempting to implement the various mandates imposed on the prison administrator. The warden is charged with the responsibility of concurrently instituting the philosophies of punishment, deterrence, retribution, incapacitation, and rehabilitation. But there may be an even more basic reason to become informed about the prison: if one wishes to study a culture and to understand it, attention should be focused on the manner in which that society deals with its deviants. The prison is the American society in microcosm.”

USA. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. 1976. 296p. CONTAINS MARK-UP.