Reinventing Criminal Justice

We have often discussed, here at MOJ, the purposes and justifications of punishment.  So, readers and bloggers might be interested in this essay, from the Washington Post, called "Reinventing Criminal Justice", discussing a bill called the "Second Chance Act" that is working its way through Congress.  The author writes:

Over the past several years, a large segment of the public seems to have warmed to the idea [of rehabilitation]. According to a national survey commissioned by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2001, 40 percent of Americans believe that the primary purpose of prison should be rehabilitation rather than punishment, deterrence or maintaining public safety.

As noble as this preference may be, it is based on the common misconception that effective rehabilitation programs exist and merely need to be expanded. Unfortunately, the reality is that most of the state and federally funded interventions in use have never been evaluated, and the few rigorous assessments that have been published in journals of psychology and criminology show that these traditional rehabilitation programs have no lasting effect.

As a psychologist who studies offender interventions, I hope that, as lawmakers begin to survey the evidence to inform their decisions, they will give attention to the data showing that the more certain an offender is that he will be caught and (swiftly) punished for the next crime he commits, the less likely he is to follow through on that criminal act. In fact, the certainty and swiftness of being caught and penalized appear to be more important than the severity of the punishment.