Corrections_Today_January_February_2020_Vol.82_No.1

Communications & Publications

concerned regarding underlying theory of why someone committed a crime, and more aligned with making sure the criminal follows the rules and is maintained safely for the duration of his or her confinement. But this is not to say those working in prison should not have a basic understanding of the various theories of why people commit crimes. If nothing else, a study of the various theories might provide an understanding that everyone is different and their reasons for committing crimes are different. However, I find little information in the different theories on why prisons fail. The discussion of the history of prisons in the United States is illustrative and, in some cases, provides insight as to why prisons fail, such as the solitary confinement practiced in the Pennsylvania system and the discussion of the reason and the reality of the death of rehabilitation. It’s worth reading for sure, but again, except to document how they impact the growth of confinement in this country, the overwhelming philosophy of punishment and the death of rehabilitation, they do not actually philosophy which is described, in part, in Chapter 4 would provide for a better understanding that suggests prisons were not designed to succeed. And subsequently, if American prisons are not designed to succeed, how can this change? illustrate how prisons fail. A discussion of the punitive

The next chapter of the book describes in large part how other countries punish, and it is of great value. In fact, I recently visited the North Dakota State Penitentiary and found their work in importing the practices they found from visiting Norwegian prisons impressive, most particularly by the way they treated adults in custody as someone who has to pay their debt to society, but the debt is not ruled by the desire to punish more than necessary to meet the goals of confinement. While I have never been there, prisons in Norway are open campus-type facilities and this is in converse to the North Dakota State Penitentiary. But a building does not make a philosophy, the implementation by leadership does. While I am not sure the Norway system would work for those who are extremely violent, I am confident the context of accountability rather than punitive action should be examined. It is clear that Americans like to punish and all four aspects of punitive merit review, from legal to judicial, to operational and to local punishment. Those who opine that punitive action is good do so emphasizing the rule of law. I would have preferred the text describe in detail how punitive action works to undermine accountability for one’s actions and enhancement to punish. I have always found persons who have accepted accountability for actions and work on developing strategies to maintain that accountability to be

much less likely to return to prison than those who go through the motions, even taking programs to help better themselves. We talk about incapacitation, retribution, restorative justice, deterrence and rehabilitation as reasons to punish, but we spend very little time on determining how to punish. The book has a unique opportunity to explore the reasons of how to punish. Such a discussion might go a long way in the discussion of why prisons fail. But a building does not make a philosophy, the implementation by leadership does. We in America live in a “Mean World Syndrome,” where we believe crime is rampant. The media does little to dissuade such belief. “If it bleeds, it leads” is real, and this leads to a perception of fear. As Jonathan Simon says in “Governing Through Crime,” “To be for the people, legislators must be for victims and law enforcement, and thus they must never be for criminals or prisoners as individuals or a class.” This is a social realization which adds to extraneous punishment and overcriminalization to suggest just two, and while the book discusses this, there is little linkage to why they lead to overincarceration and the rationale of why prisons are not for the

56 — January/February 2020 Corrections Today