Human Imperfection, Teboho Kibe [read a book .txt] 📗

the chief purpose of prisons should be to reform or rehabilitate prisoners. As late as 1970, former U.S. President Nixon’s Task Force on Prisoner Rehabilitation concluded that programs of prisoner rehabilitation should become a central feature of future prison policies.

But recently rehabilitation efforts have run into criticism. This sudden shift in viewpoint should interest us.

What About Rehabilitation?

A headline in The National Observer of January 4, 1975, said: “After 150 Years of Trying to Rehabilitate Criminals, even Reformers Concede that . . . REFORM IS A FLOP.”

Science noted: “The disillusionment with ‘rehabilitation,’ at least in its present forms, has been so deep that it has caused many prominent social scientists and penologists to abandon cherished philosophies in a matter of a few years.”—May 23, 1975.

Newsweek concluded: “The growing consensus among prison professionals seems to be that . . . the essential function of a penal system must become the punishment by confinement of the criminal and the protection of society from his misdeeds.”—February 10, 1975.

I’m wholly in favour of a renewed emphasis on protecting society from criminals. The mayor of Wilmington, Delaware, Thomas Maloney, was, unfortunately, accurate when he said: “Citizens are now the prisoners in their homes, with chains, locks, bars and grates while the criminals are on the outside, roaming about free.”

Many would applaud a shift to a primary concern for the rights of law-abiding victims of crime. It seems clear that the failure to make wrongdoers responsible for their acts has only made them more confirmed criminals. Of course, this raises a big question: Is it possible to punish the growing number of wrongdoers by means of prison sentences?

The Problem of Where to Put Them

The fact is, efforts to crack down on crime already have flooded United States prisons. From January 1973 to January 1977 the population in just the federal and state prisons in the United States leaped 45 percent, from 195,000 to 283,000! The Wall Street Journal reports: “Most states already have crammed inmates into every nook and cranny of existing prisons. Convicts are sleeping on ledges above toilets, in shower rooms and in gymnasiums.”—July 20, 1976.

In addition to the large federal and state prisons, there are thousands of county and city prisons. The New York Times of June 1976 said that 60,000 men and women spend time in New York city’s eight prisons each year. And one criminologist says that more than two million persons annually pass through United States prisons!

The problem becomes overwhelming when you consider that over 10 million serious crimes are reported to the police each year well—over 30 million in the past three years! There simply are not enough facilities to hold all the wrongdoers, even the ones the authorities are able to apprehend. And already the cost to taxpayers is staggering.

The New York Times of September 1976 stated that it costs “about $12,000 per inmate per year merely for custodial care in New York prisons.” At that rate, it comes to a $3-billion yearly bill just to keep the 250,000 inmates in federal and state prisons! And for building new prisons, the construction costs reportedly will run as much as $40,000 per prisoner!

The prison problem is indeed a big one, especially in view of the prediction by one prison expert that there could be 400,000 inmates in federal and state prisons by the mid-1980’s. What’s the answer?

Desirability of Rehabilitation

Let’s face it. All of us would be glad to see criminals reform and become law-abiding, useful citizens. And such changes by individuals aren’t impossible, despite the failure of most in-prison rehabilitation programs. It’s just that, as Norman Carlson, director of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, recently said: “Rehabilitation has been oversold as a concept. . . . we’re now aware of the fact that we can’t rehabilitate anybody—we can just provide opportunities for them.” So,I’m personally convinced that the providing of right opportunities will serve to motivate certain criminals to change.

Can prisons serve only as places of punishment, or can they also be successful centers of rehabilitation? A United States congressional subcommittee that studied this question recently concluded that prisons have failed utterly as a means of rehabilitating offenders. Some experts estimate that as many as four out of five inmates again turn to crime when they leave prison. So it is not surprising that prison officials such as Raymond K. Procunier, chief of the California prison system, say that prisons in their present form should be eliminated. Procunier explained recently:

“Society’s concepts about prisons make no sense at all. We’re charged with conflicting responsibilities—keeping convicted felons away from the ‘good people’ and, at the same time, in the unbelievably unnatural society that prevails in prison, rehabilitating them.” And this simply cannot be done, Procunier emphasizes.

What Is Needed

C. Murray Henderson, Warden of the huge Angola State Penitentiary, is one of those prison officials who believe a more natural climate is vital for the successful rehabilitation of inmates. “I think that prisons have for too long operated in an aura of secrecy,” he explained recently to a representative of Awake! “We have not let the taxpayers know what our real problems and needs are. Of course, we always need money, but I think more than that we need people to work with prisoners, someone they can identify with.”

Therefore, Warden Henderson explained: “We’ve always tried to have as open a prison as possible. We’ve tried to encourage people to come in, because we think that one of the main problems with prisons is that you isolate the man from the very values that you want him to incorporate. We don’t want this to happen. We want to have contact with outside people, particularly people that we feel will have a wholesome, beneficial effect on the prisoners.”

Elayn Hunt, head of the Louisiana State Department of Corrections, expressed similar views. In fact, she noted that from the time her children were infants she took them into the prisons where she worked. And prisoners viewed this, she said, as one of the greatest gifts she could give them because it was an evidence of her trust in them.

Thus, in keeping with this policy of exposing prisoners to wholesome public influences, Angola officials welcomed Jehovah’s witnesses to work with the inmates. The Witnesses are noted for their success in helping persons to reform their lives. In fact, United Methodist minister Dean M. Kelly observed that, while the traditional churches have been ineffectual in doing this, Jehovah’s witnesses are “redeeming criminals and drug addicts in our society.” What has occurred in Angola again demonstrates the success of their work.

How the Program Began

Back in 1973 there were two Angola prisoners, unknown to each other, who were studying the Bible by mail with Jehovah’s witnesses. Coincidentally, each prisoner about the same time wrote the Watchtower Society’s headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, asking for someone to visit him in prison. The Watchtower Society, in turn, notified a Witness in the nearby New Roads Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

In the meantime, these prisoners began talking to other inmates about the Bible truths they were learning. At the same time, other men in the huge prison were beginning to recognize their spiritual need. For example, there was a young inmate whose mother and brothers and sisters in Wichita, Kansas, were Witnesses. He explains:

“My entire life was falling apart, and I was finally caught and sentenced to three years in prison. The third day in prison I was attacked by two men trying to make a homosexual out of me. They beat me so badly I was hospitalized for over a month. I became very depressed because I knew I had done a lot of wrong in my life and it all seemed to be coming back on me. I prayed and finally wrote to my mother for help.

“She came all the way down to visit me. Later she told me that she prayed to Jehovah that she might find a Witness who would come into the prison to help me. While standing at the prison gate her purse was open and The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life book was in it. A man standing nearby looked down and said, ‘Are you a Witness?’ Mom’s prayer had been answered, for the man was a Witness going into the prison to contact prisoners to arrange for Bible study meetings.”

In time, arrangements were made to bring the various interested inmates together at a central place in the prison for regular meetings. This took considerable effort since Angola is a vast 18,000-acre complex composed of a number of different camps. But eventually two regular meetings a week were arranged, and the number of inmates attending kept increasing from an initial half dozen or so to fifty and more.

Remarkable Transformations

As the prisoners’ appreciation grew for God’s purpose to usher in His righteous new system of things, many made radical changes in their lives. (2 Pet. 3:13, 14) Not only did this involve a reformation in moral conduct, but the men also devoted themselves to helping fellow prisoners learn about God’s purposes. They would, for instance, conduct Bible studies with them during their recess breaks, rather than take part in recreational activities. Prison officials were impressed by these remarkable changes in life-styles, leading to an unusual development.

The activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses has resulted in the complete rehabilitation of many prisoners. It would be wrong to assume that a person is indecent or immoral simply because he is not acquainted with Bible truths. While it is often true that those who have been in prison return to a life of crime once they are released, those who have truly accepted the message of God’s Word have changed completely. Their transformation reminds us of the words of the apostle Paul: “Neither fornicators . . . , nor thieves, nor greedy persons, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit God’s kingdom. And yet that is what some of you were. But you have been washed clean, but you have been sanctified, but you have been declared righteous in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the spirit of our God.”—1 Corinthians 6:9-11.

One of 1974’s summer’s sixty-nine “Divine Purpose” District Assemblies of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the United States was scheduled for Baton Rouge, about sixty miles from Angola. A highlight of each such assembly is the baptism, where individuals symbolize by water immersion that they have dedicated their lives to serve Jehovah God. Permission was requested for eight of the prisoners to attend the Baton Rouge assembly to be baptized.

After considerable deliberation, prison officials granted permission. A local sheriff kindly agreed to arrange to take the men to the Assembly Center at Louisiana State University, where some 14,000 persons were in attendance. What a heartwarming occasion that proved to be! As the prisoners, with their ankle chains and handcuffs, entered the large auditorium the vast audience rose and applauded. They were simply overjoyed that these men had now conformed their lives to God’s righteous requirements.

Eight more inmates were baptized at an assembly held right inside Angola Prison in October 5, 1974. In the spring of 1975 more inmates, who have also met the Scriptural requirements, were baptized at an even larger prison assembly!

Prison officials have even granted permission to hold Bible studies with men on death row. And at least one of these men also has progressed to the point where he hopes to be baptized at the next assembly.

Not the Only Prison

In other prisons, too, Jehovah’s witnesses have enjoyed success in rehabilitating inmates. Bible studies, for instance, have been conducted at the Burgaw, North Carolina, State Prison Unit.

In Norfolk Prison, Norfolk, Massachusetts, an in-prison Bible study program has been in operation for years. Prison officials provided a room in a school for the inmates to use for their meetings. An inmate, who has recently been released, explains:

“The local Witnesses from the Franklin, Massachusetts, congregation came in every other Saturday afternoon to conduct meetings in our schoolroom. They would give a Bible talk and fellowship for about two hours. On Saturday mornings we interested inmates would go from unit to unit with