Summary
Perhaps the most vexing problem facing the criminal justice system in the US today is how to deal with offenders who have "paid their debt to society" and are released from a structured correctional setting back into the community. Rarely does society lock up a person and "throw away the key." Here, Allender discusses the American criminal justice system and penology in connection to the social implications of offender reentry into the society.
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Extract
Offender Reentry: A Returning or Reformed Criminal?
Perhaps the most vexing problem facing the criminal justice system in the United States today is how to deal with offenders who have "paid their debt to society" and are released from a structured correctional setting back into the community. Rarely does society lock up a person and "throw away the key." Instead, 95 percent of all offenders sent to state prison facilities will be released and returned to the civilian population. 'How to address this situation has more important consequences for society than the ongoing debate about whether a prison sentence should be punitive or treatment oriented. While incarcerated, the offender, at the very least, is "warehoused" away for the protection of the general public. Upon release, however, the community will be confronted, based on policy decisions made and implemented, by either a returning criminal or a reformed offender.
American PenologyConcern for the real purpose behind a court-imposed sentence in response to a criminal offense is not a new feature on the American political landscape. Rather, the debate goes back to the earliest period of this country's existence. A brief look at the history of penology in this country can confirm this observation. In 1787, Benjamin Franklin's Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, home was the site for the first meeting of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries o...See the full content of this document
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