rug conviction and who, even though she earned an AA degree while in prison and got paroled early from a 20-plus sentence, was prevented from reentering society on an equal basis: "By law, former prisoners in some states may be denied public housing, student loans, a driver's license, parental rights, welfare benefits, certain types of jobs, as well as the right to vote" (Gonnerman, 2004, p. 9).
The most salient issue in corrections is therefore how to clarify the social and cultural purposes of imprisonment, so as to avoid the unintended consequences of poor imprisonment policy. The warehouse/punishment concept, full of rules, actually depletes prisoner's life-coping skills (Irwin, 2005, p. 157). There is also the issue of the "new ghetto" of the criminal black underclass whose members are in a permanent cycle of poverty, lack of education, and criminality. Even though in 2001 "one-third of young black males were either in prison, in jail, or on parole or probation" (Irwin, 2005, p. 239), inner-city crime has not decreased. Thus society in gener
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