Need for Effective Rehabilitation Programs

According to the Citizens United For The Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE) (1998), there are approximately 1.7 million persons in American prisons and jails, a figure that is dramatically up from the 744,000 inmates that were in American jails and prisons in 1985. This increase is said to be the equivalent of 1,075 more inmates each week.

Moreover, CURE (1998) reports that the United States now incarcerates at least six times as many people, per 100,000 population, as most civilized countries. England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Norway, and Japan all incarcerate only between 37 and 100 persons per 100,000. The increased rate of incarceration in the U.S. has created a massive prison industrial complex that absorbs approximately 30 billion dollars per year (Elikan, 1996).

Casarjian (1998) provides a typical prisoner profile, noting that most of inmates are male. Indeed, according to Casarjian, approximately one out of every 25 American males is in prison; for Blacks, this figure rises to one out of every three while for Hispanics, the number is one out of every eight males.

About 66 percent of these prisoners have been incarcerated for alcohol or drug-related offenses. On the average, they are unemployed, under-educated, from broken homes, and have parents and/or siblings who have themselves served time. In general, about 94 percent of prisoners will eventually be out of the streets. And, according to Casar

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th an basic adult education component (e.g., tutoring in high school subjects, GED preparation, ESOL courses) and a job skills component consisting of courses in direct job skills (e.g., computer training) and in related skills such as job-readiness skills, decision-making skills, and so forth. It is further noted that many companies are now hiring inmates as part of occupational efforts. Inmates receive only minimum wage payment for any of these jobs but, as a result, are provided with training by the staff of major corporations. It should be noted that while many of these occupational programs have been found to be associated with greatly reducing recidivism, there is an ever-growing controversy concerning them. In this regard, unions feel that such programs should be stopped. For example, the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of American (UE) (1997) states that such programs are merely ways for large corporations to exploit a large pool of cheap labor. Noting that more than 100 companies have already contracted out the use of thousands of prisoners in at least 29 states, the UE (1997) reports that one consequence of such programs has been to reduce the number of union employees in firms such as Boeing, Austin E

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