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A Fatal Flaw
Ned Rollo - OPEN, INC.
Since 1798, the overriding
mission of adult corrections in America has been to “maintain
the safe and orderly operation” of the correctional process and its
web of policies and procedures. Treatment
provision to offenders has been little more than a token, ancillary and ill
funded appendage, with less than five percent of the correctional dollar
applied to anything which relates to “human development.”
Three years ago the
correctional industry “awoke” to the long-ignored reality that
millions of men and women are exiting prison and most are failing. “Failure” defined as
“recidivism” or return to the criminal justice system. Based on this one-dimensional measure,
the nature of an ex-con’s success is defined as the mere
“absence of failure.”
Such a primitive perspective is immediately inappropriate in real
life terms because “success” is comprised of infinitely more
than can be gauged by the myopic objective of simply “not going back
to prison!”
In human terms,
“success” is no different for a drug addict than for the
President of General Motors. It is a
process of positive growth and achievement linked to results valued by the
individual in concert with his or her community. Such an “unfolding” springs
from a mix of pro-social values supported by constructive action and an
expanding sense of achievement. Therefore, any meaningful measure of
post-release success should be acknowledged as a far more complex
undertaking than simply not going back to prison! In this regard, a primary function of
the correctional process is to enhance the client’s will and ability
to operate as a value-added social unit---as a whole, healthy,
contributive human being.
This demands a
paradigm shift from the long-standing mind set of raw human control
“by any means necessary” to a product-directed philosophy and
style of management consistent with promoting human development. This in turn requires a base of
consistent, high quality service provision!
Not the ineffectual, haphazard farce we’ve called
“treatment” for two centuries.
Rather a wisdom-based approach founded on creative vision,
competency and, above all, the ethical determination to do right!
But why are we
faced with needing to enact such core change in the way we do business?
Above all because the adult correctional process is a 100% political
animal. As such it operates by
pandering to the lowest level of public consciousness, which subjectively
interprets treatment provision to offenders as a de facto “reward for
criminality.” Based on this
mindset, meaningful service to “criminals” is anathema,
resulting in our historic reluctance to give more than lip service to
provision of effective treatment.
Catering to this
subjective, punitive perspective acts in diametric opposition to what is
required to both “reduce failure” and “promote
success.” Far worse, it is a
precipitating cause of the very “high risk behavior” it
hypocritically bemoans!! The most
insidious and counter-productive aspect of contemporary corrections is that
it constitutes a “culture” which serves to exacerbate the
anti-social perspective and behavior of its charges. As such, the correctional process itself
stands as the greatest single barrier to promoting “successful reentry.” And until this well spring of systematic
alienation is acknowledged and rectified, debate over how to “enhance
successful re-entry” of convicts is little more than a cruelty joke.
Why? Because “re-entry” exists downstream
from years of cumulative abuses under the iron hand of the same punitive
system which, while breaking its own rules with impunity, demands that
inmates “cage their rage” and correct their “criminal
thinking.” This blatant hypocrisy must be openly addressed and
resolved before there can be any hope of improvement in the end product of
the punishment industry.
You
see, we cannot focus on “re-entry” without taking up the matter
of a “positive product” --- and that cannot be done without
coming to grips with the ramifications of cause and effect across the
board. In the end, the most valuable
outcome of the reentry debate will be the moment of truth when we openly
acknowledge our double-standard and adopt the same level of responsible
values and conduct we so forcefully demand of adjudicated felons!
Copyright V.N. Rollo, Jr. 2003
All rights reserved
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