Word: prisoner
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...notion that imprisonment corrects criminals is a surprisingly recent idea. Before the 18th century, prisons were mainly used not to punish but to detain the accused or hostages-the debtor until he paid, for example. To combat crime, Europeans castrated rapists, cut off thieves' hands, tore out perjurers' tongues. England boasted 200 hanging offenses. When crime still flourished, reformers argued that overkill punishment is no deterrent. In 1786, the Philadelphia Quakers established incarceration as a humane alternative. Seeking penitence (source of "penitentiary"), the Quakers locked convicts in solitary cells until death or release. So many died or went...
Even humane prison officials are still generally paying mere lip service to "individualized treatment"-the new ideal of curing each prisoner's hang-ups and converting society's misfits to crime-free lives. In progressive prisons, to be sure, guards are taught to break up the inmate culture by friendly communication; inmates are classified in graded groups, promoted for good conduct and hustled toward pa role. Indeed, the average stay today is 21 months; the average lifer exits in 20 years...
...this usually amounts to what Penologist Howard Gill calls "birdshot penology." All the bands, baseball, radios and rodeos cannot gloss the fact that real rehabilitation is rare. Caging still outranks curing; short funds dilute short-stay effectiveness. And prison job-training is a scandal. Federal prisons do well; yet only 17% of released federal inmates find jobs related to their prison work. Most state prisoners get no usable training because business and unions have rammed through laws preventing competition by prison industries. At least one-third of all inmates simply keep the prison clean-or do nothing...
Recent studies comparing Bridgewater with Walpole State Prison have shown that on almost every objective standard, Walpole is far superior. Besides having better physical conditions, prisoners in Walpole know when they will be released. Bridgewater inmates don't have this luxury. The first question for the Bridgewater inmate is, "Will I be released...
...little mercy was in order. It commuted the death sentences of 44 blacks awaiting execution, including four who were within 40 minutes of hanging, to varying terms of imprisonment. Still awaiting word about their fate are 69 others held in the death row of Salisbury's maximum-security prison. Their number swelled at week's end with the sentencing to death of five Africans convicted of entering Rhodesia with "weapons of war"-a newly created capital offense. The gallows, on the other hand, became suddenly unmanned; the government dismissed Rhodesia's only hangman, Edward ("Lofty") Milton, probably...