What About Rehabilitation?

A headline in The National Observer of January 4, 1975, said: “After 150 Years of Trying to Rehabilitate Criminals, even Reformers Concede that . . . REFORM IS A FLOP.”

Science noted: “The disillusionment with ‘rehabilitation,’ at least in its present forms, has been so deep that it has caused many prominent social scientists and penologists to abandon cherished philosophies in a matter of a few years.”​—May 23, 1975.

Let’s face it. All of us would be glad to see criminals reform and become law-abiding, useful citizens. And such changes by individuals aren’t impossible, despite the failure of most in-prison rehabilitation programs. It’s just that, as Norman Carlson, director of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, recently said: “Rehabilitation has been oversold as a concept. . . . we’re now aware of the fact that we can’t rehabilitate anybody​—we can just provide opportunities for them.”