Today's Poll: Should prisons be focused on rehabilitation or punishment?

You are sent to prison as punishment, not for punishment.

John, could you expand on this? Given your experience in corrections, your opinion would be of special interest. What is the role for rehabilitation, and how effective is it in the context of incarceration?

You send people to prison as punishment. They are locked away and many freedoms are limited. But you do not send them to prison to be punished (abused, beaten, etc). The idea of rehabilitation is good, but in my opinion, has not worked in New York. The prison school system states every inmate must earn a GED. But in fact, that is not enforced. And there is no system to monitor if academic teachers are effective. Some inmates sit at the same grade level for years. Some vocational training is useful, such as welding, small engine repair and plumbing. They are skills that are in demand and that many employers are willing to hire ex convicts for if they can do the job. Others, like radio and TV repair are out of date and a waste of money in today's job market (when was the last time you took a TV in for repair?). The official State drug and alcohol abuse programs are less than effective. All the inmate really has to do is sit in class and behave. At the end of the 6 month program, he/she gets a certificate and the State says that's all that is required.

Well said, John and you're only touching the surface.

Assuming that most prisoners will leave prison, when they return to the outside world should they be better than they went in, worse than they went in or the same? "Between 2011 and 2013, DOCCS said 42 percent of parolees were taken back into custody — 32 percent for violating the terms of parole and 9 percent for committing a new felony."