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The Effectiveness of Correctional Rehabilitation

Reconsidering the “Nothing Works” Debate

  • Chapter
The American Prison

Part of the book series: Law, Society and Policy ((LSPO,volume 4))

Abstract

From its inception in the 1820s, the American prison was meant to be more than a sturdy cage of high, thick, stone walls in which the wayward could be restrained. The prison’s founders called their invention a “penitentiary,” a label that embodied their optimism that this carefully planned social institution had the power to reform even the most wicked spirit (Rothman, 1971).

Big time, no rehabilitation, lock ’em up like animals then let them out on society crazed and angry. Shit don’t make no sense but the people cry for punishment and the politicians abide them—can they really be so blind?

Robby Wideman, in Brothers and Keepers (1984:243)

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45221-0108, USA

    Francis T. Cullen

  2. Centracare Saint John Inc., Saint John, New Brunswick, E2M 4H7, Canada

    Paul Gendreau

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  1. Francis T. Cullen
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  2. Paul Gendreau
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Administration of Justice Department, The Pennsylvania State University, 16802, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    Lynne Goodstein

  2. Louisiana State University, 70803, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

    Doris Layton MacKenzie

  3. U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice, 633 Indiana Avenue NW, 20531, Washington, D.C., USA

    Doris Layton MacKenzie

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© 1989 Plenum Press, New York

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Cullen, F.T., Gendreau, P. (1989). The Effectiveness of Correctional Rehabilitation. In: Goodstein, L., MacKenzie, D.L. (eds) The American Prison. Law, Society and Policy, vol 4. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5652-3_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5652-3_3

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