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8 - The Birth of the Penal Organization: Why Prisons Were Born to Fail

from Part II - Court Reform on Trial

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 April 2019

By
Ashley T. Rubin
Edited by
Rosann Greenspan ,
Hadar Aviram  and
Jonathan Simon
Rosann Greenspan
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
Hadar Aviram
Affiliation:
University of California, Hastings College of the Law
Jonathan Simon
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
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Summary

A recurring question for students of punishment has been: why, despite more than “one and a half centuries of failure” (Cohen 1979: 341), has the prison persisted? Throughout history, reformers, politicians, voters, and others have assigned prisons myriad tasks associated with crime reduction – various incarnations of rehabilitation, deterrence, and incapacitation. After every significant reform effort, prisons have disappointed. In the 1970s, prisons were accused of failing to rehabilitate (Martinson 1974; Allen 1981), or potentially making prisoners worse through the process of labeling (Becker 1963).

Type
Chapter
Information
The Legal Process and the Promise of Justice
Studies Inspired by the Work of Malcolm Feeley
 , pp. 152 - 171
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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