Rehabilitation vs retribution

Which better serves justice?

Is justice served if incarcerated individuals’ time in prison doesn’t serve the purpose of rehabilitation?

Marc Howard explains in his book, “Unusually Cruel: Prisons, Punishment and the Real American Exceptionalism,”that prisons were originally established to serve the dual function of punishment and rehabilitation. But somewhere during the nation’s “war on crime,” the system stopped focusing on the rehabilitation part of the equation and instead emphasized retribution — often to the exclusion of the other. The result is a subculture of mostly black and brown people who feel left behind and ostracized by society, leaving them ill-prepared to reenter society upon release. This is important, because if we are serious about our ultimate goal of ensuring public safety, we must think really hard about how we treat and educate our incarcerated population of 2.3 million.

In “Equipping Individuals for Life Beyond Bars,” Monique Ositelu states that 94 percent of incarcerated people will one day be released from prison — an average of 700,000 a year. Yet most will leave without the necessary education and skills to earn a legal, livable income. This is in…