The main purpose of a prison sentence is to reform the offender Free Essay Example, 1250 words

In a summary report released a year prior to the publication of the research study, Martinson was categorical with a direct satirical attack on the reform process of prison offenders. Though Martinson’s analysis fell short of the explicit technical phrasing of â€Å"nothing works† assumed by the would-be followers, there was no doubt whatsoever that his inference would be any different. Contrary to the exceedingly exaggerated assumptions, Martinson was careful enough to point out inadequacies of accurate assessment and therapeutic integrity of the programs studied in their research: â€Å"It may be that there is a more radical flaw in our present strategies—that education at its best, or that psychotherapy at its best, cannot overcome, or even appreciably reduce, the powerful tendency for offenders to continue in criminal behavior† (Martinson 49). To be sure, Martinson went to great lengths to distance their research from the claims of â€Å"rehabilitation is a ‘myth’ † often peddled by the seemingly fanatical criminologists and academics (4). Clearly, the firm faith that correctional programs commands from the modern policy makers and their popularity with the American public more than confirms its relevance (Applegate, Cullen, and Fisher 724). We will write a custom essay sample on The main purpose of a prison sentence is to reform the offender or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page As noted by the leading thinkers in reformatory discipline, the society had moved from the past into an era where the infliction of vindictive suffering was no longer a plausible answer (Wines 541). Zebulon Brockway, a pioneer reform advocate, had his thoughts on the same in a strongly worded statement that: â€Å"If punishment, suffering, and degradation are deemed deterrent, if they are the best means to reform the criminal and prevent crime, then let prison reform go backward to the pillory, the whipping-post, the gallows, the stake; to corporal violence and extermination! But if the dawn of Christianity has reached us, if we have learned the lesson that evil is to be overcome with good, then let prisons and prison systems be lighted by this law of love.