Without a Welcome

Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld once said that prisons should be a "tour through the circles of hell," where inmates should learn only "the joys of busting rocks." Since the mid-1970s, as belief in the possibility of rehabilitation waned, this retributive expectation for punishment has exploded into the "justice model" of corrections. Discretionary parole has given way to longer and longer determinate sentences, coupled with an accelerating erosion of reformative prison programs. America is certainly "locking them up": Within three decades, the rate of imprisonment has risen from 110 to 476 prison inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents. But we aren't throwing away the key: 95 percent of all inmates will eventually be released, many with little or no treatment, education, or vocational training. In the last 30 years, the rate of paroling inmates has risen from below 150,000 to more than 600,000 per year.

The United States incarcerates more of its citizens than any other nation, by far. The sheer number of 2 million incarcerated (including county jails)—plus the fact that the majority of prisoners who are paroled come back to prison—highlights a fundamental flaw in our penal sanctions even as it evokes a sense of despair about how it might be changed. The very institutions that society is using to punish and exclude criminals are also playing a critical role in defeating the possibility of offenders redeeming their lives. In When Prisoners Come Home, Joan Petersilia explores the consequences of this runaway get-tough-on-crime train, and she suggests possible solutions to realize a better return on the increasing expense of incarceration.

Petersilia, a professor of criminology at the University of California, Irvine, paints a lucid picture of the American penal landscape. Through insightful analysis of numerous academic and governmental studies and clear presentation of statistical data, she articulates how the shift in U.S. penal policy has failed disastrously to serve the public interest. Central to her thesis is the illustration of how determinate sentencing, which has supplanted discretionary parole in many states, has not only led to soaring prison populations but also results in the automatic release of offenders who have done little or nothing to reform while incarcerated.

WHEN PRISONERS Come Home details the demographic profile of the 600,000 inmates who are paroling from the nation's prisons each year. They are "largely uneducated, unskilled, and usually without solid family supports—and now they have the added stigma of a prison record and the distrust and fear that it inevitably elicits," she writes. As prison populations have soared in some states to nearly double capacity, reformative programs have dwindled under the triple assault of insufficient funding, disbelief in the possibility of rehabilitation, and the visceral attitude that criminals should suffer not only by incarceration but also through the conditions of their imprisonment.

Petersilia's proposals for reform aim to redirect limited resources toward a more rational penal policy, recognizing that current penal practices are neither reducing recidivism nor effectively protecting society. Her four major areas of suggested reform are to: 1) alter the in-prison experience by promoting life skills rather than anti-social behavior; 2) reinstitute discretionary parole according to defined, contemporary guidelines; 3) target parole services and surveillance with better systems to classify high-need and high-risk inmates; 4) foster collaboration between all stakeholders in the criminal justice system to support reintegration of offenders into society.

When Prisoners Come Home is a valuable resource for social justice activists who oppose the growing prison-industrial complex. It is particularly effective at communicating the real-world consequences of penal policies that have been driven by political motivations and special interests. Petersilia dispels the myth that communities are truly being protected by locking offenders up for longer terms in prisons that provide fewer, or no, rehabilitative programs. Ultimately, these prisoners will come home, and the critical question for public safety is whether a "tour through the circles of hell" will produce contrite citizens or disenfranchised demons.