Correctional Change is Always Good

CHANGE can be either good or bad.  It depends.

The young welcome change, they still have plenty of mystery in the world to be surprised by, to explore and be taken in by its wonder.  Still waking up to the world, they welcome the unknown, the uncommon and unconventional.  It’s delightful, even exhilarating.   It’s a new adventure, and kills boredom.  Thus, the young love the outward, forward, external, active movement that change brings them.  It makes them feel alive!  Yes, for them change is good.

Not so for the elderly.  The older we get the less we like it.  Reluctantly and not without a good fight we yield and give way to the inevitable.  We gain weight, sag, lose our 20/20 vision, thin our hair, and wrinkle our faces.  In short, we fall apart.  We age.  And so we grow accustom to our routines, our regularity and depend upon it in a desperate attempt to keep ourselves together.  Not good, this change!

“You’ve changed.  You’re different somehow, in a better way, of course.”  Ever have someone say that to you, hoping in fact that they would notice the change in you?  And they did.  And it made you feel good.  And you were encouraged to keep at it, making things better, righting some wrongs in your life, and perhaps even making amends.  You got the confirmation you were looking for, hoping for.  You’re on the right track.  It’s a wonderful feeling.  That’s a good change!  Let us not confuse outward, external change—of environment, conditions, events, context, situation, or body—with internal, inner change—a change of mood, mind, heart, soul, or spirit.  Whether at fifteen or fifty, child or aged adult, inner change—inner growth, maturity, wisdom, insight, and development of perspective, character, or person—is always good!

We do believe inner change is possible, don’t we—transformation, rehabilitation, revitalization, conversion, awakening, enlightenment, renewal?  Perhaps we’ve experienced it for ourselves.  People do change for the better.  It is possible.  We know.  It’s been done.  We’ve seen it.  Not all, but many.  Not completely, but significantly.  Not always quick or immediate but lastingly and enduringly.  Yes, people do change for the better, from mean to kind, from hateful to loving, from bad to good, from a Scrooge to the nicest, most generous and pleasant neighbor one can ever hope to have.  This is why we believe in “second chances,” isn’t it?

If we really believe this, why are we spending more and more State tax dollars in locking-up so many, many more non-violent criminals in our PA prisons, even while our State economy is so strained?  Why are we not investing these dollars in better means of rehabilitating, correcting, changing, and revitalizing men and women rather than merely housing, feeding, and locking them down, which amounts to only furthering their life of crime afterwards?  Karen Heller wrote an article for The Philadelphia Inquirer entitled, In Pennsylvania, prison still a growth industry (Sunday, 27 June, 2010).  She says, “Pennsylvania leads the nation in people serving life without parole, including almost 450 inmates sentenced as children, which suggest that we believe no one can ever be rehabilitated.”

Our politicians are running around campaigning that their “tough on crime” policies are working, simply because they’re locking up more people and are willing to throw away the key as they do.  Meanwhile we tax payers are paying the stiff price for it but are seeing no real gain, advantage, or success from it.  It’s a politician’s dream come true!  He (or she) gets elected, and receives tons of money for the perception of being effective while supporting a growth industry that caters to him (the developing Prison-complex industry).  But it’s a taxpayer’s worst nightmare: (1) we elect politicians who actually make things worse by inane, simplistic, and shallow policies on a complex issue.  (2) We pore tons of money toward a politician’s cause based on misleading, empty, and ineffective promises.  And (3) our tax dollars are wasted on a money hungry, growing complex business/administrative structure (our PA State Correctional Institute, Prison system—SCI’s) that not only fails to adequately address the problem for which it was created, but becomes larger and more expensive and more complicated to dismantle over the years, because of the very same empty-headed, election-pleasing rhetoric that gets the politician elected in the first place.  And it’s our fault.  We’re letting it happen, saying little about it, and doing nothing to stop it!

“…which suggest that we believe no one can ever be rehabilitated.”  We don’t believe this do we?  But if the saying is true, “Action speaks louder than words,” it appears that we do.  That is, we are acting as if rehabilitation is not worth the effort, though it cost far less to rehabilitate than to incarcerate.  We Pennsylvanians are busily expanding old and building new prisons, far outstripping the actual crime rate.  If we want less government and better, more efficient tax spending, then we need to look at our prison system and the policies that are leading to an over bloated prison industry complex and cut waste there.

What to do?  We must stop catering to the politician’s favorite but simplistic mantra while running for office, “Vote for me because I’m tough on crime,” and must demand the following of our politicians: (1) stop submitting general and unaccountable “tough on crime, lock everybody up and throw away the key,” type of crime bills.  Start incarcerating with intentional exactness—real violent criminals.  (2) Stop wasting tax dollars on more prisons and start spending more wisely, smartly, and more effectively in dealing with the real underlying causes of crime.  And (3) be willing to consider rehabilitation as a viable and workable alternative solution to the drug addiction problem that leads to crime.  Others States have done this and so can/must we!  Remember spending exorbitant amounts of money on just locking an addict up for a few years does nothing to solve the problem and most likely only serves to worsen it—at great expense to the taxpayer!

Change can be good and a change in our State’s crime/prison, drug addiction policies would not only be a good thing, but a necessary and smart thing, leading to great savings in the department of corrections, not to mention the positive difference it can make in the lives of many who need help toward rehabilitation, renewal, and transformation compared to simply throwing them away in our prisons, housing, clothing, and feeding them at our expense, and recycling them in and out of prison, ad nauseam.