An American Portrait of Long-Term Imprisonment

An American Portrait of Long-Term Imprisonment

The American correctional system was never designed with long-term prisoners in mind. In his influential social history of prisons, David Rothman observed that one of the primary assumptions of the designers of the American penitentiary system was that most offenders would need only brief exposure to the rigorous environment of these institutions to be rehabilitated. However, as Rothman pointed out,

This viewpoint dominated thinking about long-term prisoners and long-term imprisonment for most of the history of American corrections. Young first offenders have long been the focus of most correctional efforts. The policies and practices of state correctional systems emphasize delivering services to young short-term prisoners. For example, vocational training programs offered in prisons are designed for rapid turnover. Most such programs can be completed in 6 to 12 months. Educational programs focus on getting high school dropouts past the General Education Diploma examinations. Life skills training emphasizes the skills needed to find and maintain a job upon release. Even programs developed to maintain and strengthen family ties are often restricted to short-term prisoners or those nearing the end of their terms. With the exception of longer-term education activities such as college degree programs, there are very few activities for long-term inmates besides working and waiting.

In recent years much more attention has focused on long-term incarceration in the context of debates about crime control policy. There has been widespread support for life-without-parole sentences, mandatory minimum terms, and longer sentences for drug offenders and violent criminals. The political fervor with which repeat offender legislation (so called “three strikes and you're out” laws) is promoted exemplifies this trend. This discussion centers on the need to incarcerate more people for longer periods of time but provides little or no guidance to correctional officials about what to do with long-term prisoners over the course of a 30-, 40-, or 50-year prison term. Despite the fact that the American corrections system incarcerates at a higher [Page 11]rate and for longer terms than other industrialized democracies, we have gained limited insights into how to plan or organize an institutional career for persons who will spend the majority of their adult lives behind bars.