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In Search of the Moral Cure
12/28/2003

As it happens, just the other day, I wrote a fairly lengthy post on the death penalty, only to decide that I hadn't gotten it sufficiently straight in my head to publish my thoughts. One of the complicating components that I was trying to fit together is that I believe that, paradoxically, those who oppose the death penalty ought to simultaneously advocate for harder terms in prison.

I also believe that inserting religious instruction would be an important part of any rehabilitation program. If one of religious folks' objections to the death penalty is that God can work miracles even in the souls of the most hardened sinners, then it would seem incumbent upon us to facilitate that connection. Unfortunately, I'm more than a little concerned about the potential for prisons to become recruitment centers for — oh, I don't know — radical Islam. I'm also less than optimistic about the reaction to public mandates for religious training.

That's why I filed it in the When Life Gets Back to Normal file when I came across Victor's discovery of faith-based prisons in Florida. Of course, the ACLU sees it as a breech of that separation thing, even though it doesn't look as if a particular denomination or even religion will be promoted, and even though inmates have the option of transferring out.

As Correction Secretary James Crosby Jr. puts it, all they've done is "developed a cocoon, a place where they can practice their faith and not have the severe negative pressures and interactions that naturally take place in some of our institutions." In other words, it is an opportunity for the state to exploit some stated intention of inmates to further submerse themselves in an area of thinking that has been widely held, throughout history, to affect behavior for the better.

I, personally, would be thrilled to see the program expand throughout the prison system, with increasing incentive for inmates, of varying degrees of preexisting religious devotion, to seek to enter into faith-based institutions. However, I could see that there might be a legitimate argument if it became the case that religious prisons received a notable degree of perks, unrelated to their central mission, for the purpose of attracting convicts toward conversion. I would tend to think that a positive development, but I would understand the argument that it wouldn't be appropriate.

In contrast, I'm not sure what to make of Tyler Cowen's comment on the Volokh Conspiracy:

Isn't this just yet another way to put the better-behaving inmates together in one place? I would expect that to improve human well-being, at least for the people I care about. But I would expect to get most of the practical benefits without the explicit introduction of religion. You do need some signal of good behavior, the question is whether religion is the only or the best option for such a signal.

To be honest, I'm still not sure what to say about this, because it seems to so dramatically miss what I take to be the point. Implicit in Cowen's view is that religion is, of itself, a benign and inactive endeavor — as if religion is just a demographic marker, not a pursuit that will affect prisoners and help them to change their approach to life. The goal of the program, after all, is not to change behavior within the prisons, although that's certainly a benefit, but outside of the prisons, which Governor Jeb Bush made clear in his speech at the inauguration of the new approach.

If one gives credence to spirituality, it may very well be that making prison less harsh of an experience for those willing to behave themselves within its confines will, in the long run, hurt their "human well-being." The larger concern, when it comes to handling criminals, is to help them change who they are, not to teach them to compartmentalize their behavior depending on which side of the bars they find themselves.

Posted by Justin Katz @ 09:46 PM EST

1 Comment

Some people opposed to the death penalty are just plain opposed to punishment even if that punishment is the only loss of liberty for a short time.

As for prison giving an inmate time for reflection, there are many cases where such remorse before a parole board is phony and then discarded once the guilty are freed before the completion of their "life" sentence. (the Puerto Rican terrorists pardoned during Hilary Clinton's senate campaign, and leftist terrorist Kathy Boudin are examples)

Patrick Sweeney @ 12/29/2003 02:42 PM EST