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Are Prisons the
Biblical Way
to Deal With Critne?
by
Clayton Steep
l s imprisonment God's way of dealing with the crime problem? Why is the prison
system in such chaos and crime so widespread? Where did the idea of keeping
people in prison come from in the first place? You may be surprised at the answers.
P
RISONS- we like to label
them correctional institu–
tions-are increasingly
hotbeds of racial strife, homosex–
ual rape, drug trafficking and
violcnce. One prison official ex–
pressed it this way: "These aren't
ordinary people... . There are
people in here who like to see
blood- they like to hurt people.
They practically foam at the
mouth when they see blood."
Persons guilty of less serious
offenses are frequently thrown in
with hardened criminals, where
t hey themselves become hardened
criminals. Penal institutions have
become schools for perfecting the
"art" of crime. Many consider
getting caught as merely an occu–
pational hazard. A prison psychia–
trist in France complained:
"When 1 talk with them they tell
me: 'Let's not kid around. Theonly
thing 1know how todo is burglary.
lam here because my technique is
not what it should be.
l
am here lo
improve it.' "
Prisons, in short, are generally
anything but correctional institu–
tions. Men have tried to make
them work, but have failed.
Shorter sentences have. not
worked. They have given rise to
complaints of a "revolving-door"
justice system. And Jonger sen–
tences often harden the convict
and contribute to the problem of
overcrowd ing.
An exccrpt from an editorial in
June/ July 1980
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