Rehabilitating Ex-Cons?

Cutting College Aid, and Fostering Crime
One of the most irrational initiatives in the war on crime
was a decision by Congress in the 1990's to cut off some
ex-offenders from federal education aid.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/20/opinion/20wed4.html?th&emc=th

........................................................

One of the more retrograde moves by our pols appealing for votes has been to attack prisoners by denying them the resources to rehabilitate themselves. We have ended off the option of college courses in our NY state prisons while increasing the percentages of solitary confinement cells -- largest in the nation -- which virtually guarantee either driving those so incarcerated crazy or generating hostility towards a society that so abuses them.

I will never forget observing our court employment classes back in the early 1970s at Brooklyn College. These were made up of students in halfway houses -- being gradually released from prison with the opportunity to get some college credits. One of our noted Brooklyn judges of that time had nearly managed to inspire a first offender amnesty bill for non-violent criminals which had passed in both houses of the NY state legislature only to be vetoed by an unknown upstater who had replaced Rockefeller as governor on short notice when he was appointed Vice President to replace a discredited Spiro Agnew. What particularly struck me about these classes was that they were indistinguishable in appearance from our ordinary ones -- these were students who had done something stupid and had gotten caught!

Needless to say other national penal systems are wiser than we in their responses to crime. If a felon can be restored to constructive citizenship, he will contribute positively to his society. If he is de facto banned, he will remain a costly economic burden and a hazard when he is released from prison. There is no better investment than an education for such individuals that enables them to reenter the work force.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort
to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy)
--
Ed Kent 718-951-5324 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
--


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CollegeConversation

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeaceEfforts

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EndingPoverty

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/440neighborhood

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StudentConcerns

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AcademicFreedom

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PrivacyRights

http://BlogByEdKent.blogspot.com/

http://www.bloggernews.net/blognews.asp