Opinion

Try this incentive for good prison behavior

Posted June 27, 2015 1:00 am

Perhaps we should take a second look at the recidivism rate of ex-convicts that seems to hold steady for the past decade in spite of certain prison reforms.

Between 2000 and 2010, two thirds of those released from penitentiaries in more than half of our states returned within 3 years.

Could one cause be the result of the legal system that allows early release from a court-ordered sentence based on good behavior?

Since people are incarcerated, finding no evidence of an impaired mental condition, can we assume that most that go to jail have been declared sane?

Furthermore, can we assume that such convicts will behave rationally in order to be released early from confinement? Is this a no-brainer?

Should we now say that good behavior be rewarded by maintaining the original sentence and extending it for bad behavior?

Shouldn't this be a game-changer, potentially reducing previously rock-solid recidivism and its derivative, criminal activity, finally making inroads toward real rehabilitation?

James D. Cook Schaumburg

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