MORE REHAB IN PRISONS

A CLOSE LOOK at just about any prison population in the United States will
reveal why these people have ended up behind bars and why so many of them
will be back not long after they are released. Large percentages of
prisoners are functionally illiterate, have few job skills and are
substance abusers. As a result they have few realistic employment
opportunities.

It doesn't take a degree in criminology or psychology to understand what
has motivated these people to turn to a life of crime and that they are
likely to pick up where they left off when they get out of prison.

In fact, 62 percent of the felons who are released from state and federal
prisons will be charged with new crimes, and 41 percent will be
incarcerated again within just three years, according to U.S. Justice
Department figures.

If there is anything surprising about these numbers, it is that they are so
low. Prisoners are now spending longer periods of time in institutions and
have a difficult time readjusting to the real world when they are released.

This need not be true. For too long prisons have ignored opportunities to
help criminals go straight. Such was not always the case. A generation ago,
prisons were considered to be places of correction, offering rehabilitation
in addition to punishment.

While efforts to rehabilitate felons often were not successful, at least
there was some attempt, however inadequate, to do so. But now, the emphasis
is heavily on punishment, not correction.

However, punishment and rehabilitation are not incompatible. Stiffer
sentences and higher incarceration rates have played a role in reducing
crime rates, which have been steadily dropping for seven years.
Unfortunately, the longer sentences have not done much to keep prisoners
from returning to lives of crime.

What is needed today is a far greater effort to rehabilitate prisoners
without reducing sentences.

Prisons have the ultimate "captive audience." Part of a prison sentence
should include attendance at drug abuse programs for the two-thirds of
lawbreakers who test positive for recent drug use. Every prison should have
a mandatory drug and alcohol abuse program.

Prisons also must make a much greater effort to offer literacy courses and
other education programs. These, too, could be mandatory, or prisoners
could be given incentive such as earlier release times for successfully
completing courses.

Just as important as drug rehabilitation and basic education is job
training. Prisoners who leave with no employment skills are likely to
resume their lives of crime as soon as they are released. With longer
prison terms, whatever job skills inmates have often become obsolete.

Job training and work programs are necessary if we expect released convicts
to become employed and go straight after they get out of prison.

It is difficult enough to persuade employers to hire ex-convicts with
marketable job skills, much less people who lack them.

Attorney General Bill Lockyer suggested to the Times editorial board last
year that the next new prison in California should offer a wide array of
substance abuse, education and job training programs to determine which
ones work.

That would be an excellent start. But these programs should be offered
throughout the prison systems of California and every other state. The
expense of rehabilitation programs is far, far less than the cost of
arresting, convicting and incarcerating repeat offenders, not to mention
the cost to their victims.

Spending more money on rehabilitation programs is hardly going soft on
crime. In fact, it is a great way to ensure that the crime rate continues
to plummet.

A combination of stiff sentencing and mandatory rehabilitation programs can
do much to fight crime by getting felons off the street and on the right
track when they are released.