4 ms·

Can you think of a time or condition in the past when Americans were more amenable to rehabilitation?

• Mountain_Skies 7y ago
  Johnny Cash played a concert at Folsom Prison. Can't see the public going along with something like that anymore. This isn't proof of a higher appetite for rehabilitation but it does seem that attitudes were a bit softer at the time. Conjugal visits are another thing that have been mostly eliminated, with just a couple of states still allowing them.
  • akiselev 7y ago
    Johnny Cash's concert was in the late 60s, before the string of prison riots in the 70s which left several correction officers dead and the rest of the industry hyper-defensive (all of the riots, except one involving Cuban exiles who were going to be deported, were due to prison conditions AFAIK). By this point, the war on drugs was in full swing and the prisons were filling up as fast as humanly possible.
• matheusmoreira 7y ago
  It's not just americans. No matter where we go we find humans with some sort of repressed aggressiveness in desperate need for an acceptable target to lash out against. Seems to be connected to authoritarianism. Rehabilitation implies they want the criminals to be part of their society to begin with. They most likely want to keep dehumanizing and exploiting those groups.