European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 05, 1967, Darmstadt, Hesse                                R r Yaj k a. I i \ rehabilitating criminals faced with a rapidly growing criminal population and increasing crime Cost America s prison officials Are experimenting with new program Sand modernizing Century old techniques in an Effort to rehabilitate the  have worked. With failures a ecologists just try again. Som examples an Oklahoma woman convicted of narcotics violation was sentenced to continue classes at the University of Wisconsin. She was graduated with honors. Several daytime employees of the . Department of Justice in Washington,d.c., spend nights and weekends in custody completing sentences. A Federal prisoner in the Lewisburg pa., Penitentiary daily trims greens of a nearby Golf course and another holds Down a daytime Job at a Furni Ture factory. Both return at night. In Danbury conn., companies train prisoners in highly specialized electronics and then move them immediately into their plants even while they re serving sentences. General electric co. Has provided instructors and computers to the Federal Penitentiary in Atlanta ga., for a data processing class and hires those who pass. These Are some of the things Penolo gifts Are experimenting with to try to solve the problem of criminal rehabilitation. It is a never ending though always changing Battle. The aim of course is to keep re leased offenders from returning to jail. About 95 per cent of offenders in the United states Are male most Between the Ages of 15 and 30. More than Hal have never finished High school and also Lack vocational skills. Thus the heart of the new penology the Effort to shift corrections from revenge and restraint to rehabilitation and re integration into society is first class education and development of skills. But that s not All. The complicate process modern a ecologists have Learned also includes help from psychiatrists ministers social workers businessmen and acceptance from the Community because that is where the sex convict must live like others or return to prison. Many inmates Are in need of general by Lee under a staff writer medical and surgical treatment upon arrival or during the course of their commitment reports California s depart ment of corrections which runs one of the most progressive programs in the nation. In Many cases there is some Causa Tive relationship Between their physical condition and delinquent behaviour an proper medical treatment May be the necessary first step toward  he new programs however have one main problem they generally involve Only a tiny percentage of the vast prison population. If they work they la be expanded Bat careful re search and painstaking experiments May require years before fruition is realized to any great extent. It s finally getting through to people that More than 00 per cent of All offend ers will be Back in a Community some time says Myrl e. Alexander director of the Federal Bureau of prisons since1961. Just putting them behind a Stone Wall and Iron bars in t changing  How do you cure the criminal an reshape him As a useful member of society some of the new techniques including ideas advanced As Long ago As 100 years and just now getting attention More parole and probation. Pre release or Halfway out reside Cesas the link Between prison and Community. Work release inmates go out to work return to jail to sleep. Conservation Camps and other mini mum Security facilities replacing walled prisons. High school and College level train ing expanded vocational skills both in and out of prison. Criminologists agree on one thing no longer can prisons simply free a Man with a prayer a new suit and $10. But the new criminology its protagonists say does t mean coddling prisoners rather it Means coddling society because society is the big gainer if the projects work. It Means rehabilitating inmates train ing them for useful lives and jobs eliminating harsh punishment. It Means breaking Down the Impact of the High Walls and Iron bars these May make Aprison but Seldom do they make a Man. Richard a. Mcgee recently retired administrator of California s youth an adult corrections department says one of the clearest changes is depend ing less on Long periods of confinement excepting cases of life  Alexander looks at it this Way in Stead of just dumping offenders out we Are experimenting with new kinds of carefully controlled supervised vigorously watched release to the  this gradual release he says mean the inmates Are injected Back into society via Community and guidance Cen ters staffed by proper supervisors with training in the new penology.? . Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark says a nation s attitude on crime reflects a Normal temperature and America won fire. We can now see that the prison Walls and Iron bars that have Cage some of us have in reality caged us  says Gus Harrison director of Michi  s department of corrections which operates the world s largest walled prison i Don t think you la find Large correctional institutions being built i progressive states any  California the nation s most populous state today has one fifth of its total prison population in minimum Security facilities. M. C. Koblentz Ohio s commission Ron corrections sees the trend also to Ward specialized facilities for the emotionally disturbed for the sex offender for training centers work schools and amps. But no matter How you look Atit statistics would seem to Bear out contentions that prisons have been unsuccessful in achieving their main goal preventing crime repeaters. Here Are some figures two thirds of the state prison inmates Are former convicts one third of those sentenced by Federal judges return to prison. And keeping the nation s prison operating is expensive. It costs about $7 a Day to keep a person in prison. Base Don the present daily prison population of Bank robber ret needs Job Jack Cope historian editor producer director manager of a blood Bank and retired Bank robber needs a Job. Cope printed an and in the situations wanted Section of the Chicago Tribune that said Bank robber retired. 42 year old sex convict 3 yrs. Of col lege 1 or. Newspaper reporting and desk exp., Good writer an organizer. 11 yrs. In Leavenworth prison and 15 yrs. Of Federal parole to go seeks position which will be challenging an make use of his Talent. Salary open but must be in $8-$10,000bracket." and there was a Telephone number to Call. The last time Cope Laboured hand two other Guys got $50,000 out of it the robbery of the Cornerstone state Bank in South est City mo., he said. Three Days later he said hews caught in the Hills of Arkan Sas and was sentenced to a 27-year term for that and three other Bank robberies one i Chicago one in St. Louis and one in Indiana. I Don t recall their names  at the Federal prison at Leavenworth kan., Cope said i did almost 12 years got out i december of 66." Cope said his Early years were poor preparation for the Rich intellectual life he was to Lead a Leavenworth. I went to Lake View High school in Chicago for two years and was too Busy getting Drunken the Candy store and chasing broads he said. I did t have much education when i went to the joint. I finished High school and got a Junior College certificate and had a year beyond that in Extension work from Kansas University. I was editor of the inmate Magazine the new Era. I wrote the Only history of the . Penitentiary at Leavenworth. The government printed  ran a blood Bank for about six years and i we the in mates gave $60,000 to $70,000 Worth of blood. Also i produced and directed stage plays and variety  Cope said he placed the and be cause there is no use in trying to hide 11 years of his life and he needs a Job now. I need the Money. You re Hippo that up prison at Terre haute ind puts inmates in open dormitories rather than individual cells allows degree of Freedom. Around 430,000, this Means americans Are spending 13 million every 24 hours or about $1 billion a year. The annual Cost of crime in the unite states is $27 billion and rising. And How about the Cost of lives Fri statistics show every 27 seconds burglary every 60 seconds a stolen car every 2j minutes an assault every 23 minutes a rape every 80 min utes a murder. On an average Day the 50 states and the Federal government handle nearly1.3 million offenders of whom one third Are in institutions. Not counted in these figures May be another million held daily in local jails for drunkenness an disorderly conduct. By 1975 it is estimated the daily corrections population will be 1,841,000. Juvenile offenders today total 360,000,and this is expected to climb to 588,000 in eight years. America has some 400 adult prisons,61 built before 1900. Juveniles Are held in 325 institutions. Last tear More than half the nation s convicts were released on pro Bation. Some a ecologists say half is no enough but almost All agree the chief trouble with probation is Lack of supervisory probation officers to handle those released. Before Many convicts Are paroled they Are subjected to a new Modifica Tion of an old practice called work re lease meaning simply getting a Pris Oner a Job before he is freed. His half step to probation started in Wisconsin in 1913 for minor offenders then Lay dormant for four decades. Finally California Minnesota North Caro Lina and a few More states adopted the idea. The Federal government follow Din 1965, joined by some 20 other states. Federal records show 2,500 sex convicts under the work release program have earned $2.5 million. They have sent Home $750,000 to help support families paid $330,000 for prison Board which goes into the . Treasury and paid another $330,000 for taxes. North Carolina has the most extensive work release program an inmate is America has some 400 adult prisons 61 built before 1900. Juveniles Are held in 325 institutions  eligible after serving 15 per cent of his sentence. Michigan has adopted a work pass program to assist men expecting release or parole within a year. Not All prison administrators Are enchanted with work release programs. Ohio s Koblentz argues that a Good parole system gets better results. With work release you come Home Toa prison setting. Is that Normal he asks. George f. Denton chief of Ohio adult parole authority explains the state s two new parole probation Law which have been credited with reducing prison population by 2,000 since 1965. Called Shock probation the Law permit courts to place offenders on pro Bation after 30 to 60 Days. "sometimes30 Days in jail makes the first offender realize what a Good thing outside society is Denton says. Ohio paroles 94 per cent of its in mates second Only to Washington where parole is compulsory. The pre release guidance Center i another major prison innovation of this decade although so called Halfway houses were around in the 19th Cen Tury. They Are cushions Between Pris on and parole and help prisoners adjust in a Community setting. Gerald a. Collins in charge of on of the nine Federal pre release centers says More than 2,500 persons have been processed since the program be  in 1961 and there has been an approximate 10 per cent decline among men committing new  Many prisons Are offering Colleg training to inmates by enlisting Fracul continued on Page Ify be who came Back Page 12 the stars and stripes Michigan prison  convicts scr. J through Art classes in search for hidden talents thursday october 5, 1967 the Man who gets out of prison May soon find him self behind bars again unless he gets a Job and few employers want to hire sex convicts. But a rehabilitated sex convict can make an honest living just As easily As the Law abiding Citi zen who has no police record. That is if he can regain his self Confidence. Robert a. Behrends is one1 who knows. Behrends was making $60,000 year As vice president of a major automobile manufacturer Sev eral years ago. He began drink ing and eventually found himself out of a Job and on skid Row. Then he started writing bad checks and was sentenced to prison. Behrends served 17months and 12 Days and remembers every one of  his release Behrends the stars and stripes swore off booze and worked him self into another five figure salary this time with a textile firm. Even so the thought of prison lingered with him. He hear about the work Bill Sands whose life sentence had been com muted was doing to rehabilitate sex cons with a program called the seventh step  he met Sands and later insurance executive w. Clement Stone who helps rehabilitate  he returned to Landrum s.c., with his wife to begin of Fering a helping hand to men in prison. When i go to talk to the prisoners they always Tell me How Lousy the food is and How poor the conditions Are Beh rends said in a interview in Newyork. I Tell them i m Happy to hear that and that 1 want the to remember All of this when they get out so they won t want to go Back. I remember All of the bad things that happened to me while i was in  now is director of seven keys to Freedom which helps prisoners become re oriented to the outside world once they have served their time or Are  were Able to put 155 peo ple to work on jobs that paid total of $9,984.54 a week Beh rends said. That amounts to about $43,000 a month. Monthly Federal and state taxes amounted to $7,298.44." Behrends said the office of economic Opportunity funded seven keys to Freedom for year with the government put Ting up $40,775 and his Organiza Tion paying $5,240. The program is paying for it self in taxes alone Behrends said. Up Page 13