Conversion and the Rehabilitation of the Penal System

The Cincinnati Penal Congress of 1870 ushered in the era of "progressive" penology: the use of statistical and social scientific methodologies, commitment to psychiatric and therapeutic interventions, and a new innovation--the reformatory--as the locus for the application of these initiatives. The prisoner was now seen as a specimen to be analyzed, treated, and properly socialized into the triumphal current of American social and economic life. The Progressive rehabilitative initiatives succumbed in the 1970s to withering criticism from the proponents of equally futile strategies for addressing "the crime problem": retribution, deterrence, and selective incapacitation.
The early Christian community developed a methodology for correcting human error that featured the unprecedented belief that a period of time spent in a given penitential locale, with the aid and encouragement of the community, was sufficient in and of itself to heal the alienation and self-loathing caused by sin and to lead an individual to full reincorporation into the community. The "correctional" practice was based upon the conviction that cooperative sociability--or conversion--is possible, regardless of the specific offense, without any need to inflict suffering, or to use the act of punishment as a warning to potential offenders, or to undertake programmatic interventions into the lives of the incarcerated for the purpose of rehabilitating them.
Andrew Skotnicki contends that the modern practice of criminal detention is a protracted exercise in needless violence predicated upon two foundational errors. The first is an inability to see the imprisoned as human beings fully capable of responding to an affirmative accompaniment rather than maltreatment and invasive forms of therapy. The second is a pervasive dualism that constructs a barrier between detainees and those empowered to supervise, rehabilitate, and punish them. In this book, Skotnicki argues that the criminal justice system can only be rehabilitated by eliminating punishment and policies based upon deterrence, rehabilitation, and the incapacitation of the urban poor and returning to the original justification for the practice of confinement: conversion.

Andrew Skotnicki teaches theological and criminological ethics at Manhattan College in New York City. He has published widely on the theological and ethical implications of criminal justice. He is the founder and director of the E3MC program (Engaging, Educating, Empowering Means Change), a partnership between Manhattan College and the New York City Department of Corrections.

Introduction Chapter I - The State of Penal Ideology and Penal Affairs Liberal Polities and the Ontology of Violence Divided Hearts and Minds Systemic Results of Ideological Disorientation Chapter II - It is Wrong to Punish Anyone for Any Reason Criminal Justice as Inclusion Outline of the Retributive Position Religious Defenses of Retributivism Critique of Retributivism Outline and Critique of Deterrence Thoughts on Incapacitation Concluding Thoughts Chapter III - Conversion as Inclusion The Prison as Metaphor for Introspection The Meaning of Conversion Phenomenology of Conversion The Crisis An Experience of Undeserved Compassion A New Identity in a New Community Accountability and Character Reform A Process of Progressive Participation Conversion and the State of Criminal Justice Chapter IV - What is Wrong with Rehabilitation? The Proponents of Rehabilitation Risk-Need-Responsivity Good Lives Model Other Rehabilitative Approaches Areas of Agreement and Possible Cooperation Chapter V - How Conversion Can Rehabilitate the Penal System Outline of a Penitential Mode of Confinement Social Rudiments of a Conversion Paradigm Confinement and Conversion Concluding Thoughts Conclusion Notes Index