Study: Prisons Contain Too Many Criminals
RAIFORD, FL - A study recently completed at Florida State Prison has established a link between the effectiveness of crime prevention programs and the environment in which the programs are administered. The report, due out today, was compiled using information gathered over two years of records research and interviews with inmates. The study reached the startling conclusion that prevention programs are stymied by the extremely high number of criminals housed in the prisons.
"There are a lot of bad people in there." said Myron Thornbush, Professor of Rehabilitative Therapy at Howyflyl University, and co-author of the study. "It's certainly not an ideal environment. We're not going to make any progress rehabilitating these people until we remove the criminals."
The study reveals that people who enter the system have a very high chance of becoming criminals themselves. When entering the system, nearly 95% of the prison population claims to be innocent of any crime. Upon release, the rate of prior convictions among the former inmates is nearly 100% "That's a staggering statistic." said Thornbush. "Obviously the prisons do an excellent job of producing more criminals. It illustrates exactly how the penal system stands in the way of crime prevention."
Prison officials claim that reducing the number of criminals in the facility has its challenges. "I suppose we could just let them go." said Hugh Dennison, Assistant Warden at the prison. "But that may cause some local law enforcement problems and would do nothing for crime prevention. Besides, the people we let out of here just seem to keep coming back anyway."