The Crime of Punishment

In the 1960's Dr. Karl Menninger wrote his landmark book The Crime of Punishment reflecting his extensive experience as a practitioner in the courts as well as prisons and jails dealing with the interface between psychiatry and the criminal justice system. The widely read book went through at least 12 printings and a copy was donated to every judge in the country through the gift of a benefactor. This is a book that should be read by everyone who is working in or aspires to a career in criminal justice. This book has been republished by NewLeaf-NewLife, Inc., a not for profit organization whose mission is to reduce recidivism and increase the number of men and women who successfully return from jail to productive roles in their communities. In the decades that followed the publication of The Crime of Punishment criminal justice policy took a 180 degree shift from policies recommended by Menninger. Until the 1970's about 100 per 100,000 were incarcerated loosely tracking a historical average since the Civil War. Dr. Menninger was concerned about this high rate of incarceration. There was a slight increase during the Great Depression in response to the deep poverty in the country. Now, in 2008 more than 1 adult out of a 100 is imprisoned. with no clear sign of reversal. Without major change in policy further significant increases in incarceration rates can be expected driven by new forces including the War on Terrorism, the absence of effective reentry programs in most states and communities and a continuation of punitive policies that don't work. The politics-as-usual response of putting more people behind bars for ever more reasons has only aggravated manageable problems into a crisis that now poses a grave threat to the survival of our country as a democracy. In many states more taxpayer resources are spent on incarceration than on a vastly larger population seeking higher education. People in the prison system consume more public resources in a "system" that makes them less able to be productive citizens than it would take to send them to Harvard. Why are we spending so much to create negative human capital? Imagine a natural disaster like Katrina, or a recession or possibly a depression with vastly increased poverty with the taxpayers carrying the fixed burden of perhaps 1,000 or more per 100,000 of Americans behind bars. What would happen to these millions crippled by our criminal justice "system" who are unable to find work even in the present good times? What would happen to our communities to which these people return hardened by their prison experience? Over 96% of those in prison or jail return to their communities. Criminal justice policies bent on punishment and not rehabilitation have created a time bomb. Instead of taking measures to correct the flaws identified by Menninger in The Crime of Punishment, state and national leaders responded to populist calls to get tough on crime. They have created a monster that