Incapacitate yes, rehabilitate no.(Culture And Society)

David Farabee, Rethinking Rehabilitation: Why Can't We Reform Our Criminals? AEI Press, 2005 (aei.org)

Ever since flamboyant sociologist Robert Martinson proposed that "nothing works" in rehabilitating criminals, a vast army of prison reformers, social workers, and probation officers has been striving to prove him wrong. Advocates have sung the praises of "Scared Straight" programs, boot camps, drug rehabilitation therapy, and American Indian-inspired "vision quest" adventures, but hard evidence for the effectiveness of these programs is surprisingly difficult to find.

The reason is simple: Such evidence often doesn't exist. UCLA research psychologist David Farabee casts a cold, analytic eye over the reformers' claims and finds many of them exaggerated. "An objective assessment of the research literature reveals that the majority of rehabilitative programs have little or no lasting impact on recidivism ..."

After reviewing the methodological shortcomings common to virtually all studies of rehabilitation programs, Farabee finds that most programs based on intuitively appealing ideas--such as "Scared ...