Generally I support the goals of prison reformers. Prisons are not supposed to be torture chambers that destroy the lives of all who enter. So I support efforts to make them better. But in my book I compare that to asking for comfier seats on the train to Auschwitz. It’s kind of missing the big picture.
But this guy seems truly delusional. From The Week:
Yes, we have a prison problem, but Moskos assumes that prisons are just violent holding cells, a theory that “has been thoroughly discredited.” Unlike the “judicial brutality” he proposes, correctional facilities “expend resources for 24/7 custody, care, rehabilitation and retraining” to help criminals come back to society.
What world is he living in?
Turns out he’s the policy and compliance director for the Minnesota Sex Offender Program.
According to the Star Tribune:
Minnesota has civilly committed 554 men and one woman to the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP), designed to treat paroled sex offenders until they are no longer dangerous. … But the system’s spiraling cost and lack of measurable success are causing growing unease. Twenty four offenders have died, but no one has been permanently released.
It appears Mr. Bornus has a faulty grasp of causal logic. He suggests that the recently measured drop in violent crime is a function of correctional treatment regimes.
I don't know what Minnesota's data look like, but if its anything like my State's, the modal convict is not getting massive doses of "evidence based intervention" in prison.