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Nelson Delgado
Ms. Morton
UWRT 1102
7 December 2016
Annotated Bibliography: Are prison systems built to rehabilitate inmates? (Inquiry Question)
Benson, Etienne. Rehabilitate or punishment. American psychological association, vol. 34, no.
7, 2003, pp. 46, www.apa.org/monitor/julaug03/rehab.aspx. Accessed 8 Oct. 2016
Bensons article gives a brief history about how prison facilities dealt with inmates.
Benson talks about how prisons didnt try to rehabilitate their inmates. The focus was to serve as
punishment. Benson goes on to inmates having actual mental diseases that need to be addressed
to rehabilitate inmates. In the article, Benson also mentions research done by other psychologists
that show prison environment can mold behavior.
The most interesting thing about the article to me is the Stanford Prison Experiment. In
the experiment, they took an individual that was healthy psychologically and put this individual
in a prison environment. The results showed that even a regular person can become
psychologically unstable after being in this type of environment for too long. This experiment
gives me another perspective on my inquiry question. I was just thinking about studys being
done on inmates, this is good to represent what the prison environment can do to anybody.
This article uses research done in the 1970s but the article was published in 2003. This
shows that the research done still has relevance to more recent findings. With the research being
older, it could lack some details that new studies have conducted and found out since 2003.

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Never the less, the research done by these psychologists still shows how rehabilitation within the
prison is not at the standard that it should be at. Like the Champion textbook, the older
information can serve as core research for the inquiry question. The two texts were published
around the same time and give information that could be used as base research for other
experiments that are more current.

Champion, Dean J. Corrections in the United States: A Contemporary Perspective. Englewood

Cliffs, N.J: Prentice Hall, 1990. Print.
Dean Champion wrote a textbook about the correction in the United States. The textbook
outlines the punishment phase into extensive detail. This is also written form a contemporary
perspective but was published in 2000 so it may have some out of date material. Although it was
published 16 years ago it gives some good information on the jail reforms that may be useful to
the inquiry topic. The textbook points out two major reforms that were currently happening. One,
is Jail Architecture, this section talks about the rebuilding of prisons for to help with the
overcrowding problems and to help guards manage the inmates better. Also in this part of the
textbook, it displays a few different research studies that have been done on prisons that changed
their facilities to decrease overpopulation.
This part of the textbook and the article by Stevens, both highlight the importance of the
structure of the prison facility. Champion describes prison facilities that were changing the
structure in order to decrease overpopulation and create a more stable environment. While
Stevens goes into detail about the structure of a prison library. Both of the goals are to create a

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better environment for the inmates. The only way for the environment to be stable is to stop
prison overcrowding as the research studies indicate in the textbook.
Overall the facts that are in the textbook are good but they are a little outdated for the
inquiry question. The part of the textbook that would be beneficial to use is older information
than preferred. Yet the studies done that are listed in the textbook, still serve as primary
information and could be used for the inquiry question. There should be more current
information done on this topic that could be used for the inquiry question. The textbook put in a
new perspective that should be considered while researching the inquiry question.
Gilligan, James. "Punishment Fails. Rehabilitation Works." The New York Times, 19 Dec. 2012.
Web. 6 Nov. 2016.
This article was written by James Gilligan, a professor of psychiatry and law. In the
article, the professor gives his opinion on why he thinks that prisoners are likely to be repeat
offenders. Although the professor is writing an opinion based article, he stills is an expert in the
field and provides accurate information based on his own research. The professor makes a point
about demolishing prisons and making community like homes. Professor Gilligan describes a
community that would focus more on therapy for the inmates so that they could get treated
properly. He also mentions a program that he conducted on prisoners in San Francisco. In the
program the inmates went through an intensive re-educational process. The results showed that
violent male offenders chance of reoffending again after being incarcerated, reduced by 83%.
With this article being published in 2012, its recent information that goes right with my
inquiry question. Professor Gilligan makes some good points about getting treatment for inmates.
His program that was conducted in San Francisco are good results of how treatment in the jail

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can help the inmate after their release. When thinking about the inquiry question, the main thing
that I wanted to focus on was what kind of help an inmate can get after prison but this shows that
programs inside the prison can help with reducing the chance or reoffending.
The article by Eteinne Benson also describes how prisons didnt focus on rehabilitation as
much as punishment. Both articles show how prisons are not taking the right action on the inside
of the facility so its affecting the inmates. The Benson article goes through more of the history
of mistreatment of prison facilities, while Professor Gilligans article is more of a solution to the
lack of rehabilitation to inmates while in prison.
On the Outside: Social Challenges for Teens Reentering Society. New York, N.Y: Films Media
Group, 2008. Internet resource
On the Outside is a video about juveniles being incarcerated and released, separated
into two parts. The second part is focused on what happens to juveniles after they are released
from prison. Most juveniles are reincarcerated within six months of being released. The video
describes one group called Friends of Island Academy that allows the teenagers to try and get
the education that they need as well as offer peer groups so the teens can talk about what is going
on with their life. This one program that is offered gives juveniles many options to find
themselves as an individual and better them for society after prison.
The juvenile facility uses their programs to create a family type of environment.
Something like this was described in the article by professor Gilligan. He explains how prisons
should be torn down and rebuilt as community homes for prisoners to receive the type of
rehabilitation that they need. Although the juveniles are incarcerated, the programs give them the
attention and community feel that they should have for the rehabilitation process.

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The video only goes on about two programs that are offered to teenagers that are
incarcerated and after they are released. It is limited to showing juveniles in New York and may
be a little biased. Overall the video gives a good description of the types of programs that benefit
the juveniles to reduce that chance of reincarceration. The downside is that there isnt much
information about how the programs may not work or where the programs could get more help.
It only shows the positives of the programs but with the interviews that were conducted on
inmates, they should have displayed interviews of inmates not in the program to get both sides of
the story.
Stevens, Tony, and Bob Usherwood. "The Development of the Prison Library and Its Role
Within the Models of Rehabilitation." The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice. 34.1
(1995): 45-63. Print.
This article by Tony Stevens is part of a scholarly journal. This certain part outlines the
importance of developing a prison library. For a prison library to act as rehabilitation, its needs to
be functional and provide a unique environment for the inmates. Stevens describes the library as
empowering the inmates with knowledge as well as changing their behavior through books.
Being that it was published in 1995, it may be missing valuable current information.
However, the information provided is useful research for the inquiry question. The study
conducted on prison libraries show that this is a huge way to rehabilitate prisoners. The article
states that some people use it to reach a higher education and others use it as self-motivation to
become better for themselves and loved ones. The study is credible and conducted on 10
different male institutions. The results would have been better if there were some variety
between male and female institutions.

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This article relates to the jail architecture portion of the textbook by Champion.
Champion describes prison facilities changing to create a better environment inside of the prison
system. The prison library creates the same type of environment for inmates attitudes and
behaviors to change. Yet the only way the prison library rehabilitation can work is if it creates an
environment that can make an inmate feel as if they are not inside of an actual prison facility.
This text also focuses on giving the inmates education for them to strive post incarceration such
as the Friends of Island Academy does for the juveniles. The focus of both texts show that
education can be an outlet for the inmates and provide an alternative life after prison.