A Clockwork Orange - Or Just A Lemon?

Author(s): Peter Steinfels

Source: The Hastings Center Report, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Apr., 1974), pp. 10-12
Published by: The Hastings Center
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3560335
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 Page 10
Y
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ments are weakened by the inherent
uncertainty of future events.
The truly difficult question is if
the Masons could morally proceed
with a pregnancy where there was
a chance of having a hemophilic
child. I think they could. Indeed,
were she to believe that the possible
ambiguities of a carrier test would
aggravate the psychological burden
of the pregnancy, Ruth Mason
might justifiably even refuse the
carrier test. To refuse, she should
be able to justify her presumptive
right to conceive a child where
there was a substantial risk of hav-
ing an infant who would require
special and perhaps expensive care
on a lifetime basis.
To do this, I believe that Ruth
Mason would need to examine some
or all of the following factors: 1)
her valuation of human life; 2) her
psychological ability to nurture a
child who will necessarily experi-
ence some suffering, both physical
and psychological; 3) her family's
resources-emotional, psychological
and monetary-to care for this
child; 4) the possibility that her
own or her husband's expectations
in having male children are incom-
patible with the life style dictated by
hemophilia; 5) her recognition that
such a child may himself have deep
psychological problems from over-
protection afforded by well-meaning
others.
To my mind, a final test for this
couple is whether or not they can
give the prospective hemophilic
child an assurance of independent
existence, even where risks of his
safety are still apparent. If they
cannot, then perhaps they ought to
consider those options which avoid
his birth. They might well decide
that sterilization is the only moral
course open to them. Or, wishing
to avoid the anxiety, costs and pos-
sible guilt of an "at-risk"pregnancy,
they could adopt a child, especially
if they consider abortion morally
unacceptable.
But assuming they have weighed
all the factors, and could accept the
risk of a "worst" outcome, I think
the Masons could go ahead and
have a child. I know I would. *?
, J
Hastings Center Report 4/74
A ClockworkOrange-
B by PETER STEINFELS
ehavior control in prisons
does not enjoy a very favorable
press. One recent article in a large
circulation magazine warned that
"psychotechnologies are under rapid
development by 'behavioral engi-
neers' intent on putting Big Brother
in constant and efficient charge of
up to 25 million Americans who
have either committed crimes or
seem 'likely' to do so." And later
the same writer describes these vil-
lainous "behavioral engineers" as
"the technologists of a totalitarian-
ism that could make those in An-
thony Burgess' A Clockwork
Orange and George Orwell's 1984
look whimsically inefficient by com-
parison."
Are such charges justified? Or
are they expressions of that old
technological paranoia which once
led a leading science popularizer in
19th-century France to predict that
the railroad would feminize men
and suffocate women?
Popular journalism has not been
the only arena for concern about
behavior control in prisons. A num-
ber of programs around the U.S.
have recently been challenged by
court actions. Probably the most
prominent was Project START
(Special Treatment and Rehabilita-
tive Training), a federally funded
program for particularly unman-
ageable prisoners. Based on operant
conditioning principles, the aim of
Peter Steinfels is Associate for the
Humanities, Institute of Society,
Ethics and the Life Sciences.
A.
%
-
-
Or Just
this program was to alter the con-
duct of especially troublesome in-
mates so that they could be re-
turned to the open prison popula-
tion from which the referral orig-
inated. Recently the Federal Bureau
of Prisons announced the discon-
tinuation of START, ostensibly for
economic reasons, though they re-
fused to rule out the establishment
of similar prison programs on a
voluntary basis. Shortly thereafter
the House Subcommittee on Courts,
Civil Liberties and the Administra-
tion of Justice opened hearings on
the extent of behavior modification
programs in federal prisons. Called
to testify were Norman A. Carlson,
Director of the Bureau of Prisons,
and Dr. Martin Groder, designated
director of a new federal facility at
Butner, North Carolina, which is
mandated to conduct research into
new rehabilitation techniques (and
which is also under court chal-
lenge). Whether the subcommittee
will hold further hearings is not yet
known; the chances are good that
it will.
Institute Conference
Some perspective on this contro-
versy was provided by a conference
sponsored last December by the In-
stitute's Behavior Control Research
Group. Participants included repre-
sentatives from START and the
Butner research center, as well as
from Patuxent, a Maryland state
prison organized around a combina-
tion of behaviorist theory and
group therapy. (Patuxent calls its
inmates "patients"; they progress
j
 Page 11
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f

Y
surgery,aversive and operant con- spawned by new technologies.
ditioning,and various psychothera- Thus, Project START involved a
peutic approaches-but also to ex- reward-punishment system that, in-
amine the "total institution"of pri- tellectually,was barelyfancierthan
son as itself a behaviorcontrolling the schemes parentsdevise for get-
technology. ting the Saturdaychores done. Ad-
This double emphasis was im- ministeringit in a prison setting,to
portantfor, at least in my interpre- an exceptionallyresistantgroup of
tation, the three days of discussions prisoners who had definitely not
suggested that the new behavior volunteeredfor the program, was
control methods are of much less an entirely different matter, how-
significancein themselvesthan they ever, involving levels of depriva-
A Lemon? are as accessories for the mainte-
nance and preservationof the basic
tion and conflict which led to pre-
cisely the kind of charges-above
behaviorcontrol device-incarcera- all, brutality-which prisonershave
tion in a total institution. long made againsttheir keepers.
To begin with, if one is to judge Behaviorcontrolinnovationsmay
both from the conference discus- thus merely reinforce old prob-
through graded tiers depending sions and from other availablein- lems; they can also work in the
upon their behavior and attitude; formation,there simply aren't that opposite direction. Two Institute
they attendweeklytherapysessions; many behaviorcontrol programsin observers of Patuxent concluded
and they are held indefinitely as
"patients"till pronounced"cured.") operationwithinprisons.And those that, whatever the merits of the
that are, far from being the devil- therapy which could be offered in
Also attending the conference, ishly clever models of scientificin- such a setting (and they were pretty
along with membersof the Institute geniousnesssometimesimaginedby skeptical about it), the prison had
ResearchGroup, were a numberof critics,appearto be relativelycrude a lower level of "hassling" and
psychiatrists, criminologists and and of questionableeffectiveness.In petty brutalitythan most other pri-
lawyers with combined extensive other words-"Clockwork Orange" sons they had visited. This was an
experiencein prison work. it isn't. unintendedconsequence,they con-
"Behavior Control in Total In- This hardly means that behavior cluded, of removing ultimate au-
stitutions"was the general subject control programs in prisons pose thority from the custodial and se-
of the meeting; prisons were the no serious ethical and legal prob- curity personnel, of limiting the
group's chosen focus. Not only, lems. It does mean that these prob- prison's size and of hiring thera-
then, was the object to examinethe lems may be closer to the tradi- pists at higher wages. ("You may
use in prisons of specific behavior tional ones afflictingprison systems not get the greatest therapists,but
control technologies-like psycho- in general than entirely new issues you certainlyget a highercaliberof
guard.")
Legitimatingthe Prisons
The real significanceof behavior
controlprograms,then, may not be
their uncertainimpact on a limited
"We take on a burden when we put a man behind walls, and that number of prisoners - though
burden is to give him a chance to change. If we deny him that, we abuseshave occurredand shouldbe
deny him status as a human being, and to deny that is to diminish constantly guarded against-but
our own humanityand plant the seeds of future anguishfor ourselves." their influence in maintainingand
legitimating the entire prison sys-
-Chief JusticeWarrenE. Burger tem.
This, if I interpret some of
the conference participants cor-
rectly, could happenin three ways:
"... The window can be covered with paper blocking all light by the First, behaviorcontrol programs
staff if it so desires. In one case an inmate alleged his window was could developmeansof "managing"
covered for 42 straight days. When asked about this allegation, the that minorityof prisonerswhose re-
[START] staff said it was for no longer than two weeks but that the belliousnessand political militancy
records concerningthis could not be located at the time of our visit." have been the catalystfor continual
-Excerpt from a Report of the Subcommittee conflict or even large-scale erup-
on Courts, Civil Liberties,and the tions in the institutions.So far, de-
Administrationof Justice spite the obvious orientationof a
programlike START towardman-
agement rather than genuine re-
habilitation,behaviorcontrolseems

\N _ l-- J
Institute of Society, Ethics and the Life Sciences
 Page 12
w 11.1'01-
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Y reformatoriesor adult prisons can 'Y New

I
York Times (2/26/74) la-
thus serve as an excuse for tolerat- menting federal government hesi-
ing numerous institutions which tance to supportbehaviormodifica-
The model institution may be abominableat present,but of tion in prisonsthroughmanagement
some day.... the prison environment.Skinner
has always played quite rightly pointed out that
Are the ControllersControlled? "whether we like it or not, the
Recognizing that prisons them- behaviorof prisonerswill continue
a special role selves are behavior controlling to be modified by the world in
"total institutions"means recogniz- which they live.... Contingencies
in legitimating ing that they control the behavior of reinforcementare alreadyoperat-
not only of inmates but of guards ing in the present system," wrote
prison systems. and scientistsand psychiatristsand Skinner, "... and the result is
whoever attempts to work within Attica." Skinner is confident that
this context. The tasks of security, more constructiveenvironmentscan
custody,maintainingorderand pre- be built through the work of be-
no more likely to succeed than tra- bureaucratic stability will havior modifiers.But he does not
ditional means to this end: isola- serving
always have top priority,argued one inquireinto what "contingenciesof
tion, deprivation,physical punish- criminologist;other programs will reinforcement" have worked on
ment. Of course, behavior control be these needs.
shaped by guards, wardens, governmentoffi-
programsmay providea new pack- Spokesmen for behavior control cials, state legislatures, and even
aging for precisely such practices. programs in prisons seem either the well-intentionedreformers of
Second, behavior control pro- franklyacceptingof these priorities the past, to give us our Atticas.One
gramscouldlend scientificand med- -which is not reassuring-or is faced with a variant on the old
ical prestige to the cause of re- confidentthat they can re-
blithely
habilitation through incarceration. main unaffected them-which is question of who will guard the
by guards:how will the behaviorcon-
Generallythe bloom is off rehabili- also not reassuring. The latter trollers in prisons escape the be-
tation. Despite the humanitarianin- strandof thoughtwas expressedby havior controlling influence of
tentions of its advocates,efforts at B. F. Skinner in a letter to The 0*
rehabilitative programs have too prisons?
often begun as alternativesto the
harsheraspectsof imprisonmentbut
ended as additionsto them. But the
current critique of prison systems,
rehabilitationincluded, is "a faint Classroom Materials Available
trumpet,"said one conferencepar- Two publications suitable for classroom discussions on behavior
ticipant. The critics are unable to control are now available from the Institute. "Physical Manipulation
propose any alternativeswith un- of the Brain," the May, 1973 Special Supplement of the Hastings
qualified enthusiasm. The behavior Center Report, has been reprinted and can now be supplied in bulk.
controllers could fill this vacuum This Special Supplement is the edited transcript of a conference
with promises of a new era of re- sponsored by the Institute's Behavior Control Research Group.
habilitativepenology. Their prom- Also available is a booklet containing four articles prepared for
ises might go unfulfilledor, in the the Institute conference on "Controlling Behavior Through Drugs."
These articles, which originally appeared in the January, 1974 issue
opinion of the more pessimistic, of the Hastings Center Studies, are: "Psychotropic Drugs as Thera-
work out to the further detriment peutic Agents," by Gerald L. Klerman; "Drugs and Competing Drug
of the imprisoned;but in the mean- Ethics," by Robert M. Veatch; "The Case of MBD," by Paul H.
time the momentfor a fundamental Wender; and "Hallucinogenic Drugs: Perils & Possibilities," by Louis
reexaminationof our dependenceon Jolyon West.
incarceration itself would have The per-copy prices for each publication are:
passed. 1-5: $1.50
Third, behavior control tech- 6-30: $1.25
could succeed to the extent 31 & up: $1.00
niques
of creating one or several "model Postage will be paid by the Institute when payment accompanies
order. Please make checks payable to the Institute of Society, Ethics
institutions." An historian at the and the Life Sciences. Send orders to:
conference stated that the model Ms. Nancy Taylor
institutionhas alwaysplayed a spe- Publications Department
cial role in legitimatingprison sys- Hastings Center
tems-regardless of whether the 623 WarburtonAvenue
characteristicsof the model were Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. 10706
genuinelyapplicablethroughout the
system. One or two good juvenile

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Hastings Center Report 4/74