"What's Past Is Prologue"

Abstract

Man has never been able to develop a completely rational and satisfactory set of alternatives for dealing with convicted violators of the criminal law. The more primitive forms of criminal sanctions were based primarily on ideas of revenge and retribution. Execution, physical torture, and public degradation were the most common methods in use until near the close of the eighteenth century. Imprisonment as the principal method did not come into general use until the beginning of the nineteenth century. Concepts of retributive punishment have persisted, but superimposed upon them were other purposes, such as deterrence, public protection, and rehabilitation. The trend in Western civilization for the past 150 years has been steadily in the direction of more and more commitment to rehabilitation and resocialization of offenders. Implementation of these ideas has been extremely slow and hampered by lack of financial support and the excessive frag mentation of the public agencies responsible. The movement is now away from the excessive use of imprisonment and more and more toward the development of community-based pro grams making use of the social sciences. The correctional field is on the threshold of revolutionary changes which will take place gradually, tested by scientific methods.