Really rehabilitate

Woodbury case illustrates need for prison reform

The case of Michael Woodbury, the Windham man who murdered three men in Conway last week, demonstrates how much we still need to improve the penal system in Maine.

Like the American penal system in general, Maine’s rehabilitation of criminals is a concept that gets plenty of lip service but fails to be thoroughly incorporated into every inmate’s daily schedule. Maine has a system that treats prisoners too leniently, so much so they don’t mind returning to incarcerated life, as evidenced by the recent actions and comments of Woodbury.

Granted, it may not cure every hardened criminal, but real rehabilitation – coupled with longer probation periods, judges who impose longer sentences and legislators who write tougher laws – can work. It has to work.

Proper rehabilitation would mean the pleasant environment of Maine’s prisons, where leisure time is provided for several hours a day and Internet and television access commonplace, would cease to exist. Prison officials should instead hammer home the importance and benefits of academics, life skills development and coping mechanisms for once criminals return to society.

Academics should be of utmost importance once prisoners enter the system. They say books can open new worlds, and no one is more needy of a new world than a felon. Teaching inmates new things not only makes them better job candidates, but opens their minds to new thoughts and activities, which can bring joy and meaning to their lives. If they read a gardening book or a book on engines or history book, they may develop healthier pursuits that will put them on a better path.

Life skills would spring from academics. The Maine Correctional Center in Windham has programs that allow inmates to work on crafts and furniture that is then sold from the Prison Industries Store. Inmates routinely complete projects for area towns such as painting and roof replacement projects. Expanding these service opportunities and hobby interests would be essential is creating healthy pride for prisoners.

Beyond work-related life skills, prisons should work with inmates to make sure they don’t slip into bad habits once out of jail. Intense and intimate follow-up is needed. Probation just isn’t good enough. Finding ex-cons new neighborhoods in which to live will help them forge totally new lives. Society suffers when ex-cons return to the same city streets where they don’t have a chance for lasting change.

Prison also must become serious again. Woodbury seems eager to go back to prison, and that in itself is a major failure of the system. As a start, do away with mindless television watching, surfing the Internet and lifting weights. For time – and tax dollars – to be spent wisely, every minute of an inmate’s day should be focused on rehabilitation – emotionally, spiritually and intellectually.

Real rehabilitation and “corrections” would take away the comforts of prison and redirect inmates’ focus on self-examination and self-improvement. That way, when they exit the system, they’ll be able to handle life on the outside – much unlike Michael Woodbury.

-John Balentine, editor