8.5. Rehabilitation 
DAVID CARTER 
Rehabilitation 
Although not as old as some of the older ideologies, rehabilitation is not brand new. Additionally, it is the 
only one of the four main ideologies that most accurately attempts to address all three goals of corrections, 
which are: 
1. Punish the offender 
2. Protect Society 
3. Rehabilitate the offender. 
Certainly, all four ideologies address the first two goals, punishment, and societal protection. However, 
the goal of rehabilitating the offender is either silent, or not addressed in retribution, deterrence, or 
incapacitation. This does come as a cost. As we will talk about in more detail when covering prisons and 
jails, there is a great paradox that is happening in our society when we heavily rely on jails and prisons. Most 
offenders will come out of institutions (roughly 95% of all people who enter prisons are released), and little is 
done to change them while they are there. This is mostly due to our attitudes towards offenders, the policies 
that are necessarily placed on individuals while they are locked up, and the institutions themselves. And yet, 
there is the expectation that these individual leaving prisons will not commit crimes in the future. 
The question here is this: what have we done to change them so that they are not reoffending? Without 
the incorporation of some form of rehabilitation, the answer is fairly clear… Nothing. Yet, we expect it. 
Rehabilitation has taken on different forms through its history in the United States. We have considered 
individuals out of touch with God, and so offenders needed to be penitent, in order to get right with God. 
One of America’s earliest prisons was designed with this in mind. The Eastern State Penitentiary, opening 
in 1829, included outside reflection yards; so that offenders could look up to God for penance. 
To see more of this prison, visit https://www.easternstate.org/. 
Reformatories were another example of how rehabilitation was viewed in the past. The reform movement 
tried to rehabilitate the offender through more humane treatment, to include basic education, religious 
services, work experience, and general reform efforts. This was done in an effort to reform individuals, thus 
allowing them to come back to society. The Elmira Reformatory was one of the earliest efforts of the reform 
ideal, and many prisons built in the United States were based on this prison. Below is a picture of Elmira. 
 
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