Kenneth E. Hartman

"Making the world I live in a better place remains my goal and focus"

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Published In J Journal
New Writing On Justice
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It's a heady time in the world of prisons. The "R" word is being uttered in public again, and more than a few people have come to the conclusion that beating prisoners over the head for long years doesn't actually result in any discernible positive outcomes. Having now served twenty-eight continuous years in maximum-security prisons, I welcome this burst of possibility. The past generation of punitive policies just about demolished whatever "good" there was inside these places. The wreckage left behind is an awful mess that will require all the interested parties, all the stakeholders, to work together to make rehabilitation more than a slogan. This effort simply must include prisoners.

There is a fundamental misunderstanding of the reality of prison, and this includes a considerable portion of the professional criminologist class...