Joel Dvoskin has studied prison populations:

“We need to know what may be behind the criminal behavior to know what the best treatment is,” he said. “A person who commits crimes when drunk but not when sober is likely suffering from an alcohol problem. Treating the alcohol problem may diminish the criminal behavior.”

Decreasing prison populations needs to be more of a priority, Dvoskin said. “This can be done by paying more attention to those with the highest risk of violent behavior rather than focusing on lesser crimes, such as minor drug offenses.”

Finally, bringing work back into prisons can benefit prisoners by teaching them job skills and filling unmet job needs. With the increase in the criminal population and lack of increase in prison staff, “there is not enough supervision to allow prisoners to work and build skills,” Dvoskin said. “This makes it very hard to re-enter into the civilian world and increases the likelihood of going back to prison.”

With 7 million American adults in prison and almost 50 percent of them African-American males, many children are growing up without fathers and are at risk for continuing the vicious cycle of criminal behavior, Dvoskin said. “If we don’t make the changes now, we will see these numbers go up.”

On the other hand, if we want more criminals, sure, throw more minor offenders in with hardened criminals so they can learn how to do it worser.

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