Conversion and the Rehabilitation of the Penal System

A Theological Rereading of Criminal Justice

Andrew Skotnicki

Argues for the complete elimination of punishment in the criminal justice system
Proposes the elimination of rehabilitation as a systemic goal
Supports the idea that human beings are fundamentally good and susceptible to their natural affirmative sociability through the process of conversion

Conversion and the Rehabilitation of the Penal System

A Theological Rereading of Criminal Justice

Andrew Skotnicki

Description

The Cincinnati Penal Congress of 1870 ushered in the era of "progressive" penology: the use of statistical and social scientific methodologies, commitment to psychiatric and therapeutic interventions, and a new innovation--the reformatory--as the locus for the application of these initiatives. The prisoner was now seen as a specimen to be analyzed, treated, and properly socialized into the triumphal current of American social and economic life. The Progressive rehabilitative initiatives succumbed in the 1970s to withering criticism from the proponents of equally futile strategies for addressing "the crime problem": retribution, deterrence, and selective incapacitation.

The early Christian community developed a methodology for correcting human error that featured the unprecedented belief that a period of time spent in a given penitential locale, with the aid and encouragement of the community, was sufficient in and of itself to heal the alienation and self-loathing caused by sin and to lead an individual to full reincorporation into the community. The "correctional" practice was based upon the conviction that cooperative sociability--or conversion--is possible, regardless of the specific offense, without any need to inflict suffering, or to use the act of punishment as a warning to potential offenders, or to undertake programmatic interventions into the lives of the incarcerated for the purpose of rehabilitating them.

Andrew Skotnicki contends that the modern practice of criminal detention is a protracted exercise in needless violence predicated upon two foundational errors. The first is an inability to see the imprisoned as human beings fully capable of responding to an affirmative accompaniment rather than maltreatment and invasive forms of therapy. The second is a pervasive dualism that constructs a barrier between detainees and those empowered to supervise, rehabilitate, and punish them. In this book, Skotnicki argues that the criminal justice system can only be rehabilitated by eliminating punishment and policies based upon deterrence, rehabilitation, and the incapacitation of the urban poor and returning to the original justification for the practice of confinement: conversion.

Conversion and the Rehabilitation of the Penal System

A Theological Rereading of Criminal Justice

Andrew Skotnicki

Introduction

Chapter I - The State of Penal Ideology and Penal Affairs

Liberal Polities and the Ontology of Violence
Divided Hearts and Minds
Systemic Results of Ideological Disorientation

Chapter II - It is Wrong to Punish Anyone for Any Reason

Criminal Justice as Inclusion
Outline of the Retributive Position
Religious Defenses of Retributivism
Critique of Retributivism
Outline and Critique of Deterrence
Thoughts on Incapacitation
Concluding Thoughts

Chapter III - Conversion as Inclusion

The Prison as Metaphor for Introspection
The Meaning of Conversion
Phenomenology of Conversion
The Crisis
An Experience of Undeserved Compassion
A New Identity in a New Community
Accountability and Character Reform
A Process of Progressive Participation
Conversion and the State of Criminal Justice

Chapter IV - What is Wrong with Rehabilitation?

The Proponents of Rehabilitation
Risk-Need-Responsivity
Good Lives Model
Other Rehabilitative Approaches
Areas of Agreement and Possible Cooperation

Chapter V - How Conversion Can Rehabilitate the Penal System

Outline of a Penitential Mode of Confinement
Social Rudiments of a Conversion Paradigm
Confinement and Conversion
Concluding Thoughts

Conclusion

Notes

Index

Conversion and the Rehabilitation of the Penal System

A Theological Rereading of Criminal Justice

Andrew Skotnicki

Author Information

Andrew Skotnicki teaches theological and criminological ethics at Manhattan College in New York City. He has published widely on the theological and ethical implications of criminal justice. He is the founder and director of the E3MC program (Engaging, Educating, Empowering Means Change), a partnership between Manhattan College and the New York City Department of Corrections.

Conversion and the Rehabilitation of the Penal System

A Theological Rereading of Criminal Justice

Andrew Skotnicki

Reviews and Awards

Winner of the 2019 Aldersgate Prize

"For all those people who are tired of the traditional debates about 'the purpose of punishment,' Andrew Skotnicki offers an analysis that is as unique as it is thought-provoking. His view of the current dilemma, one that many would agree with, culminates in a conclusion that is both surprising and compelling." --Todd R. Clear, Distinguished Professor in the School of Criminal Justice, Rutgers University

"As a plea for a non-violent penology, Andrew Skotnicki's book is nothing less than an attempt to get Americans to stop talking about crime and how to punish it and to focus instead on harm and how we might help people to heal. It is a timely, vitally necessary, and potentially ground-shifting book." --Joshua Dubler, author of Down in the Chapel: Religious Life in an American Prison

Skotnicki's splendid new book offers us an incisive critique of the criminality of our current criminal justice system. Erudite, yet eminently readable, Conversion and Rehabilitation of the Penal System presents a cogent case against both retributive and deterrent rationales for detention. Looking ahead to a systemic rehabilitation of our carceral regime, Skotnicki looks back to the original legitimation of incarceration-conversion and restoration to moral community." --William O'Neill, S.J., Lo Shiavo Chair in Catholic Social Thought, University of San Francisco