John P. Conrad

The death penalty : a debate

Introduction: Before the Killing Stopped.- Introduction: Death but Not Torture.- 1. The Retributivists Case against Capital Punishment.- 2. The Purpose of Punishment.- 3. The Deterrent Effect of the Death Penalty.- 4. More on the Deterrent Effect of the Death Penalty.- 5. Does Deterrence Need Capital Punishment?.- 6. Deterrence, the Death Penalty, and the Data.- 7. The Constitutional Question.- 8. Discrimination and Justice.- 9. Justice and Equality.- 10. Special Cases.- 11. Popular Arguments.- 12. Crimes of Passion.- 13. Death, Rehabilitation, the Bible, and Human Dignity.- 14. The Symbolic Meaning of the Death Penalty.- 15. The Abolitionist Rests.- 16. The Advocate Advocates.

The Penal Dilemma and its Emerging Solution

The deterioration of American corrections under the pressure of increased felony commitments may be corrected with the introduction of intensive supervision for the two aims of keeping offenders out of prison in the first place, and taking them out as soon as it can safely be done in the second place. The pilot programs for these purposes now under way in Georgia and Alabama are described. They offer realistic prospects for a wide-ranging renovation of American penology. They deserve emulation wherever prison overcrowding is a major concern.

There Has to Be a Better Way

How soon our nations prisons will explode no one knows, but they can not be expected to absorb many more inmates than are now jammed inside the prison walls. Alternatives to incarceration, which sprang up in a wave of enthusiasm a decade ago, will succeed in reducing the prison popu lation only if they are fully institutionalized. Our belief in alternatives must be revived, and that belief made solid and effective by careful plan ning. The goals of correction need not be uncertain, the services provided in community alternatives need not be nominal, the standards for correc tional field workers can be defined, and the adequate funding of com munity facilities can be ensured—if we mobilize to prevent the desperate situation in our prisons from becoming more desperate. We badly need the confidence to use and develop further our community resources for persons who have demonstrated that they need help.

The Constitutional Question

The death penalty poses a legal as well as a moral question. Thus, many lawyers in the United States have tried to get the Supreme Court to declare capital punishment unconstitutional mainly on the basis of the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits “cruel and unusual punishment,” or of the Fourteenth, which requires “the equal protection of the laws” for all the inhabitants of the United States. Let us consider the constitutional question then.

Can Juvenile Justice Survive

This is an account of the findings of Project MIJJIT, a group of stud ies undertaken by the Academy for Contemporary Problems of Co lumbus, Ohio, under the sponsorship of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Significant findings summarized here concern the growth of programs providing grants-in-aid from state governments to local counties for the support of juvenile justice pro grams, constitutional questions regarding juvenile court services, the placement of children in out-of-state programs, and the waiver of ju venile court jurisdiction. Their significance for the survival of juvenile justice and its institutions is briefly discussed.

What Kind of World Do We Want

The whole world knew the answer to that question in 1945 when the nations allied against the Axis united to draft a charter to preserve the peace to come. In the euphoria at the end of a long and terrible war, good will and the best of intentions seemed to be universal. A world devastated by bombers and tanks would be reconstructed. Differences between peoples would be dissolved in friendship and understanding. The grievous mistakes made by the great powers in the years between Versailles and the Ribbentrop-Molotov treaty would be rectified and never repeated. The nations that had for so many years been locked in mortal conflict would unite to make certain that no such conflict could ever occur again. Delegations from all the allies met in San Francisco to draft a new charter for a new organization for peace, the United Nations.

Justice and Equality

Let me now turn back to a moral aspect of the death penalty that is connected with the constitutional one just discussed. I wish to argue that even if there were discrimination against some groups, and even if discrimination were unavoidably connected with the death penalty rather than with its distribution—both these assumptions are contrary to fact—the death penalty still should not be abolished. Those who argue otherwise confuse justice and equality.

Doing Good with a Hard Nose: The Achievement of Credibility in Criminal Justice

The stress on Management By Objectives, particularly the emphasis on achieving the unattainable goal of reducing the crime rates or recidivism, has led to several ineffectual administrative styles in criminal justice. The author describes these phenomena and traces their causes. In all cases, the suggested remedy is to shift from the struggle to reduce crime rates or recidivism and to focus on effective performance of necessary immediate tasks.

The Social Worker in Today's Correctional Agency

CONTACTS between any employee of a police department, probation office, juvenile hall, prison, or parole office with a defendant, probationer, inmate, or parolee directly influence the attitudes surrounding the offender’s relationship with authority. In many of these contacts, direct treatment or counseling is involved; in others, services are performed or denied, attitudes are influenced, and decisions are made which profoundly affect the entire course of treatment. In this sense, social work knowledge and skills are necessary components in the vocational preparation of nearly every correctional employee. However, specific training in social work is necessary for certain types of employees, the substance of whose work may be defined as essentially professional. Definite civil service series have been set up in California, and in many other states, establishing social work careers in probation offices, institutions, and parole offices. There seems to be a reasonable degree of uniformity in probation departments under which the designation of probation officer is agreed upon for any

The Dream and the Reality

When Woodrow Wilson created the League of Nations after the First World War and pressed the victorious allies to join, the U.S. Congress, to his chagrin, had the wisdom to stay out. President Wilson was unable to muster the required two-thirds majority in the Senate. He had persuaded Americans that the (first) World War was “the war to end all wars” and “to make the world safe for democracy.” After victory, he felt he had to offer something that at least might look as though these promises could and would be kept, something new that went beyond the traditional processes of diplomacy and international relations. Perhaps President Wilson actually believed that the League of Nations would be an instrument for peace. Perhaps he shared the hopes he stimulated. Whether one believes that he did depends on whether one rates higher his intelligence (which would lead him not to take the League, or his own slogans, seriously) or his honesty (which would lead him not to allege that he did when he did not). At any rate, wiser heads prevailed and we did not join.