Failed penal reform collapses back into harsher punishment

Evidence

So long as the social consciousness is not in a position to comprehend and act upon the necessary connection between a progressive penal program and progress in general, any project for penal reform can have but doubtful success, and failures will be attributed to the inherent wickedness of human nature rather than to the social system. The inevitable consequence is a return to the pessimistic doctrine that man’s evil nature can be tamed only by depressing the prison standard below that of the lowest free classes. The futility of severe punishment and cruel treatment may be proven a thousand times, but so long as society is unable to solve its social problems, repression, the easy way out, will always be accepted. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 969 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Penal reform fails whenever it is detached from general social progress — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 969; Severe sentencing fails to reduce crime yet politicians escalate it anyway — Philip Pettit, Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and…, 888; Rehabilitative sentencing collapsed under attacks from left, right, and empirical research. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1910

Related

• Penal reform fails whenever it is detached from general social progress (similarity 0.95)
• Rehabilitative sentencing collapsed under attacks from left, right, and empirical research. (similarity 0.84)
• Punishment policy cannot reduce crime independently of the social order (similarity 0.84)
• Severe sentencing fails to reduce crime yet politicians escalate it anyway (similarity 0.83)
• Reform has always been proposed as the remedy for the prison’s failure (similarity 0.81)
• Penal reform sought not less punishment but more universal, deeper social control (similarity 0.81)
• Penal reform aimed to increase punishment’s effects while lowering its costs. (similarity 0.81)
• Penal reform succeeded by managing illegalities differentially, not eliminating them (similarity 0.80)
• Prison reform is an integral part of the prison’s functioning, not its antidote (similarity 0.80)
• Penal reform arose from a policy shift, not new humanitarian feeling (similarity 0.80)
• Reformers reframed punishment as protection rather than vengeance (similarity 0.79)
• Prison resists reform because it relays a broad network of disciplines and surveillances. (similarity 0.79)
• Penal reform shifted punishment from the act to the offender’s character (similarity 0.78)
• The rise of the prison institutionalized the power to punish (similarity 0.78)
• Harsher penal measures show no connection to actual crime rates. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Penal reform fails whenever it is detached from general social progress #qualifies (0.80) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 969