Here is a rule of thumb regarding government social programs: You usually learn about them only when their budgets are reduced.\u00a0 At that point, you hear about draconian cuts to essential services that you didn\u2019t even know existed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It has been received wisdom for decades that prison rehabilitation programs were decimated during the heartless Reagan years of greed and that no inmate who wants to turn his life around can possibly find the wherewithal in prison to do so\u2014assuming for the moment for the sake of argument that a social service program is necessary for that end.\u00a0 So it is surprising to read in the New York Times <\/a><\/em>about very recent \u201crich\u201d arts programs in California prisons, long painted by the media and by anti-incarceration advocates as service wastelands:<\/p>\n Two years ago, arts in corrections programs were a mainstay of prisons across the country, embraced by administrators as a way to channel aggression, break down racial barriers, teach social skills and prepare inmates for the outside world. There was an arts coordinator in each of the 33 California state prisons, overseeing a rich variety of theater, painting and dance. Dance in prisons?\u00a0 Who knew?\u00a0 I\u2019m not necessarily against such programs, despite their usually pitiful record of success, but their existence should certainly be weighed against the notion that taxpayers are contributing nothing that might allow a criminal to escape gang culture.\u00a0 To be sure, there is certainly a big difference between the resources showered on a theater major at NYU and those a car thief in Chino State will encounter.\u00a0 Stil, I doubt whether any of the plaintiffs\u2019 and amicus briefs in California\u2019s decades-long prison overcrowding litigation mentioned this \u201crich variety\u201d of arts programming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here is a rule of thumb regarding government social programs: You usually learn about them only when their budgets are reduced.\u00a0 At that point, you hear about draconian cuts to essential services that you didn\u2019t even know existed.\u00a0 It has … Continue reading
\nBut these programs have become a fading memory, casualties of the budget crises that have overwhelmed state and local governments nationwide. Nowhere is that truer than here, where prisons are so overcrowded that the Supreme Court in May ordered the state to start releasing inmates.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n