by TChris

Listening to conservatives over the last 25 years might lead to the conclusion that only fuzzy-thinking liberals who are "soft on crime" care about the rehabilitation of offenders. Now that the preferred correctional policy of conservatives -- lengthy sentences with no services that might interfere with the corrective value of punishment -- has (as TalkLeft reported yesterday) caused serious financial problems for states without corresponding benefits in crime reduction, some conservatives have come to accept that there may be more cost-effective means of reducing the likelihood of recidivism.

Having turned "rehabilitation" into a dirty word, and unwilling to admit their error, conservatives had to find a new phrase.

They are not calling it rehabilitation but re-entry, programs that help inmates make the transition from prison to returning home. These include drug treatment, job training and finding housing.

"We've got a broken corrections system," Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, said. "Recidivism rates are too high and create too much of a financial burden on states without protecting public safety."

No kidding. Brownback says that "the public forgot" that all those incarcerated people were eventually going to be released -- with no job skills, no education, no drug or mental health treatment, no support systems, a criminal record that will prevent them from finding a decent job, and no help in their efforts to avoid a return to crime. Well, actually, "the public" didn't forget; it was the right wing, continually ridiculing the left for being "soft on crime," that forgot to stay in touch with reality.

So now the right is backpedalling as "the public" sees how successful rehabilitation (sorry, "re-entry") programs can be.