Francis T. Murphy

In the following viewpoint, Francis T. Murphy claims that efforts to rehabilitate criminals are ineffective. Murphy contends that rehabilitating criminals in minimally safe, unstable, and inhumane institutions such as prisons is not likely. He concludes that a return to swift, certain punishment in prisons can restore the effectiveness of the criminal justice system in enforcing morality and deterring crime. Murphy is the presiding justice of the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division First Judicial Department.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to the author, how did the idea of prisons originate"
2. In Murphy’s view, what therapeutic interventions have characterized the “rehabilitative ideal”"
3. What two directions of penal policy does Murphy oppose"

When a man is sentenced and led from courtroom to prison, two statements have been made as the door closes...