THE NEW ENGLAND Governors Conference wisely refused to adopt a plan for a regional "special offenders" prison last week, though its instructions to state correctional officials to "review, evaluate and adopt any provisions of the report" don't exactly slam the door on the plan's implementation in the future. William J. Curran, Lee Professor of Legal Medicine at the School of Public Health, developed the plan for the prison, which has prompted vocal opposition from the New England Prisoners Association, Massachusetts's assistant commissioner for drug rehabilitation, and the American Friends Service Committee, among other people.

These critics object to the vagueness of Curran's definition of "special offenders"--he says they're inmates who "exhibit signs of serious mental disturbance" or "repeated aggressive behavior," who are "incorrigible," "disruptive," and "dangerous." Matthew Dumont, the assistant commissioner, predicts that in practice "special offenders" would mean political activists, and there's nothing in Curran's plan to prove him wrong. The critics also object to what they consider Curran's recommendation of drug therapy and behavior modification programs to control troublesome prisoners. Curran says he didn't recommend these programs at all, but his report summary says "we suggest consideration" of them, and the distinction he makes is pretty tenuous at best.

Besides raising questions about the sorts of prison programs New England states are willing to consider, Curran's report raises--once again--questions about the role universities and university professors play in society as a whole, and the freedom from responsibility and criticism they sometimes claim in the name of academic freedom. Like the work of government professors --Samuel P. Huntington, for instance--who theorized for the Army during the Indochina war, like the work of economists--some of those at Harvard's Development Advisory Service, for example--who advise dicatorships around the world on keeping their economies running, like the ROTC program President Bok would like to see return to Harvard, Curran's work is not solely academic. Its implementation would have immediate, direct effects on other people's lives. That's why Curran was right to call the governors' failure to implement the plan immediately "commendable" in view of the storm of criticism it's aroused.