An excerpt from a recent Department of Corrections pamphlet unintentionally reveals the inadequacy of the prison rehabilitation program:

"The opportunities for self improvement have greatly increased since 1959. Many inmates, who 15 years ago were completely idle the entire day, now find enjoyment in aiding T.B., Heart, Cancer, and other charitable drives by sealing and stuffing envelopes."

Although the prison population at Bridgewater has diminished by over 50 per cent in the past six years, the number of guards has remained the same, largely because corrections officers in Massachusetts, as in most state, form a well organized and powerful interest group. Gaughan defends the current guard staff size, and has asked for close to 100 more corrections officers, ostensibly to improve the rehabilitation effort.

But as Gaughan himself points out, guards don't have much incentive to engage in rehabilitation. "For rehabilitating a prisoner a guard gets no recognition from anyone, but it he fails in the area of security he'll be held responsible, his job will be jeopardized." he says.

If the government provided a program for retraining employees, perhaps substantive prison reform would become feasible. Without such a program, correction officers have little alternative but to fight to hold on to jobs which are often superfluous.

Distorted and sensational reporting by the media does as much to impede prison reform as organized political opposition. A recent Boston magazine "expose" of the treatment center for SDPs described at length the violent sexual acts of two treatment center inmates, then closed with a lament that SDPs have enormous trouble gaining the community's acceptance after they have left the center. Such articles ignore the plight of the majority who are not incorrigible and allow people to harbor misconceptions about who inhabits our prisons and what can or cannot be done to help them.

When I went down to Bridgewater earlier this week, I learned that an inmate I knew had been released by the prison psychiatrists. He did not have much confidence about living outside the institution, and always wanted me to reassure him that he'd have no trouble getting a good job once he left Bridgewater. I tried to give him confidence, but realized that he had almost no chance because of the soaring unemployment rate and that under the circumstances he might easily revert to criminal behavior. Which could lead you to conclude that the success of a reading program--or any rehabilitation effort inside the prison--depends on what goes on outside the prison.

Bob Ullmann, a Crimson editor, tutors reading at Massachusetts Correctional Institute--Bridgewater, in conjunction with Education T-317, a course about reading disabilities in the context of the prisons system. Jeanne S. Chall, professor of Education and Jeffrey Schnitzer teach the course.