4. In the United States today there are more than half a million criminals serving time in prison. Most prisoners are male high-school dropouts between the ages of 18 and 19. Even more shocking in the fact that the number and rate of imprisonment has more than doubled over the past twenty years, and the recidivism - that is, the rate for rearrest - is more than 60 percent.
Although the stated goal of most prison systems, on both federal and state levels, is to rehabiliatate the inmates and reintagrate them into society, the systems themselves do not support such a result. Prisons are usually geographically or psychologically isolated and terribly overcrowded. Even in the more enlightened prisons, only one-third of the inmates have vocational training opportunities or work release options.
If prisons are indeed to achieve the goal of rehabilitating offenders, then the prisons themselves will have to change. First, they will have to be smaller, housing no more than five hundred prisoners. Second, they will have to be built in or near population centers with community resources available for gradual reintegration into society. Finally, prison programs must be restructured to include work release and vocational and academic training that promises carry over into the inmate’s life after release. Models for such collaborative efforts between the criminal justice system and the community already exist in several hundred half-way houses throughout the country.
1. What is the author’s main point?
A. Prisons must be restructured if they are to accomplish the goal of rehabilitation.
B. Models for community collaboration have been successful.
C. Most of the criminals serving time in prison are high-school dropouts.
D. The criminal justice system must establish a better goal.
2. According to the author, how many prisoners are offered training or work release?
A. None B. 33.33 percent C. 50 percent D. 60 percent
3. The author mentions all the following as necessary to prison reform EXCEPT
A. newer buildings C. vocational training
B. smaller institutions D.collaboration with the community
4. The word “recidicism” in line 4 refers to
A. all people who are imprisoned C. people who drop out of high school
B. people who return to prison after release D. people who have been in prison for a long time
5. The paragraph following this passage most probably discusses
A. the goals of most state and federal prisons
B. the cost of prison reform
C. examples of models for community collaboration
D. problems with the current criminal justice system
