The Role of Penal Quarantine in Reducing Violent Crime

Abstract

In reviewing the aims and functions of imprisonment, the author argues that protection of the public should be the basis for decisions regarding incarceration. Quarantine, or isolation, is presented as an incarcerative function that is particularly susceptible to rational analysis as to its impact on public protection. An examination of the limits of quarantine's poten tial effect under actual and ideal circumstances leads to the conclusion that current proposals for increasing the use of quarantine would reduce seri ous violent crime by no more than 10 percent, at a staggering cost for prison construction and operation.Two alternative proposals are then presented. The first is a system of selective quarantine, based on a person's potential for future violence, which could be implemented within the current jurisdictional authority of the correctional system. The second proposal expands on the correctional model by adding changes within the authority of the judicial system. This second model is found to be...