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As Larry E. Sullivan summarized the situation: “[t]he treatment model […] was legislated out of existence. The new law stated that ‘the purpose of imprisonment for crime is punishment.’”15 Other states followed suit, and eventually the federal government even took its stand on the rehabilitation/punishment argument with the Comprehensive Crime Control Act. The United State Sentencing Commission, created as a result of the act, issued sentencing guidelines in 1986, which overtly demoted the importance of rehabilitation in corrections.
Norval Morris likewise observes the trend away from rehabilitation toward punishment. However, he also recognizes that, as a result of how problematic it is to measure the effectiveness of treatment programs, “the general posture of even the more enlightened prison administrators is to do their best to provide self-developmental opportunities and programs for those prisoners who want to pursue them.”16 This accommodation, albeit perhaps half-hearted, nonetheless colors the prison culture. Psychiatric counseling, substance abuse programs, literacy classes, secondary educational opportunities, and of course training in (marginally) skilled labor are in place in most of the country’s penal facilities. Although a large number of these are on a volunteer basis, and the administration does not always encourage participation as enthusiastically as it might, the services are available.
Such programs are more abundant and better supported at medium and minimum security prisons than in maximum security institutions, which is most likely the reason why virtually all of these theatre programs operate in medium security facilities.17 (The Luther Luckett Correctional Complex, where Tofteland runs Shakespeare Behind Bars, is specifically a “programs prison.” If an inmate does not enroll in a program within his first few weeks of residence, he is transferred back to maximum security.) The climate of such institutions is clearly more hospitable to the theatre programs. The inmates, most of who are transferees from maximum security facilities due to demonstrated good behavior, are more motivated to participate in the program; they have already shown an inclination for self-improvement.