Burger proposes basic job training for convicts

To prepare criminals for jobs once they are released from prison, Chief Justice Warren Burger proposes providing inmates with basic education and mandatory vocational training --with incentives such as shortened sentences to induce participation.

The chief justice also urged the caliber of prison guards and attendants be upgraded with special training, recommending the creation of a national academy of corrections to train prison guards and provide technical assistance to state and local prisons.

Conceding his proposals would be costly, Burger noted estimates of the annual cost of crime are $100 billion.