Goals and Challenges in Rehabilitative Treatment in Prison.
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Question: During the 1970s, as result of the Attica Prison riots and other social forces such as the civil rights movement, changes began to occur within the management of prisons that led to the development of more humane prison environments. Many prison officials no longer viewed offenders as second-class citizens without rights.
Since the 1820s when the American penitentiary was begun, the goal has been to transform law breakers into law abiding citizens. Even after the prolonged advocacy of being tough on criminals, rehabilitation still remains an important part of the correctional enterprise with support of the public (Edscorn & Radcliff, 2003).
History reminds us of the four day Attica prison riot that was considered the bloodiest insurrection in United States history. The prisoners were protesting about the living conditions in the overcrowded prison, took prison employees hostage and gained control of portions of the prison. When talks broke down between the prisoners and a committee of observers that included politicians and journalists, Nelson Rockefeller ordered the prison to be taken by force. This resulted in the deaths of 10 hostages and 29 inmates and another 80 people that were seriously wounded by police gunfire. This riot led to changes that aimed to improve living conditions in prisons and showed prisoners had rights with the advocacy from civil rights movements among other social forces (Tartaro, 2012).
The main goal of rehabilitative treatment program is the reformation of prisoners to enable them starts normal lives free from crime in the society. The best rehabilitation program for prisoners does not only help the prisoner but also helps the society at large. One of the rehabilitation goals is education and work programs which are the mostly used mode of treatment in USA. This is usually very successful if it’s aimed at the low skill inmates and reduces cases of post ‘recidivism’. This approach enables inmates enroll in ‘adult basic education’ and life skill training like how to apply for a job, money and household management among others (Edscorn & Radcliff, 2003).
Another program is the psychological counseling programs that aim to address the causes of the underlying problems like drug addiction, sexual offences among others. In some prisons they have separate treatment units for drug addiction commonly called ”therapeutic communities” funded by the state in its Residential Substance Abuse Treatment. This is aimed at “Reducing Offender Drug Use”. Also the cognitive behavioral treatment has been seen effective in treating offenders to forfeit their criminal way of life (Edscorn & Radcliff, 2003).
Community based treatment includes Parole and Mandatory Supervised Release supervised by parole officers who monitor the integration process with the community. Also the offenders not sentenced to prison are placed on parole. The parole officers act as monitoring and treatment officers to help offenders overcome their propensities to crime thus changing them to become solid citizens (Anderson, 2009).
All these developments have been faced by various challenges that include crowding of state prisons. Crowding obliterates the rehabilitative process as it endangers both the inmates and correctional officers leading to frequent lockdowns. Crowding has been caused by the rising cases of crimes and convictions crippled by the development of new prisons in the various states (Wignall, 2004).
Garcia, (2006) says management of Transfers between prisons due to the increasing populations in prisons causes disruption of rehabilitation programs of the offenders. This leads to the failure to provide offenders with the interventions they need that was identified in sentencing as they could be moved to prisons lacking those specific programs.
Another challenge is that prison has been viewed as an alternative lifestyle as criminals behind bars now-a-days expect not only comfortable but carefree existence with provision of free food, lodging, athletics, entertainment and even medical care that has contributed to the increasing number of offenders (Garcia, 2006).
In conclusion rehabilitation should always be a goal of imprisonment when feasible where educations treatments, substance abuse treatment, community release treatment among other such programs all have a place. There should be no mistake made because a jail sentence is a punishment and a deterrent to crime (Garcia, 2006).
REFERENCES
Anderson, L. (2009). Kicking the national habit: The legal and policy arguments for abolishing private prison contracts. Public Contract Law Journal, 39(1), 113-135. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/218731975?accountid=45049
Edscorn, S. R., & Radcliff, C. J. (2003). The Encyclopedia of American Prisons (Book). Reference & User Services Quarterly, 43(1), 80-81.
Garcia, E. (2006, Feb 03). Prisons chief testifies reforms are under way: But Critic Charges System Is Deficient. Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, pp. 1-1. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/461445067?accountid=45049
Tartaro, C. (2012). Missed opportunities: learning from the mistakes at Attica. Contemporary Justice Review, 15(3), 339-358. doi:10.1080/10282580.2012.707468
Wignall, R. A. (2004). An investigation of job satisfaction of florida state prison industry workers: An examination of herzberg two-factor theory. Capella University). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, 307 p. Retrieved fromhttp://search.proquest.com/docview/305043425?accountid=45049. (305043425).
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