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Incarceration Vs Rehabilitation Essay

2170 Words9 Pages

The American prison system should help to rehabilitate and make prisoners upstanding citizens of society. However, this is only the case in some prisons. Many prisons don’t implement things that can assist prisoners in becoming more valuable people in society. Rehabilitation, and correction, in order, should be the goals of incarceration. These things are necessary to make a change in our prison system. This essay will discuss how restorative justice can make prisoners qualified to become good working citizens again in today’s society
Prison can rehabilitate prisoners. However, there needs to be a rehabilitation program and an intervention program for criminals who have committed crimes and misdeeds. American Psychological Association states, …show more content…

It should be understood that prisoners have feelings just like any other person. The prison system can also be very punitive which can cause a negative response in prisoners. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, “Many of the defining features of incarceration are linked to negative mental health outcomes, including disconnection from family, loss of autonomy, boredom, and lack of purpose, and unpredictability of surroundings.” This means that we need to integrate something that will help the prisoners with their mental health so they don’t leave prison with issues they didn’t have to start with. The punitive side of incarceration can cause backlash from prisoners which could potentially motivate them to commit more …show more content…

Rehabilitation, and correction, in order, should be the goals of incarceration. It is crucial to remember that rehabilitation is a long-term process. A successful rehabilitation program should focus on enhancing skills, building healthy relationships, and developing a sense of self and purpose. With the help of evidence-based programs and services, prisoners can successfully reintegrate into society, reducing recidivism rates, and creating safer communities for all. By providing job training and educational programs, mental health support, transitional housing, community support services, and educating the public about their circumstances and experiences, we can ensure that former prisoners can reintegrate into society and learn from their past experiences. Although many prisons don't have these things implemented, hopefully, they will shortly so this negative cycle can be

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According to the U.S. Department of Justice, there are currently over 2.2 million individuals serving time in federal and state prison, with 95 percent of those individuals being released and returning to their perspective communities across the nation. Majority of those individuals returning have needs that was either unaddressed while incarcerated or during the reentry process, which will negatively impact their ability to live a crime free productive life while in the community. Once released from prison, inmates are faced with a myriad of challenges such as finding stable housing, maintaining employment, combating substance abuse, and addressing physical and mental health problems. However, with the help of community support, offenders would less likely return back to prison and are

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However, the penalty stands to be only temporary. Studies have shown that only seventy-one percent of those released from prison are convicted of a serious crime within only three years after their releasement ( ). Is prison housing the criminals or teaching them? A correctional facility is built to correct and rehabilitate, however prison systems in America appear to be only a short stop before the production of the criminals grand plan. The majority of those who are sentenced to prison have a high rate of returning due to their difficulty in gaining a position with a self-sustaining wage and a lack knowledge on a life without crime.

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Sammy Vogel Criminal RehabilitationTable Of Contents Background 3 Overview 4-7 What Rehabilitation is 5 Norway 6 Private Prisons 7 8-11 History History of the US justice system 9 History of Norway 10 History of California’s Rehabilitation Programs 11 Controversy 12-15 What people think 13 Reasons why it’s a good idea 14 Reasons why it’s a bad idea 15 2 Background Definition Rehabilitation programs are defined as programs that reduce recidivism by improving behavioral skills, mental health, social functioning, and access to education and employment. What We Have Right Now: We do not currently have a well-funded rehabilitation program in our prisons.

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With such traumatic experiences or undiagnosed mental illnesses, inmates who are released from prison have an extremely hard time readjusting to society and often lash out and commit crimes as a result of their untreated problems. It is for this particular reason that Davis says we must focus on rehabilitation and provide services for inmates while incarcerated and before they are released. Solutions she proposes are shorter sentences, education and job training programs, humane prison conditions, and better medical facilities and service. With adequate care and conditions, released inmates will able to find jobs, start families, and become functioning members of society rather then returning to

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Prisoners, when given the opportunity, can learn so much while in confinement. It can better both their personal and social responses to any situation. Statistics from an article called "Beyond the Prison Bubble" shows, "If we could implement effective programs, we could expect to reduce recidivism by 15 to 20 percent. "(Petersilia 2011)

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It was not until the 19th century that the penal system began to focus on education and training as a form of rehabilitation, which has progressed today into more formal programs to change the nature of individuals instead of focusing on the severity of punishment (320). Although prison is a form of punishment, by shifting the focus from strictly chastisement to developing the character and life skills of those incarcerated, prison education can be a resource for the betterment of society. Those most interested in the issue are policy makers, public officials, and correctional educations because they see how prison education can reduce cost toward warehousing inmates, create a more harmonious environment for those incarcerated, and eliminate those individuals from returning to prison by equipping them with the skills to gain jobs once

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A very important aspect of the criminal justice system is to ensure there is a way to rehabilitate offenders, not only incarcerate them. Rehabilitation in the criminal justice system means that there is an attempt by the system to restore a criminal back to a productive and useful member of society free of the life of crime. By rehabilitating an offender, the system is trying to alter their behavior and attitude in a positive way and to make them once again, law abiding citizens (Seiter, 2014). Rehabilitation can come in many forms, such as drug treatment, education, mental health treatment, develop better decision making skills, therapeutic counseling and even job training. An offender does need to be punished for breaking the law, but they need to accept responsibility for their crimes and eventually change their

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Batley (2005) stated that restorative justice is about restoring, healing and re- integrating victims, offenders, as well as the society and also preventing further harm. In this assignment, I will be discussing approaches to restorative justice and illustrating their advantages and disadvantages to offending. I will also provide the applications of these five approaches of restorative justice which are retributive approach, utilitarian deterrence approach, rehabilitation approach, restitution approach and restorative approach in the given case study. I will then explain my preferred approach to justice through identifying a personal belief or value that underpins my choice.

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