Rehabilitation In Shawshank's Redemption

Is prison effective as rehabilitation for wrong-doers in the US?

Shawshank’s Redemption, an all-time best movie produced in 1994 starred and led by actors Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. A story about two imprisoned men’s experience with the corrupted prison institution through their way of self-redemption. There is a line, which was well read by Morgan Freeman, I am particularly fond of. Here I quote ‘These walls are funny. First you hate them, then you get used to them. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That 's institutionalized.’ A prison should aim at retribution, incapacitation, deterrence and rehabilitation. I am very well convinced that prison has served its first three purposes by depriving offenders’ freedom, but the

A finding from a study done by the Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that 67.8 percent of ex-convicts were rearrested. Two-thirds of them spent their time in prison waiting for the release, only to go back into that dirty old cell again. Why don’t they try to get a real job, earn their own living and cherish the second chance we grant them. Let’s step down from the moral high ground for a second. Often released prisoners lack the skills and knowledge to keep up with the pace of society. Competence obsoletes over time; in order to help rehabilitate inmates, 350 college degree programs were once provided in prisons all over the State. However, by 2005, the number has shrunk down to 12 programs in 12 prisons. Prison jobs and educational training have a waiting list of more than 10,000 people. Prisoners are unable to regain their life by better equipping themselves in time of custody due to the fact that the government fails to deliver education to inmates. This is what ‘institutionalization’ from Shawshank’s Redemption is about. After all the years behind bars, they have gradually become more dependent on the walls around them and rather stay in prison because they know the world and their lives are not the same as the ones the time they were jailed. In other words, they are hopeless to re-enter our society. Where else can they be, if not the prison? What else can they do, if not

Inmates are constantly violated by cellmates and prison guards, both physically and sexually. Violence is often associated with prison gangs and interpersonal conflict. Prison guards are bribable and all kinds of contrabands including weapon, drug, liquor, tobacco and cell phone can be found in inmates’ hands. Crime within the fence is rampant, only counting those with violent act, 5.8 million reports were made in 2014. If the prison is really what it claims to be, shouldn’t prisoners be serving their time with regret and learning to be obedient? On the contrary, they continue to misbehave as the way that had them chained up. Rehabilitating from crime is similar to recovering from drug abuse, the most effective way to cut off from further engagement is to keep anything related out of reach. Yet, the prison has done the opposite, no prisoner can reform under such circumstance. Prison is supposed to put an end to criminal activities but it turns out to be the extension; crime keeps happening in and out of the prison and criminals stay as