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Rehabilitation CJS240 October 23, 2011 Rehabilitation What is prisoner rehabilitation? Foster (2006) defines prisoner rehabilitation as something that inspires a positive change during confinement. Dependent on prison and era, prison rehabilitation has included drug rehabilitation, counseling, behavior modification, religious or social meetings, educational, vocational or adaptive strategy training (Foster, 2006). Notably, as well, federal prison adopted the medical model during the late 1950s through the early 1970s.
Prisoner rehabilitation is a form of treatment. Treatment is when a plan is set forth to help a person. Since a prisoner has committed some type of crime, he or she will sometimes get a second chance. This second chance is known as rehabilitation and generally starts while in prison and continues upon being released. Rehabilitation is a way of getting the prisoner ready to go back out into the world as a new person free of the past in a way. Counseling, casework, and therapy are all types of rehabilitation.
There are also educational resources, outside visitors, and recreation that are also all forms of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation or treatment is something that is positive that happens to the prisoner. What are the origins of prisoner rehabilitation? Believe it or not the origins of prisoner rehabilitation started in a medieval dungeon and torture chamber in the late 18th century. Rehabilitation varies depending on the nature of the offender, the crime committed, as well as the institution in question.
The techniques that have been used for years vary from vocational and educational so that the offender may learn skills that can be used outside of the prison when they get released. Rehabilitation takes place mostly in the prison but sometimes even once the prisoner is released as well. How does prisoner rehabilitation affect prisons and general society? In my opinion it affects society in a very big way. The people that commit the crimes generally do not tend to think about the punishment. It seems as though it s ineffective most of the time because so many prisoners end up committing additional crimes and they end up doing more time in the long run. For prisons, balancing rehabilitation with punishment is challenging. For society, prison rehabilitation is a double-edged sword. After all, confinement serves societal needs for protection and retribution. Yet, ineffective or incomplete rehabilitation yields societal harm, especially since being imprisoned can and does counter the positive effects rehabilitation can engender. What recommendations might you make to improve prisoner rehabilitation?
In recent years, Colorado prisons have adopted separate facilities for prisoners with special needs and those who require more intensive rehabilitative services (Foster, 2006). While this is not possible for all state prison systems, it might be possible to balance rehabilitation and punishment more effectively through a more complex inmate classification and block assignment system. This would offset imprisonment, ensure secure custody and provide an environment more conducive to rehabilitation. References Foster, B. (2006). Corrections: The Fundamentals. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.