Using Correctional Rehabilitation to Reduce Recidivism

The use of correctional rehabilitation in the law is to help those convicted to decrease the chances of their behaviours to happen again. This is to educate and motivate prisoners to be better. Programs differ between facilities, and each program focuses on different aspects and different needs based on their population/inmates. Whitney (2009) talked about how those who go through rehabilitation and come out of it, gain self-confidence, and are more self-aware, but those who come into prison without knowing what they did wrong tend to reoffend again once they are released. Correctional rehabilitation has various outcomes, some populations do change for the better and some do not. People who leave prison after serving their time and going through rehab are still looked down on within their community. Education is an important aspect in recidivism, and it helps offenders to ease back into society (Whitney, 2009). Being released after going through rehabilitation can have pros and cons. Rehabilitation can either work and change people for the better or it does not, society looks down and gets scared of inmates or people who were previous offenders, and rehabilitation is also affected by the environment they are in. There are different types of treatments like, community-based, cognitive theory, and educational, and these all help with recidivism.

There are community-based treatments that supervises former offenders and how they are doing within their community and how they are after being released, this treatment works best in an environment where former offenders are allowed to have their freedom to a certain extent (Kantini, 2018). It has been proven that people are often scared of previous offenders and have little sympathy towards them. The public makes them more violent than they appear, the public reacts to released inmates in a specific manner due to the reputation they are given (Gideon & Sung, 2011). If society or the people tend to react a certain way about releasing, or giving a prisoner a chance of going through rehabilitation, this changes the way policymakers think. The way the society acts have an affect on how they will face the problems (Gideon & Sung, 2011). Rehabilitation only works if the prisoners have the motivation to get better and if the staff members inside the facility are doing their part of the job. Some of the staff do not participate in helping prisoners with their reentry and their rehabilitation programs which makes it harder for prisoners to come back into society if they are unprepared (Gideon & Sung, 2011). The environment that these inmates are in are also has an impact on how much they want to partake in these rehabilitation programs. Some countries have better rehabilitation programs than others, because some countries have more faith that these people will change.

Cognitive theory based focuses on assigning homeworks to prisoners and that helps them develop a better mental health (Mcdonald & Morgan, 2013). Homeworks are given during their in session/therapy. Giving out assignments to inmates helps workers understand where the inmates are, and help them from there. By giving these inmates something to do while they are in jail helps them develop skills, like learning, cognitive, and apply them to their life. Educating inmates will help them when they get released into society. It will help them get jobs, help them change for the better and reduce the likelihood of repeating their behaviours. They have a risk need responsivity homework which indicates how dangerous they are, and once they find out the level of risk, workers will focus on this and help the inmate on that level of risk (Mcdonald & Morgan, 2013). The homeworks given in the facilities is not meant for everyone. People fear that when they open up and expose their mindset and where they are cognitive wise, that it could be used against them in court, or in jail. They are afraid to be considered weak and be beaten up because of it. Since homework is the most efficient way to get inmates out of trouble and to prevent dangerous habits, it is recommended that they get homework. Most of these homeworks are therapeutic which helps inmates be more at ease and engaged into doing it (Mcdonald & Morgan, 2013). Actively working an inmate's cognitive thinking can help decrease their behaviour, it helps them understand their actions and wrong doings. Focusing on homework instead of why they are in prison, helps them want to get better, and give them hope that things will look up for them. In Netherlands, they created a program called Prevention of Recidivism Program and it is designated for those who have a couple months left in their sentence. This program gives them a chance in rehabilitation. Instead of focusing on cognitive work, this program focuses on the behavioural aspects of their intervention (Bosma et al., 2016). Not only do they focus on behavioural aspects, but they look at cognitive skills, lifestyle training, and job skill training (Bosma et al., 2016). Just like the cognitive theory, they look at the criminogenic needs of the inmates, they work from there and develop plans that can further develop their skills and reduce the risk of coming back to the same need (Bosma et al., 2016). Educating inmates about the wrongdoings of their actions and the consequences they can face if they keep on doing it, will help them lessen that behaviour. Some inmates do not know what they are doing wrong, and that is why educating and using rehabilitation is so important.

Rehabilitation is designed to help prisoners develop skills to educate and better their lives once they are released from prison. Developing skill such as job, lifestyle, communication, and developing a good mental health can help someone reduce the likelihood of repeating past behaviours. Not everyone will participate in rehabilitation programs as it is perceived as something weak and not confidential and anything that is said in therapy could be used against them. Therapy can be scary to some people as it can do more damage than good for some, while those who participate in it, are willing to better their lives and be a better citizen. Each facility, country and population focuses on different methods on how to make rehabilitation more effective and more inviting for other inmates.