Does the Prison System Work?
Why are so many going through it?
The definition of rehabilitation is as follows: the restoration of someone to a useful place in society (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, n.d.). This basically means to restore someone to where he or she can be a useful and functioning part of society. Does our prison system rehabilitate? The prison system offers a variety of ways to help rehabilitate offenders: life skills classes, drug treatment programs, college, job training, and a variety of other programs. Even though these programs do help the minority of inmates in prison, the prison system is not rehabilitating the majority of inmates because the majority of inmates are leaving the prison system better criminals than they were entering the prison system; therefore, the prison system has a high recidivism rate.
People have been wondering for a while if the prison system does work- there are studies that date back to the 1920s. One of the most popular studies used to determine how effective the prison system is was researched by Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck, in which they followed inmates released from Massachusetts Reformatory in 1921 and 1922. At the end of five years of research, out of the 510 inmates that the Gluecks tracked, "Almost eighty percent were not rehabilitated" (Glaser, 1969, p. 8). The research that the Gluecks did shows the general public that recidivism and rehabilitation has been a problem a lot longer than most people think. Since the recidivism rates keep climbing all the time, this is a problem that needs to be addressed.
Where does this recidivism rate come from? Are these offenders reoccurring felons or probation violations? And with the probation violations, are they felons returning for non-felony violations? The answer to this question is in statistics. According to U.S. Department of Justice: Bureau of Justice Statistics (August 8, 2007), "Of the 272,111 persons released from prisons in 15 States in 1994, an estimated 67.5% were rearrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within 3 years, 46.9% were reconvicted, and 25.4% resentenced to prison for a new crime." Sex offenders also carry a high percentage of recidivism. Also reported by the U.S. Department of Justice, "Within 3 years of release, 2.5% of released rapists were rearrested for another rape." These statistics tell a story all on their own- the prison system is not doing a very good job of rehabilitating the offenders that enter the prison system.
Why is this recidivism happening? Is it drug addiction, social environment, the stigma of having been in prison, or the lack of social support? Why has prison become a revolving door for a lot of offenders? The high recidivism rate is why these various programs were developed, but do they really deal with the problems or are they just a way for the offenders to get time cuts? The general public only hears what these programs are supposed to do, not what percentage of offenders these programs actually help. According to Renew America (nd), "70% of all criminals are re-arrested within 3 years of their release from prison. In fact, of the few programs that have shown any detectable positive effect on their participants, the best result was a mere 10% reduction in recidivism" (para. 3). So are these programs really helping or are they just wasting tax payers money?
These programs are not provided to offenders for free- staff has to be paid, then there's the cost of materials, and various other expenses. The money for these programs comes from tax payers, and they are quite expensive. According to the Office of National Control Drug Control Policy (nd):
"In 1996, states and localities spent over $27 billion in corrections, of which $22 billion was used for prison operations alone. The average annual cost per inmate was $20,142, ranging from a low of $8,000 to a high of $37,800. For the federal system, the annual cost per inmate was $23,500. By comparison, probation and parole costs in 1997 ranged from $1,110 per year for regular supervision to $3,470 for intensive supervision, and $3,630 for electronic supervision. Cost variation is explained primarily by caseload."
The above statistics are just for substance abuse treatment with community support. So that plus providing college for some offenders, plus other programs, the amount has to be startling. Are these programs really worth the money that is put into them, with the recidivism rate being so high? For example, there is an inmate that I supervised myself personally on my job as a correctional officer; I will not state names, but I will mention his offenses. This particular offender has been through a drug treatment program that was suited specifically for his drug of choice, methamphetamines and he was also in the PLUS program, which is like a life skills program with a therapy basis. He is now in prison for the third time with a "dealing a controlled substance" offense. What does that say about the drug treatment program and PLUS program that he participated in? This particular offender did well with the programs, even once in the Work Release Program; he did not use or deal again until he was completely released from prison and completely back in society. Even though this is his third drug charge, he is due to be released in 2010. Where did these programs fail this particular offender? In my career as a correctional officer, I have seen so many come back through the "revolving door." Where is our prison system failing these offenders and what can be done to fix this problem?
Our correctional system has tried to correct these offenders by taking them out of society to try and change the way they behave by trying to rehabilitate them. This means "rehabilitation" is failing somewhere along the way. Could some of this failure be due to staff that is not adequately doing their job? Day in and day out on the job, I seen so many of my coworkers being taken off in handcuffs because they had brought drugs into the facility, had relations with an inmate, or any number of other illegal situations. Additionally, instructors that do teach at these prisons are only allowed to teach the offenders so much. Linn (2000) stated, "Teachers, of course, may know which skills are necessary because of their professional training. But the lack of administrative support, and their peers' disdain and distrust, means that they do not have the autonomy to make use of their knowledge"(p. 70). Furthermore, instructors only have limited resources due to what is and what is not allowed inside of the facility. So are these offenders really getting an education or training that they need to exist in society or is it being limited because of officers enforcing their criminal behaviors and lack of support from within of the prison? Is the fact that offenders are not getting the education and training to exist outside of prison one of the reasons that the recidivism rate is so high?
Being released from prison, which is a world of its own, into the "free world" is not an easy transition. The offender has to go from being told what to do every waking moment and being supervised 24 hours a day, to learning again to make decisions for themselves and figuring out how to function in the "free world." There is no transition period for this unless the offender is lucky enough to be in a location that offers a half-way house. However, not all offenders are given this option or they may not qualify to use this option if it is offered. According to Glaser (1969), "To find his way out of a life of crime, the released prisoner needs to attain economic self-sufficiency through acquiring an adequate legitimate income. He also needs to develop satisfying social relationships with noncriminal persons and to sever his ties with those committed to crime" (p. 264). However, despite this fact, most offenders are thrown back into the same social and economic situation that they were in before they entered prison; therefore, they are thrown back into the same life that lead them to prison in the first place. So where is the education and training that they learned while in prison? Most reputable companies will not hire a person with a felony background; so did this education and training received in prison do the offender any good? Is there any other means of rehabilitation that would be more beneficial to the offender that would not be as damaging as incarceration in a prison environment?
It is a known fact that offenders come out of prison better criminals than they were entering the system. Take, for instance, an offender who's incarcerated for two years for a minor offense. This offender is thrown into a system with career criminals who can teach this person, who was a minor offender, how to do crimes "better." Just as a correctional officer, the offenders taught me quite a few things: how to rob a bank and get away with it, how to transport drugs, how to pick any kind of lock. Those are just a few things that the offenders told me how to do. Not that I would listen to them- I had no desire to live this kind of life and obviously they were not perfect at it since they were in prison! But that is just to show that if that's what they told me, they will tell so much more to other offenders. So maybe an alternative to this kind of environment will help with the recidivism rate decrease.
I can remember as a child, I took a piece of gum from our local store and my dad shamed me by making me take the piece of gum back into the store and say that I had taken it and apologize. I was so ashamed that I never did it again. A lot of offenders never have to face their crime scene or the person they violated. Some judges are turning back to this system of shaming and starting a new styem of offender/victim communication. "Municipal Judge Michael A. Cicconetti of Painesville, Ohio, handed down a sentence on a defendant found guilty of sending false fire alarms. As punishment, instead of going to jail, the defendant was required to go to each fire department in the court's district to make a public apology. Other sentences imposed by Judge Cicconetti include requiring gaudy license plates on the cars of DUI offenders and making vandals lead a donkey bearing a sign which said Sorry for the jackass offense'" (Williamsen, 2004). Also, at Louisiana State Penitentiary, Sister Helen Prejean started a program where the offender meets with the victim or the victim's family (in circumstances of murder), which helps the offender see the damage they did cause to another human being and makes them face their actions. There is also the option of other types of "incarceration," such as boot camp, which is an option that is really taking off with juvenile facilities. This type of environment would help the offender build structure in their personal life because it is run just like a military boot camp. Boot camps would help cut down on prison overcrowding and it is meant for the more "non-hardened" offenders, who have not established a criminal mentality yet. Boot camp would keep the first-time offenders away from the offenders who have already become a victim of the system. (Iowa General Assembly, December 16, 1993).
Does the prison system and the programs it uses to rehabilitate really work? Some people believe that it does and some people who have been through the system or worked for the system say that it does not. The recidivism rate says that it does not and that the programs that our tax money pays for do not help with rehabilitation because of the environment of prison and the stigmas an offender has to deal with upon his/her release from prison. Hopefully, one day, a way to rehabilitate offenders will be successful and we will see the recidivism rates become lower.
References
Evans, P. & H. (2005, March 12). Why can't we reform our criminals? Renew America. Retrieved October 24, 2008 from http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/evans/050312.
Glas er, D. (1969). The Effectiveness of a Prison and Parole System. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. Retrieved October 18, 2008, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=454758.
Iowa General Assembly (December 16, 1993). Boot Camp as an Alternative to Prison. Retrieved October 24, 2008, from http://www.legis.state.ia.us/lsadocs/IssReview/1993/ is1207a.PDF.
Lin, A. C. (2000). Reform in the Making: The Implementation of Social Policy in Prison. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Retrieved October 24, 2008, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=100882020.
Office of National Control Drug Control Policy (nd). Breaking the Cycle of Drugs and Crime. Retrieved October 19, 2008, from http://www.ncjrs.gov/ondcppubs/publications/policy/n dcs01/chap3_3.html.
rehabilitate. (2008). In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
Retrieved October 18, 2008, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rehabilita te.
U.S. Department of Justice: Bureau of Justice Statistics (August 8, 2007). Criminal Offenders Statistics. Retrieved October 18, 2008, from http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/crimoff.htm#recidivism.
Williamsen, K. (2004, December 27). Judges Getting Creative: Much to the Dismay of Some Liberal Activists, More and More Judges Are Devising Creative Punishments for Criminals as Alternatives to Sentences Which Send Violators to Prison. The New American, 20, 19+. Retrieved October 24, 2008, from Questia database: http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5008399829. rite your article here