WHY THE PRISONS DO NOT WORK (AS WELL AS THEY COULD)
"Men simply copied the reality of their hearts when they built prisons." ~ Richard Wright.
I do not want to offend all the good people who have dedicated their whole career to a positive prison reform, but the very nature of the prison business is conservative, so changes to improve are necessarily slow. But let's consider some reasons for the current gloomy state of affairs.
First, people much smarter than me, have predicted with confidence that if we suddenly release the more than 2.5 million incarcerated criminals we have locked up today, there would be no significant increase in the crime rate. This sad reality reflects a failure of the system: imprisoned offenders are only a very small …show more content…
My own studies on the effectiveness of prison rehabilitation programs show some important things: (a) conversation therapy alone is quite useless, because you simply can not convince yourself of a situation in which you behaved (b) any theory or treatment program can be successful if it is provided consistently within the culture of the prison, the values that are lived and demonstrated day by day; reinforced by all employees in all shifts; and they reflect how the prison works when no one is looking. The other factor is that certain rehabilitation programs, if there is good correspondence between the individual offender and the professional staff providing the treatment, are more likely to succeed in changing behavior and thinking, by doing so instead of talking. These experiential and evidence-based programs include therapeutic communities of mental health and substance abuse, organized recreation, religion, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and drama therapy. These programs organize viable opportunities for offenders to develop valuable empathy, critical success factors and knowledge necessary to achieve a more meaningful transformation.7. Most of us learn in the worst way that we can not handle or change others, until we master self-management and become more open to change ourselves. Therefore, every positive change in prisons is likely to be resolved with a positive change on the part of …show more content…
These good experiences included: changing the traditional name of "inmates" to "residents"; organize the prison into autonomous groups under the concept of unit management; giving offenders a free choice in a menu of treatment options that they felt would be best for themselves; teaching advanced mathematical solutions to the criminals who gave them legitimate power; and the use of technology to help predict what the criminals had to change more to be more successful when they leave
"Men simply copied the reality of their hearts when they built prisons." ~ Richard Wright.
I do not want to offend all the good people who have dedicated their whole career to a positive prison reform, but the very nature of the prison business is conservative, so changes to improve are necessarily slow. But let's consider some reasons for the current gloomy state of affairs.
First, people much smarter than me, have predicted with confidence that if we suddenly release the more than 2.5 million incarcerated criminals we have locked up today, there would be no significant increase in the crime rate. This sad reality reflects a failure of the system: imprisoned offenders are only a very small …show more content…
My own studies on the effectiveness of prison rehabilitation programs show some important things: (a) conversation therapy alone is quite useless, because you simply can not convince yourself of a situation in which you behaved (b) any theory or treatment program can be successful if it is provided consistently within the culture of the prison, the values that are lived and demonstrated day by day; reinforced by all employees in all shifts; and they reflect how the prison works when no one is looking. The other factor is that certain rehabilitation programs, if there is good correspondence between the individual offender and the professional staff providing the treatment, are more likely to succeed in changing behavior and thinking, by doing so instead of talking. These experiential and evidence-based programs include therapeutic communities of mental health and substance abuse, organized recreation, religion, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and drama therapy. These programs organize viable opportunities for offenders to develop valuable empathy, critical success factors and knowledge necessary to achieve a more meaningful transformation.7. Most of us learn in the worst way that we can not handle or change others, until we master self-management and become more open to change ourselves. Therefore, every positive change in prisons is likely to be resolved with a positive change on the part of …show more content…
These good experiences included: changing the traditional name of "inmates" to "residents"; organize the prison into autonomous groups under the concept of unit management; giving offenders a free choice in a menu of treatment options that they felt would be best for themselves; teaching advanced mathematical solutions to the criminals who gave them legitimate power; and the use of technology to help predict what the criminals had to change more to be more successful when they leave