Prisons are not for rehabilitation - Writers Forum

Daniel Malone · 02-02-2007, 08:47 PM

I'm employed as a Corrections Officer for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, and with the return rate I just don't buy that prisons rehabilitate anyone. I feel rehab. has to come from within the individual and their choice to change and stop committing crime.

What does everyone else think?

pgoroncy · 02-03-2007, 12:29 AM

Prisons are more about punishment than rehabilitation.

cman · 02-03-2007, 12:52 AM

But what good does punishment do society? It only does good if it helps the punished learn from what they did. I think rehab is vital to reassimilate someone back into society. Especially in cases with drug addictions.

Now about the original point yes indeed rehab needs to come from the individual but then again so does everything else. Getting out of depression needs to come from the individual too, not a pill or a therapist. So I think rehab is the only way to help these peope help themselves.(as corny as that may sound.)

AirborneRooster · 02-03-2007, 01:02 AM

I think the prison system involves both rehabilitation and punishment. I feel that everyone must pay, in some way or another, for what they have done (while there are some laws and mandatory sentences that i disagree with). While these systems can go either way, the resources for rehabilitation are readily available to anyone requesting them. From experiences in my boarding school years ago (where some teens came, talking about how they would rather be in jail), rehabilitation is a personal choice. My opinion is that a Rehab program is only effective when the person in question is open to rehabilitation.

While I feel that the enviroment of a prison can't provide a positive situation to encourage change, I also believe that a persons decision to change is based on his/her desire to do something different in life. So, I feel that it's more on the person than the situation to create an enviroment for rehab

Scarecrow · 02-03-2007, 01:39 AM

Neither rehab or punishment are the primary purposes of prisons. The most important goal is to segregate dangerous criminals from the rest of society and ensure that they can do no further harm. All other considerations are secondary.

Hodge · 02-03-2007, 02:56 AM

Correction: the purpose of prison is to provide society with the impression that we've locked up the baddies and that they can't do any harm.

Never mind that we release them in short order without having rehabilitated them. In most cases they become better criminals after having been in prison.

wmd · 02-03-2007, 08:26 AM

I think the real problem lies in the fact that we focus more on punishment than we do on prevention.

And by prevention I dont mean police forces and stuff, I mean educating people...working with kids... helping out neighborhoods...

there are many things we can do so that our kids grow up with better standards and a better respect for society.

Intel · 02-03-2007, 09:09 AM

The problem is punishment. I know that may sound strange to you 'eye for an eye' folk but this is the problem. Once you punish someone you make them feel a victim, and their suspicions that the world is out to get them are confirmed. They won't see any wrong they did, instead they'll see their actions as the only thing they could've done in that situation creating a whole story around how their lives led up to that point. The wrong they've been through.

Don't get me wrong, its important to protect the public from harm, but not punish, there's a difference. They should be given dignity in prison, shown love, they shouldn't live in a cage. They should be shown how to get on in life in the outside world, they shouldn't be treated as dogs and made to feel ashamed of their actions. And the public play a vital role in this aswel, outcasting former prisoners. They should be given equal opportunity for jobs they are capable of performing.

This is not a slap on the wrist or taking the easy way out, this is helping both society and prisoners. Of course you don't have to do this, but until society learns (its been going on for centurys) then they will always pay the consequence. And they'll always be back at square one making the same mistakes, making the same equation asking for tougher punishments. Death is as tough as you can be, yet these people still commit crimes. Some just feel so worthless and struggle to cope on the outside that they purposely commit a crime to be caught and thrown back in the cell in their comfort zone. Even if they left prison with a genuine intention to make their lives better.

There is also something wrong with the society that creates these people then disowns them once they've made one mistake (and got caught). I know they've made many mistakes, but were all human, and its in our nature. They just made one more hurtful, and we can sit here, blame, judge and condemn all night, but it won't change the fact society created them. Yes we all have a choice, but as long as you are ignorant (which some may not understand) you have a severely limited choice in the actions you take. I don't mean intellectually. There are plenty of mastermind psychoes. I mean spiritually, within your role as a member of society and the human race.

They may seem like evil men (and women) but behind that, they're still human, and still capable of loving the way you love you parents or children. However its not as easy for them, behind the anger and vicious acts there is a deep seated suffering which lies trapped in their bodies. Its like they're possessed by their emotions, which the mind feeds with negative thoughts. It seems as if they have a free choice, when infact that free choice is very limited. Many times after a seemingly ordinary man has committed a vicious crime, he will tell you that he didn't know what came over him. And its true, something did come over him. Women who have been pregnant or get considerable mood swings during their menstral cycle will know what I mean. You literally aren't your self.

Now most of us have times where were completely over taken by our emotions on a small scale. A short time. Except fortunately our suffering isn't so deep that we can't break out of it when the moment could be critical, others may happen to be taken over at a critical moment. It could cost them the rest of their lives. Thus they carry around the pain the rest of their lives, and the emotion that they at first felt for a short time becomes their predominant state.

There is an underlying current of pain in the human psyche that has plagued man for eons, and is in most human beings. Even those of you who consider yourselves to be happy. You don't believe me? Why are humans so insistent on taking drugs? Drinking? Why do people watch tv for prelonged hours, most of the time constantly flicking through channels? Why is everyone in a rush to feel that universal euphoria of falling in love? Why do men daydream so much? What are these 'happy trying to escape? All of these things mentioned (and there are more) alter ones state of consciousness. This pain follows most people throughout their lives, and people do crazy things trying to escape or get a release from this pain. But some things society holds against them forever, and it becomes difficult to grow from that experience.

I must have read too many fairy tales, but I do once remember, long ago in my mind, of a thing called forgiveness. This must have been lost somewhere in history. And with the loss of forgiveness out grows pain and suffering, and the continuing effects that plague society.

edropus · 02-03-2007, 09:31 AM

Returning to the point of the post, no, prisons as they exist in the USA right now are patently not designed for rehabilitation. Hodge had it right: the reality is that prison is where you want to go if you want to learn how not to get caught and go to prison.

"Jerry, this guy's crazy. He keeps killing people. He's a psychopath; he has no understanding of right and wrong. What should we do with him?"

"Stick him in Cell 216 with the guy who makes bombs."

wmd · 02-03-2007, 09:37 AM

But as you said... You cannot rehabilitate someone that does not want to change.

If we would focus our attention on these people when they are young, there would be less criminals.

Daniel Malone · 02-03-2007, 09:57 AM

Everyone has brought up some valid and interesting points, and have highlighted some problems with our prison systems.

The common denominator that is taught, in the Ohio Penal system, to the rookies during training-is that criminals are locked up for punishment, and not locked up to be punished. Ohio is very aggressive in this respect with zero tolerance for violence and excessive use of force involving inmates and staff interactions alike.

At times, it seems that management is over-protecting the inmates with cameras all over the prison that record constantly, and crisis negotiators encouraging inmates to make a better choice than acting out, and severely punishing officers (with fines, suspensions, etc.) for the slightest infractions.

At SOCF, home of the 93' riot, we have over 450 officers and most of these officers have under five years experience. I don't have enough room to highlight the problems this creates, but one central theme is that there are so many policies, regulations, rules and post orders; not to mention certain supervisors expect different methods of enacting the aforementioned policies, rules and regulations, and with some of them lacking the ability or experience to supervise adult inmates or staff appropriately then you can see how easily situations can go awry.

The Ohio Penal System calls itself the Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, and the name was established by lawmakers via lawsuits for inappropriate conditions for prisoners. It's conception began a long process of adding more management in the prisons and micromanagement systems to provide better conditions for inmates, keep staff in line for legality purposes, and monitor programs and schooling for inmates.

It is not a knew concept, but one that has became popular over the last 30+ years. SOCF is the dumping ground for the prison system of Ohio. If the screw up in other prisons then they are sent to SOCF. So we have a "breeding" ground of crime and house many of the gang leaders and "prison" drug dealers, Residential Treatment Unit (for criminally insane). Plus, we just added two Protective Custody (PC) blocks.

The inmates are provided with a chance for schooling and programs coming out their asses, and most of them have some kind of job description and work most days. So it is not a lack of help on the prisons part, they have it at at SOCF. But most chose not to follow the rules and end up coming back into the system.

SOCF has become a hodgepodge of different offenders and each area has different policies and rules. And every relief officer must know the policies and rules, and post orders to affectively work the blocks. If not then they are disciplined.

As you can see from some of the details a prison is a difficult place to work and full of tension and hate.