Introduction
The major objectives for prisons are to rehabilitate the inmates in these prisons. This is seen as the major solution of trying to curb certain behaviors which do happen in our societies. You find that most of the offenders are involved in such crimes simply because they lacked someone who could advise them and try to counsel them so that they can deter from these behaviors. You find that crime is one of the major problems which occur in our societies hence shouldn’t be met with only simple and singular solutions to incarceration. This is because if you imprison these offenders, it will not have solved the solution simply because they still have the same mentality of doing the offense once again. As a result, too many claims should be imposed on the correctional workers, churches, families plus communities where such inmates come from hence it is the role of these people to try and do more so that they can help rehabilitate criminals and also prevent recidivism. You will find that if all these3 come together, join their hand and try to rehabilitate these people from doing such behaviors, this will be one of the ways of trying to deter them from committing such offenses meaning that the number of crimes will eventually end in our societies. (Mumola, 1998).
You find that most of the prisons like the Kenya prisons have the habit of warehousing the prisoners into the cells but this is not a solution at all. The best way to go is to try and rehabilitate them through the establishment of so many rehabilitation programs which will try to help these offenders from repeating the same crime time and again. I do believe that if many rehabilitation programs are established, it’s my belief that in the future, there will be no need at all for prisons because people will have adapted to new ways of thinking and also living together on this planet earth. This is because it is my belief that humans are not born to be violent but its behaviors which they tend to develop as they grow up due to lack of good communication and counseling programs to try and educate these inmates on how to live morally with the rest in the societies we come from. So through the paper, am going to try and analyze some of the rehabilitation programs which will try to deter the majority of the inmates from been convicted of many crimes they are involved in. (Kunoth, 2003).
Spiritual guidance programs
People are products of our environment and it’s the environment that tends to shape who we are and the environment, in this case, involves our surroundings which includes our interaction with the rest of us. You find that the care and the type of nurture which we tend to get in our infancy, the biggest attention we tend to receive from the older people, the treatment which we get from our peers when at school, the movies and images which we tend to watch at our televisions among other forms of interaction in our societies all will contribute to our sense of self-worth. So in this case you will find that the better we feel about ourselves and our behaviors, then the lesser we shall engage in criminal behaviors in the future and eventually become pastors or even priests through the spiritual guidance we get from the social workers and other volunteers. (Robins, 2000).
Vocational/ Education programs
You find that most of the states spent a lot of money building prisons than just using this money to build new schools for young people in our society. More social workers and also teachers are needed in this case to help the inmates so that they can develop a positive self-image and also teaching these inmates basic life skills which will help them to support themselves. You will find that most of the inmates are involved in criminal offenses simply because they lack the basic human skills which will help them to earn their living. This is because most of the criminals lacked the privilege of going to school simply because they lacked the funds to cater for their education. So in this case I tend to think that most of the inmates in the many prisons they are in should be provided with educational knowledge to help them have skills that will make it possible for them to be engaged in other economic activities. For example, many teachers and also social workers should be provided in these prisons to educate the inmates to become fully self-employed. Some of the areas which they should be taught are how to manage their own money, how they can find employment, been taught basic skills like carpentry, tailoring, considering housing options plus other activities which are done by most people in our societies. This is because these are fully energetic men and women and they can too be involved in economic activities which will lead to the growth of the economy. You will also find that if these inmates have the basic skills to support themselves, it will be a way of deterring them from such crimes while at the same time reducing the criminal case in our country. (Banja, 1999).
Drug rehabilitation/drug additional programs
Today, for example in the United States, there are 2 million inmates in prisons plus other 3.6million on parole. These high percentages of inmates who are in these prisons are a result of minor crimes which could be solved earlier through the introduction of rehabilitation programs. You find that most of the inmates in many of our prisons are as a result of substance use. Many of the young people in our societies are falling victims to substance use hence leading to the rise of criminal cases in our country. The major problem leading to this is the lack of people to try and talk to the young people in our societies about the effects of using such drugs. Substance use has grown at an exponential rate in most of our societies hence the need to try and rehabilitate the young people in prisons and also at our societies so that they could stop these behaviors. So I tend to think that if drug rehabilitation programs are established in our prisons, then our inmates will be in a position to see the light of not using such drugs. Some of the drugs which are commonly sued today by our young people include harmful drugs like marijuana, cannabis Sativa, bhang among other well-known drugs. You find that all these drugs have their negative impacts on the substance user some of the effects may be drug addicts. It is due to this habit of using drugs that most of the inmates will be involved in criminal cases like sexual harassment, robbery among other crimes simply because they are usually out of their senses. So when teachers, social workers, and other vocational people are taken in such prisons, then you will find that these inmates will be rehabilitated from using such drugs. At the end of the day, you will find that most of the inmates will have a negative attitude toward using the drugs hence the rate of criminals in most of our prisons will be below. Also, you will find that the money which was used by the government in building these prisons can be used in other economic activities say the provision of free health facilities in our societies. (Elliot, 2000).
Counseling programs
The major element of counseling, in this case, is positive and active listening. So you will find that for effective counseling to take place, the counselor has the big task of listening to sordid tales and after listening to these tales, has to make sense out of them with the objective of later effective the rehabilitation process. The counselor in this case has not only to listen to the words which are used by the inmates but also the emotions and also the undertones of the inmates. It is through having to know their emotions that he can be in a position to effectively rehabilitate them hence leading to a negative attitude to crimes with these criminals. Counseling is very much important to the prisoners since some tend to regret so much why they did a particular crime say the sexual harassment case. I tend to believe that this is a crime that could be solved through effective communication between the counselor and the criminal. The counseling programs when provided to the criminals will help them to deter their many behaviors simply because many did such behaviors since they lacked a person to counsel them on how to live upright in our societies. So you will find that when such rehabilitation programs are provided to many of our inmates at the prisons, at the end of the day, you will find that the criminal’s rate will go down. The money which was used in funding or even building these prisons will then be used in building other important things which will be beneficial to everyone in society. I urge the country to take the initiative of employing these rehabilitation programs and they will see a change in the rate of deviant behaviors in our societies. (Smeaton, 2000).
Conclusion
Warehousing of prisoners or even using these prisoners to provide cheap labor in most of the private corporations is not a solution at all. You find that most of the inmates in these prisons are taken to provide labor in most of the organizations like cleaning and also doing other non-important activities. This labor is very much important as far as economic growth and development are concerned. So I tend to think that if these inmates are rehabilitated, then they will be in a position to become self-employed hence have increased standards of living. The rate of criminals will also go down hence the money which was used in building new prisons can now be used in building other economic activities say building new schools so that most of the young people can be in a position to go to school and gain the basic knowledge which will help them earn a living. So it is a challenge to many governments who spent a lot of money building schools to explore the costs and effectiveness of employing other alternative methods to deal with criminals apart from incarceration and also try to put into practice other treatment strategies to help and rehabilitate prisoners. I tend to think that rehabilitation programs will work better.
Reference
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Harding, T. (2004): “Do prisons need special rehabilitation programs?” Bern. Peter Lang.
Alemango, S. (2004): Medical education goes to prison. New York. Free Press.
Maurice, V. (1996): Aboriginal and Islander rehabilitation programs in Townsville. Aboriginal and Islander Health Worker Journal. Vol. 15(3).
Haig, N. (2001): Preliminary guidelines for the implementation of community based rehabilitation programs. New York. Free Press.
Kunoth, P. (2003): Support programs for inmates. Australian Social Journal. Vol. 3(2).
Smeaton, T. (2000): Vocational rehabilitation programs. Journal of social issues. Vol. 8(1).