The prison-based community is a population that should be supported in diverse spheres such as healthcare, psychological health, social interactions, and working. Various types of services such as therapeutic communities, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, healthcare, elder care, and social reintegration preparation are provided to prisoners. Sometimes, such services can be looked at as interventions in prison life and prison-based communities; however, these are the required measurements to support individuals in prison and ensure their stable life after the release.
Medical interventions should exist due to the existence of human rights. Although prisoners are subjects that were punished by the country’s laws, they are objects under its protection. In addition, regardless of constitutional laws, moral principles are an integral part of medical intervention in prison life. Moreover, doctors gave the Hippocratic oath; hence, they should not reject patients that can be provided with appropriate healthcare. Additionally, this medical oath requires physicians to treat patients fairly and without prejudices regardless of their background. These are the moral, official, and professional reasons for medicinal interventions in prison-based communities, even if this help is rejected.
Social interventions in prison-life concern not only medicinal issues but other spheres of people’s lives, such as education, physical and psychological training, and eldercare. According to Lior and Hung-En (2011), more than half of prisoners were involved in drug crimes, were using drugs, or were drug-addicted by the time of their arrest. Therefore, rehabilitation practices suggested in prisons are aiming to reduce the number of inmates dependent on drugs in order to ensure their normal life after reintegration into society. It is well-known that in modern society, it is quite difficult, next to impossible, for drug addicts and former prisoners to find an appropriate job. Hence, such rehabilitation services via intervention in the normal flow of prison life aim to prepare individuals for their comeback. In addition, society makes effort to intervene in prison-based communities to lower the rates of recidivism, drug use, and drug dealing and increase the number of successful cases of reintegration (Lior & Hung-En, 2011). Hence, an intervention that aims to provide rehabilitation services tends to bring a positive effect for prison-based communities.
Prisoners consist not only of teenagers, young adults, and adults but also of elderly people who need support from professionals. Stevens et al. (2017) state that the term “elder prisoners” includes people who are 50 and older, because the environment in prison tends to fasten the aging process. Diverse factors such as inappropriate healthcare in prison, poor ventilation, bullying from younger prisoners, and the lack of fresh air may influence the health of elder prisoners and lead to various health problems. In addition, Stevens et al. (2017) explain that elder prisoners are at a more lavish risk of suicide, drug overdose, or depression than younger prison-based populations. Such interventions in prison-based communities as prison hospice services or nursing home prisons are implemented to provide aged prisoners with high-quality elder care (Stevens et al., 2017). The depressing environment created in prisons may cause deaths or psychological trauma that build a traverse for reintegration.
Reintegration requires social communication and appropriate social interaction between former prisoners and other individuals outside the prison. Hence, sometimes, several interventions are undertaken to broaden a social network of inmates within their groups of prisoners, increase their level of trust, and give them experience within a community. Such interventions are generally implemented in the form of therapeutic communities. These communities represent residential treatment programs that take place within a prison unit and aim to provide a highly structured, friendly, and pro-social environment (Schaefer et al., 2021). In addition to providing a normal social environment for prisoners, these therapeutic groups set the goal to reduce drug or alcohol addiction and abuse and provide psychological support (Schaefer et al., 2021). Therefore, these type of interventions bears a social meaning and is an integral part of establishing an appropriate social environment in prison-based communities.
Prisoners are also supported with educational training that aims to introduce prisoners to diverse skills that may be required after their reintegration. According to Lior and Hung-En (2011), educational programs in prisons are designed to help the individuals in prison reach the minimal education standards both federal and state. Several prisons offer inmates to obtain college degrees, help prisoners improve their analytical skills, ensure moral development, and encourage these communities to take the GED test and get a high-school diploma (Lior & Hung-En, 2011). These services are suggested to support prisoners in their job-seeking process after the release and create competitive workers. Not only services but also special rooms for self-education, such as libraries, offer an alternative to education (Lior & Hung-En, 2011). Vocational training programs are also suggested, but they tend to be less effective than the government might believe. Hence, all the described educational interventions help establish a highly educated society; and in collaboration with therapeutic communities and the offered psychological support, prisoners can fully transform into qualified and mentally healthy workers.
This research helped me understand the specifics of prison life and review the spheres that require social intervention to ensure stability in prison-based communities. In addition, previously, I did not look at inmates as individuals who will reintegrate into society; hence, I did not understand the need for their improvement in interpersonal skills and working abilities. I knew that medical services were provided to the prisoners. However, I could not imagine that elder care is a part of social support for prisoners. I managed to reflect on the importance of social and medical interventions and change my perception of prison-based communities.
References
Lior, G., & Hung-En, S. (2011). Rethinking corrections: Rehabilitation, reentry, and reintegration. SAGE Publications Press.
Schaefer, D., Davidson, K. M., Haynie, D. L., & Bouchard, M. (2021). Network integration within a prison-based therapeutic community. Social Networks, 64, 16-28. Web.
Stevens, B. A., Shaw, R., Bewert, P., Salt, M., Alexander, R., & Loo, B. G. (2017). Systematic review of aged care interventions for older prisoners. Australian Journal of Aging, 37(1), 34-42. Web.