Coctional Educational Programs In Prisons

According to bjs.gov 67% of prisoners that are released get rearrested within three years. This means more than half of the people in prison right now, will reoffend. It may be because of drugs, or something more serious that could threaten the life of others. So how does one stop this recurrence from happening? The answer is quite simple, the prisons need to attempt to rehabilitate their prisoners. There needs to be programs in every prison that will help the prisoners to have a better life once they get out. No one wants to risk the lives of others by trapping a person in prison and never allowing them to do anything, causing them to be the same person they were before they entered. Of course, not every prisoner is going to respond the same
way to the rehabilitation. The rehabilitation is not going to change how every prisoner decides to live their life, but it will some of the prisoners lives for the better. Although some people believe prisoners should not get any benefits during the time they serve, it is our duty as a society to prevent re-entry into prison by giving prisoners a betting chance of getting a job when they leave, make them better people, and attempt to rehabilitate them. All prisoners should have access to an education program in the prison.
This will help their chances of getting a job when they get out and if they have a job, they are going to be less likely to reoffend. An article by Laura S. Abrams, a professor currently involved in several studies concerning juvenile justice and reentry, and Charles H. Lea III, a doctoral student at UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, believes the same. According to the authors, “Correctional educational programs improve offenders’ outcomes in a variety of domains such as employment rates, wages, hours worked, and recidivism” (670). This is only going to help the prisoners. They need to have something that will help them get through their time, and help them when they get out. They need something to look forward to or they are just going to come out of prison and do the same thing over again that put them there. If they have a job coming out of prison, they are less likely to reoffend because they are going to be focused on their job. Prisoners who participated in educational programs had thirteen percent higher odds in getting a job than those who didn’t participate, reduced recidivism risk by forty three percent, lowered arrest rate to forty percent, and a nine percent lower incarceration (Abrams and Lea 671). These statistics show that education will help prisoners. It will lower all the risks that prisoners are faced with after prison. Who wouldn’t one want reduced recidivism risks and lower
arrest rates? Education programs in prison are going to make the world a safer place. Religious programs would help prisons to provide a positive atmosphere for the prisoners and it could also make them all around better people. Although there would be prisoners that would not want to go to these programs, it would change some prisoners lives. This was the case for David Berkowitz, a serial killer from the 1970s who found his way because of the religious program in his prison. According to Rebekah Binger, the author of “Prison Ain’t Hell: An Interview with the Son of Sam- David Berkowitz, and Why State-Funded Faith-Based Prison Rehabilitation Programs Do Not Violate the Establishment Clause”, “Berkowitz at age 57 claims to be a changed man. He is unrecognizable in personality from the notorious cold-blooded killer of the 70s and he has the religious group to thank for this” (488-530). If a religious program can help a serial killer change his life around, the programs should be implemented. If the program can help a killer it should be able to help other prisoners who don’t have as big of punishments and will be leaving the prison someday. The prisons need to help prisoners who are going to be walking the streets of society someday, to become better people. In Berkowitz’s opinion, the prisoners need positive encounters, and this is necessary for rehabilitation (Binger 488-530). No one is going to change if they aren’t given a reason or opportunity to. So, if religious groups are added to prions, there is a better chance some of the prisoners will respond in a positive way, which is what needs to happen.
Implementing art programs in prison can have several positive effects on prisoners.
Art is something that is relaxing and soothing for most people. It should be put in prisons for this reason. Art could help prisoners become less aggressive and calm them down. A study was taken in a women’s prison in Scotland where they installed an art program. According to Briege Nugent, a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh and Nancy Loucks, a graduate of the University of Kentucky, where she earned her B.A. in English, art in prison helps deal with anger, aggression, and improves writing skills, social skills, and working with others (359). This positive impact on the prisoners can help them overcome their problems. The art program would not be that costly and it is a great way to help the prisoners relax and calm down. It would be an escape from the terrible things they have done, hopefully changing their outlook on life. According to Nugent and Loucks, “The arts are a low cost, high tough, non-threatening intervention that have produced measurable results in the areas of reduction of psychopathological behavior, reduced incident rates, reduced recidivism, improved educational performance, and increased self-esteem” (358). This study at the Scotland prison proves that their would be no harm in putting an arts program in prisons. The only thing it could do is help the rehabilitation process. Prisons need to start working on ways to help the prisoners recover, not further punishing
them. The only thing further punishment is going to do is make them more angry and aggressive, thus causing them to want to reoffend when they get out. The art programs is one way they can help stop this and start helping them recover.
The main reason prisons need to focus on rehabilitating the prisoners is so they are less likely to reoffend. Putting programs into the prisons have a positive effect and will drop the rate of recidivism. A prison in Norway takes a different approach than most prisons. This prison focuses on rehabilitation rather than harmful retribution. According to Arne Nilsen, Prison Governor/Warden of Bastøy Island prison in Norway, the reoffending rates are a fraction of the United States and United Kingdom. This is because of the way they treat their prisoners. They run as a community, do not harm prisoners mentally or physically, and focus on rehabilitation rather than just punishment (20-21). This is how all prisons should be. If prisons all around the United States focused on rehabilitation rather than all punishment the rates of recidivism would decrease greatly. These articles prove that. This prison has a fraction of the recidivism rates that the United States has (20-21). This is all because of how it is ran. Prison should help prisoners better themselves not bring them further down. All punishment is going to do is make the prisoners want to commit another crime once they are released, because nothing about prison helped them to reform their life. Some may believe that it is too costly to put all these programs into prisons but Michael Jacobson, the President of the Vera Institute of Justice, states “Spending now on prevention will result in greater social justice, reduced incarceration, and less spending on criminal justice and corrections down the road” (9). What Jacobson is saying is if prisons spend a little money now on rehabilitation programs it is going to help in the long run. They will have less prisoners reoffend when they get out of prison. These programs are necessary to get prisoners back on their feet and should be implemented in all prisons.
Although some people believe prisoners should not get any benefits during the time they serve, it is our duty as a society to prevent re-entry into prison by giving prisoners a betting chance of getting a job when they leave, make them better people, and attempt to rehabilitate them. To do so, prisons could put a number of programs in the prisons to help with preventing reentry. The education programs will help prisoners get a job when they get out. It will help them to focus on something else when they leave, making them less likely to reoffend. Religious programs could touch the lives of many prisoners. It could potentially help them to become better people and find their way. The art programs could help calm the prisoners and help with aggressive problems. All prisoners should have access to these programs. In the end, all these programs are going to help reach the main goal; attempting to rehabilitate prisoners to prevent re entry into prison.