Rehabilitation is the process of re-educating and retraining those who commit crime. It generally involves psychological approaches which target the cognitive distortions associated with specific kinds of crime committed by particular offenders – but may also involve more general education such as literacy skills and work training. The goal is to re-integrate offenders back into society.

Methods

A successful rehabilitation of a prisoner is also helped if convicted persons: * are not placed in health-threateningly bad conditions, enjoy access to medical care and are protected from other forms of serious ill-treatment,Clare Ovey,
Ensuring respect of the rights of prisoners under the European Convention on Human Rights as part of their reintegration process
'', Registry of the European Court of Human Rights. * are able to maintain ties to the outside world, * learn new skills to assist them with working life on the outside, * enjoy clear and detailed statutory regulations clarifying the safeguards applicable and governing the use and disposal of any record of data relating to criminal matters.Rec(84)10E 21 June 1984 on the criminal record and rehabilitation of convicted persons
. See also

prisoners' rights The rights of civilian and military prisoners are governed by both national and international law. International conventions include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the United Nations' Minimum Rules for the Treatment ...

Applications

Norway

Norway's prison system is based on the principle of normalization and away from retribution to focus on rehabilitation. Inmates have access to amenities they would have outside of prison, such as an exclusive mini fridge, flat-screen TV, private bathroom, and access to outdoor environment. This, along with a shared kitchen and living area "to create a sense of family" among inmates and the absence of traditional prison uniforms contributes to Norway's rehabilitative normalcy system. The prison's structure is composed of Units A, B and C, with Unit A housing those in need of psychiatric or medical attention, thus being the most prohibitive of the three. Halden fengsel, referred to as the "world's most humane maximum-security prison", embodies the country's goal of reintegration by aiding inmates in sorting out housing and employment before leaving the prison. Rehabilitative measures involve education, job training, workshops to acquire a trade, and therapy along with the humane treatment they receive from personnel who have to complete three years of training to become prison guards. The effectiveness of Norway's methods is evident as they hold the lowest recidivism rate worldwide at 20% as of December 2014. In comparison, in 2007, 14 prisons in England and Wales had reconviction rates of more than 70%, which cost an average of £40,000 a year for each prisoner. This has been accused of being "a huge investment in failure" and a "a total lack of consideration for potential future victims of released prisoners". "Better out than in" is Norway's Correctional Service unofficial motto that is in view with their rehabilitative system as a justice to society by integrating inmates as functioning members of society upon release.

Meditation

Vipassanā 10-day meditation courses were first taught in prisons in India in 1975. They have since been conducted in the US (1997–present), UK (1998), Spain (2003), Israel (2007) and Ireland (2015). Vipassana meditation aims to reduce negative mental states such as anger and aggression, and provide a path to inner peace.

Medical

Certain criminals can be treated chemically so that they do not become criminals again.

Legislation

Europe

As established by the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; french: Conseil de l'Europe, ) is an international organisation founded in the wake of World War II to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it has 46 member states, with a ...

committee of ministers, "a crime policy aimed at crime prevention and the social reintegration of offenders should be pursued and developed". "The European Court of Human Rights, also, has stated in various judgments that, while punishment remains one of the aims of imprisonment, the emphasis in European penal policy is now on the rehabilitative aim of imprisonment, particularly towards the end of a long prison sentence. ... A prospect of release is necessary, because human dignity requires that there must be a chance for a prisoner to atone for his offence and move towards rehabilitation. A review system is also needed because, over the course of a very long sentence, the balance between the grounds of detention (punishment, deterrence, public protection and rehabilitation) can shift to the point that detention can no longer be justified."

Germany

Per the German constitution, "Everyone has the right to life and to inviolability of his person. The freedom of the individual is inviolable. These rights may only be encroached upon pursuant to a law".

Italy

Per the Italian constitution, "Punishment cannot consist in treatment contrary to

human dignity Dignity is the right of a person to be valued and respected for their own sake, and to be treated ethically. It is of significance in morality, ethics, law and politics as an extension of the Enlightenment-era concepts of inherent, inalienable ...

and must aim at rehabilitating the condemned".

United Kingdom

The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 of the UK Parliament enables some criminal convictions to be ignored after a rehabilitation period.

United States

The United States Code states that sentencing judges shall make imprisonment decisions "recognizing that imprisonment is not an appropriate means of promoting correction and rehabilitation". In 2015 a number of reformers, including Koch family foundations, the

ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

, the

Center for American Progress The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a public policy research and advocacy organization which presents a liberal viewpoint on economic and social issues. It has its headquarters in Washington, D.C. The president and chief executive officer ...

Families Against Mandatory Minimums Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM) is an American nonprofit advocacy organization founded in 1991 to challenge mandatory sentencing laws and advocate for criminal justice reform. FAMM promotes sentencing policies that give judges the dis ...

, the

Coalition for Public Safety The Coalition for Public Safety is a bipartisan coalition of progressive and conservative American advocacy groups dedicated to criminal justice reform, established in February 2015. Members Its members include conservative organizations such as ...

, and the MacArthur Foundation, announced a bipartisan resolution to reform the criminal justice system in the United States. Their efforts were lauded by

President Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

who noted these reforms will improve rehabilitation and workforce opportunities for those who have served their sentences. Over the last few decades, the United States prison population has increased significantly. While prisons are considered punishment, they also are intended to have the purpose of future crime prevention. A recent study found that of $74 billion total spent on incarceration among federal, state and local prisons, less than 1% of that was spent on prevention and treatment. Incarceration not only harms the individual as intended, but also has unintended negative effects on the inmate's family, community, and overall society. Inmate education has been shown to reduce recidivism. Evidence shows that inmates overwhelmingly take advantage of education programs if they are available to them and if they can afford them. A recent study showed the earning a GED while incarcerate reduced recidivism rates by 14% for those under 21, and 5% for those over 21. Substance abuse is also a major issue in the prison system. Between 1996 and 2006, despite a modest population increase of 12%, the number of incarcerated individuals rose by 33% and the number of substance-abusing individuals rose by 43%. Existing treatment programs have shown solid evidence that drug treatment programs, along with support after release, are effective at reducing recidivism. Emotional and mental health counseling is a core component of successful inmate rehabilitation. Without the proper innate motivation and desire from the inmate, attempts to educate or assist with substance abuse are less effective. A study revealed that more than half of those incarcerated had a mental health problem, defined as a recent history or symptoms of a mental health problem within the previous 12 months. California's

juvenile justice A juvenile court, also known as young offender's court or children's court, is a tribunal having special authority to pass judgements for crimes that are committed by children who have not attained the age of majority. In most modern legal s ...

system is based on rehabilitation instead of

punishment Punishment, commonly, is the imposition of an undesirable or unpleasant outcome upon a group or individual, meted out by an authority—in contexts ranging from child discipline to criminal law—as a response and deterrent to a particular act ...

Psychopathy and recidivism

Criminal recidivism is highly correlated with

psychopathy Psychopathy, sometimes considered synonymous with sociopathy, is characterized by persistent antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited, and egotistical traits. Different conceptions of psychopathy have been u ...

.Jill S. Levenson, John W. Morin (2000). ''Treating Nonoffending Parents in Child Sexual Abuse Cases'', p. 7 SAGE, Marvin Zuckerman (1991
''Psychobiology of personality''
Cambridge University Press, p. 390. Glenn D. Walters (2006
''Lifestyle theory''
p. 42 Nova Publishers, The psychopath is defined by an uninhibited

gratification Gratification is the pleasurable emotional reaction of happiness in response to a fulfillment of a desire or goal. It is also identified as a response stemming from the fulfillment of social needs such as affiliation, socializing, social approva ...

in criminal, sexual, or aggressive impulses and the inability to learn from past mistakes. Individuals with this disorder gain satisfaction through their antisocial behavior and lack remorse for their actions.Hare, Robert D, Psychopaths: New Trends in Research. The Harvard Mental Health Letter, September 1995 Findings indicate psychopathic prisoners have 2.5 times higher probability of being released from jail than undiagnosed ones, even though they are more likely to recidivate. It has been shown that punishment and

behavior modification Behavior modification is an early approach that used respondent and operant conditioning to change behavior. Based on methodological behaviorism, overt behavior was modified with consequences, including positive and negative reinforcement continge ...

techniques do not improve the behavior of a psychopath. Psychopathic individuals have been regularly observed to become more cunning and better able to hide their behaviour. It has been suggested that traditional

therapeutic A therapy or medical treatment (often abbreviated tx, Tx, or Tx) is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a medical diagnosis. As a rule, each therapy has indications and contraindications. There are many different ...

approaches actually make psychopaths if not worse , then far more adept at manipulating others and concealing their behavior. They are generally considered to be not only incurable but also untreatable. Psychopaths also have a markedly distorted sense of the potential consequences of their actions, not only for others, but also for themselves. They do not, for example, deeply recognize the risk of being caught, disbelieved or injured as a result of their behaviour.

Criticism

Some criticisms of rehabilitative systems are that they can authorize lengthy restrictions of liberty (to allow time for diagnosis and treatment) and broad assumptions of governmental power over offenders' personalities. Moreover, due process concerns can be implicated by a lack of traditional safeguards of defendants' procedural rights in rehabilitative processes. Some rehabilitative programs, such as drug courts, have also been criticized for widening the net of penal control by sentencing more defendants to prison for violations of treatment regimes than would have gone to prison in the absence of those programs.

References

* ''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'', Fourth Edition, 2000. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

External links

"The Debate on Rehabilitating Criminals: Is It True that Nothing Works?"
by Jerome G. Miller, D.S.W. (printed in '' The Washington Post'', March 1989)
Bastoy: the Norwegian prison that works
The Guardian. Author – Erwin James. Published 4 September 2013.
I toured prisons around the world — and the system that seems the most relaxed is also one that works
Business Insider. Author – Baz Dreisinger. Published 19 July 2018.
How Norway turns criminals into good neighbours
BBC News. Published 7 July 2019. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rehabilitation Criminal law Penology Positive criminology Punishment