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Rehabilitation is something that has been a topic for many years within the criminal justice system. Is it possible for an offender to be rehabilitated? The shift from the use of punishment as retribution to the focus on rehabilitation will be explained. There are various opinions on whether rehabilitation works for offenders. Some people believe that it cannot, some people believe it can and others believe that only rehabilitation is specialized towards the individual. As the issue arises in rehabilitation, more places are starting to have specialized rehabilitation for offenders. This research paper will discuss what specialized rehabilitation means, what the different type of offenders that requires specialized rehabilitation, what are some specialized rehabilitation, the focus of specialized rehabilitation with several distinct factors, and how specialized rehabilitation affects offenders. Also, this paper will discuss the biblical point of view of specialized rehabilitation by using scriptures from the bible to guide the Christian views.
According to Gideon and Sung, rehabilitation was something that started in jails and prisons. Rehabilitation was more of a punishment for offenders than actually helping the offenders. Rehabilitation can be defined as the process of restoring someone (such as a criminal) to a useful and constructive place in society according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. The rehabilitation process can be different for every offender. When rehabilitation was first started it was set as one way. The question remains as to how can we truly rehabilitate and individual if we do not know what they need. For example, a person with a cocaine addiction will not benefit from any stability if they are just on probation. Rehabilitation became specialized for an offender with special issues by using the risk-need-responsivity model. The model used an assessment to classify offenders as a sex offender, who have mental health issues, cognitive issues, and substance abuse problems. With the development of the risk-need-responsivity model, we can somewhat pinpoint the specialized rehabilitation for offenders. This developed different rehabilitation programs that were suitable for the offender's needs. As rehabilitation issues arose then specialized rehabilitation started to develop in corrections, community corrections, and now in the courtrooms.
Corrections were the first place to use rehabilitation as punishment. Corrections made it seem that a person can be rehabilitated just by being incarcerated. When noticing that one set of rehabilitation was not working, prisons began to develop prison facilities that would be used for offenders with certain problems. It is widely reported that people with mental health, physical health, and substance misuse problems are over-represented in prison populations worldwide, providing both a challenge and an opportunity to undertake individual and public health interventions in a hard-to-engage group(Senior 2015). Over the years mental health prisons or mental health, facilities have developed in just about all the states for offenders with mental health issues. The population of so many mental health offenders has grown, due to them not getting the proper medication that they need. In Georgia, one of the mental health prisons is Augusta Medical Prison. Augusta Medical Prisons provide centralized acute, specialized medical, and Level IV Mental Health services for male and female offenders primarily as transients (Corrections, 2016). This prison is prepared to make sure that the offender is properly medicated and able to be stabilized. With Medical prisons, other medical facilities provide medical attention to those who need it such as psychological facilities. The major of prison separation is mental health and the other population. Most other prisons can address substance abuse, physical health, and programs for sex offenders.
Community corrections can be classified as probation and parole; these are alternative supervisions for offenders other than incarceration. Community corrections use specialized rehabilitation through probation and parole. Probation and parole have utilized specialized rehabilitation through programs and officers. The programs consist of post-release for parolees, outpatient treatment centers, and inpatient treatment facilities. An officer who was assigned to a specialized unit was trained and educated a little more for the offenders who would be on the caseload. For example, the sex offender will be given to a sex offender officer who specializes in supervising those types of offenders to make sure that they do the treatment and abide by rehabilitation programs such as polygraph and classes. Even though offenders are held accountable for their rehabilitation, it is the probation parole officer who makes sure that they comply with the conditions. The outpatient treatment centers are secluded places where the offenders can come in to get treatment and still be living in the community. In most centers, the offender is required to take classes, have drug and alcohol screens, meet with a counselor, and go to Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings weekly. Inpatient treatment facilities are like prisons where the offenders are housed in a secured facility to get the help they need because they can focus on themselves in the community. There are different names in different states when it comes to specialized rehabilitation programs such as outpatient centers and inpatient facilities, but the purpose is the same.
In Georgia, an outpatient treatment center is called a Day Reporting Center (DRC), this is a center where probationers and parolees are referred to get the help that they need. They have resources within the community for offenders such as nonprofit organizations for the offenders they can help with housing and employment. They also contact groups such as the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) for mental illness individuals. After the complete DRC, the offender must do the Substance Abuse Aftercare (SAAS). SAAS is a six-month program that targets considerable risk offenders who have completed an intensive substance abuse services program. These offenders can come from the outpatient treatment center or Inpatient Treatment Facility. The Inpatient treatment facility in Georgia is called the Integrated Treatment Facility (ITF), and Residential Substance Abuse Treatment (RSAT). ITF is a 9-month program for an individual with a dual diagnosis in mental health and substance abuse, the goal is to treat both problems to make the person more effective. RSAT is a 9-month program that deals with substantial-risk, high-needs offenders with a severe substance abuse issue. As I stated before it is different in every state for these types of programs, for instance, in North Carolina there were programs similar to the DRC, that the probation and parole office had that collaborated with the police and sheriff department. There is an inpatient facility in North Carolina like the DART-Cherry. According to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety website, DART Cherry is a residential treatment facility responsible for the delivery of chemical dependency treatment services to probationers sent by the courts and parolees released from the State Prison System and transitioning back into the community. This program addresses Drug/Alcohol, Psychological/Mental Health, Medical/Physical Health, Educational/Vocational, Family/Social, and Legal Status of the offender’s life.
Specialize rehabilitation in the court system is something that is the newest to the criminal justice systems. When an offender is in front of the judge, the lawyer can plead the case that the individual needs special rehabilitation. Over the past few years, Courts have developed different courts that utilize the offender's individual needs. Some of the courts collaborate with probation and parole officers. Courts that were developed are Drug Court, Wellness/Mental Health Court, and Domestic Violence Courts. These individual courts are used to help offenders with their special needs by rehabilitation them through the court system instead of incarcerating them. The judge can order that the offenders must attend and complete the program or serve their time in prison. After three decades of a “war on drugs” in the United States, a time during which drug use became almost the norm among large segments of the population, and during which time the prison population increased more than threefold, a change in thinking about the “drug problem” in America is slowly coming about (Hennessy 2001). For instance, the Drug Court Program process starts during the sentencing. During the sentencing, the judge can make the condition for an offender to go into an intensive substance abuse program through the courts which can be possibly monitored by the drug court. The courts give the offender an assessment, which determines if the offender will be accepted into the program. The sentencing court makes a referral to the relevant Drug Court if the offender meets five ‘eligibility’ criteria: (1) sentenced to imprisonment with an unexpired non-parole period of 18 months to three years; (2) convicted of at least two offenses in the previous five years; (3) not convicted of specified offenses such as drug trafficking, sexual assault, and murder; (4) reside in the broader Sydney region; and (5) be over the age of 18 (Casey & Day 2014). The assessment is likely done before the judge makes the sentencing because, as a lawyer having an acceptation letter to attend the program means that the person has a spot. The requirements are just the same as Mental Health/Wellness Courts. The name Mental Health was changed to Wellness in some states. Mental health courts are specialist courts that apply the principles of therapeutic jurisprudence to provide a rehabilitative, rather than punitive, response to criminal behavior (Lim & Day 2016). The purpose of the Mental Health Court is to rehabilitate the individual through the court system instead of incarceration behind the idea that it can improvements in mental health and well-being and lead to a reduction in subsequent reoffending.
Galatians 3:28 states “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus”. This scripture states that there may be differences on earth for there are Jews, Greeks, males, and females but in the eyes of God, we are all the same. This is one of the many scriptures that show that though it was written, there are so many differences among us on Earth. With having a different everyone should be treated as a child of God even if they may not live by it. Another scripture that may pinpoint specialized rehabilitation is Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God”. The scripture says that God may continue to provide us with the things that we pleasure and possessions in various forms, but God expects his people to look at the world for our self in what he wants for us. Questions such as: What God would accept from us? What will be acceptable to god? Is what we are doing or going to do in our life the purpose that God has for us? Not questioning God but questioning your self to see if you are condemned to the world. People get so caught up in serotyping when it comes to mental health, substance abuse, and offenders that they may feel that they cannot be rehabilitated. Everyone, even those who are not incarcerated or have been incarcerated has had some issue whether it was a phase or long-term. As a Christian, helping those in need is something that God put in his word. For there is a lot of scripture in the book of Proverbs. Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy from Proverbs 31:8-9. Then Proverbs 28:27 states “Those who give to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to them receive many curses”. Giving to the poor such as offenders that need our help to rehabilitate them is better than turning a close eye and not helping them.
Offenders with co-occurring substance use problems and mental health problems, recently described by Lindqvist4 as triply troubled, may have specific treatment needs (Alm, Eriksson, Palmstierna, Kristiansson, Berman, & Gumpert 2011). Rehabilitation is something that has been a topic for many years within the criminal justice system. There are many opinions about rehabilitating offenders back into society. As the issue arises about rehabilitation, corrections, community corrections, and courts are starting to have specialized rehabilitation for offenders. Drug and alcohol use disorders are among the most prevalent mental disorders worldwide and rank high as a cause of disability burden in most regions of the world (Mellos, Paparigopoulos, Liappas, & Papadimitriou 2008). As a Christian, I believe God doesn’t see specialization rehabilitation any differently. The Golden Rule is to do unto others as you want them to do unto you. For some offenders, they are unaware that they have problems or issues that require some type of specialized rehabilitation. A disproportionate share of inmates has health, mental health, and substance abuse problems that greatly complicate their chances of employment(Gideon & Sung 2011). For offenders to enter back and remain law-abiding citizens in the communities, rehabilitation is imperative to help aid with the success rate and reduce recidivism. The ultimate goal of any rehabilitation approach is mainly to reduce recidivism.
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