There has been an ongoing debate on the issue concerning how prisoners should be treated in prisons, the main question being, are inmates only supposed to be punished or is it possible to engage inmates in rehabilitation programs and other means to change them and make them law-abiding and self-reliant once released? According to, (Jones, 2009), the major focus of prison rehabilitation programs should be to increase the inmate’s education or skills level and thus increasing their chances of success in life once they are released from custody, some rehabilitation programs also aim at helping the prisoners recover psychologically and hence improving their psychological activities. The essay below, therefore, seeks to examine the significance of providing psychosocial and vocational rehabilitation for prisoners.
The primary goal of in-prison rehabilitation is to reduce recidivism, recidivism is when an offender released from incarceration relapses into criminal behavior and he or she is reconvicted and re-imprisoned for a new offense (McKean & Ransford, 2004). Recidivism therefore refers to the act of an individual who repeats an undesirable behaviour after having been treated or trained to extinguish the criminal habit. Psychosocial rehabilitation is designed to improve the lives of prisoners, its goal is to teach emotional, cognitive, and social skills that would help the prisoners live and work in a community as independently as possible after being released from prison. Psychosocial support takes the form of counseling and psychotherapy which is mainly provided by psychologists, social workers, and counselors, this is done because some of the prisoners are innocent and some are traumatized by what they see happening in the prisons, especially things like hanging. Most importantly psychosocial rehabilitation is centered on the individual's potential to embrace change or recovery and it also focuses on providing empowerment, social inclusion, and coping skills. Vocational rehabilitation refers to any programs that seek to restore individuals to their optimal physical, mental, social, and economic abilities. Vocational programs are geared at equipping prisoners with skills that can enhance employment, this helps the prisoners as soon as they leave prison to live a more satisfying life.
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First and foremost, the significance of providing psychosocial and vocational rehabilitation for prisoners is it reduces recidivism. Rehabilitation programs reduce recidivism if they incorporate proven principles that are targeted to specific offenders. In Zimbabwe prisons, offenders are released from prison after serving their prison terms, paying fines for their criminal offenses, paying bail, and or being granted Presidential amnesty. However; upon release from prison, offenders are confronted with a range of challenges such as finding employment and shelter, and lack of family and community support (Clear, 2007), and thus they recidivate and are re-incarcerated (Travis, 2004). Convicts are released into the community when they are inadequately equipped to deal with socio-economic needs. When released from prison, ex-convicts face the same unmet needs which force them to commit other crimes as they attempt to meet their socio-economic needs (Muchena, 2014). This implies that prisoners may not be fully prepared in prison with effective rehabilitation programs to assist them in building a positive life upon release. Specific programmes for rehabilitation and treatment are lacking in the Zimbabwe prison system and thus offenders are released when they are not prepared to deal with the outside world this is the case in most African countries. Therefore, equipping prisoners with skills through vocational rehabilitation will help them have a source of income outside prison hence they do not meet problems that will make them result into committing crimes again. Psychosocial rehabilitation will help the prisoners heal psychologically and attain social skills which will help the prisoners to associate and bond well in their various communities after being realized, hence preventing recidivism. On that note, psychosocial and vocational training rehabilitation is significant to prisoners as it reduces recidivism.
Secondly, psychosocial support for prisoners is important because it improves the psychological health of prisoners. Through psychosocial rehabilitation, prisoners are provided with correctional counseling services that focus on assisting offenders to deal with interpersonal conflicts, adjustment disorders, and depression due to loss of freedom through being thrust into a threatening environment. Hence psychosocial services focus more on rehabilitation and less on punishment (Gatotoh, 2011). According to (Gonzalez, 2016), psychologists state that mental health conditions are more common among prisoners than in the general population. Estimates suggest that as many as 26 percent of state or federal prisoners suffer from at least one mental illness, compared with nine percent or less in the general population. Prisoners with untreated mental illness are more likely to be arrested again after they are released. Therefore these prisoners must receive psychosocial rehabilitation so that they can function in their normal state of mind. Several behavior programs aim at providing treatment to offenders with psychological issues, these programs are designed to support offenders who suffer from either personality disorders or emotional needs. To address any psychological and emotional agitation, these programs offer round-the-clock living and learning interventions for offenders whose primary criminogenic contingency factors should be targeted. This is important because it would help the prisoner to relate well with others in their community, as they will be psychologically well, this would also prevent the prisoners from reoffending and getting back into the prisons. Behavioral programs are also targeting to reduce re-offending by teaching criminals to control themselves by improving their self-management skills.
In line with the above, (Essays, 2008) states that a widely known model that helps with psychological issues is the TSP, which stands for Thinking Skills Programme and works to teach the offenders to achieve their goals without committing offenses. In other words, it is based on self-management and personal coaching. Some people who commit crimes that lead them to prison are psychologically disturbed due to some events that took place earlier in their lives that might have disturbed their whole worldview. For example if one is a child heading his or her family they tend to find ways in which they can feed their family and they result into stealing which they may feel is a means of finding what they need to survive and they grow up thinking this is the right way of earning a living, therefore psychosocial support would help greatly in dealing with such individuals if they end up in prison.
Furthermore, psychosocial support helps prisoners to be able to blend well with their families and communities as they are equipped with social skills that will help them socialize and deal with the stigma that may come from the community, dealing with such stigma and being able to deal with issues in the community, especially on how the community views people who have been to prisons can help the prisoners to overlook some of the things people will say about them and slowly blend in with the community. Counseling assists prison inmates in establishing and maintaining healthy family relationships this is as stated by (Austin & Hardyman, 2004), and thus offenders understand the thinking processes associated with their criminal behavior. Counseling services assist prison inmates in effecting change in their behavior processes by acquiring the ability to enhance their functioning and live a more productive and self-satisfying life. Punishment breeds hard-core criminals (Roberts, 2008), and thus psychosocial and vocational rehabilitation aimed at reducing recidivism, targeting criminogenic offender characteristics by equipping offenders with survival skills for post-prison life with their families and communities at large.
Moreover, vocational rehabilitation enhances employment after having been released from prison. According to (Blakey, 2017) the Ministry of Justice research found that prisoners who receive vocational training in prison are more likely to enter employment soon after release. In its 2011 report, the Howard League for Penal Reform cited additional benefits of prison employment, arguing that it supports family dynamics for those in prison and raises revenue for the Treasury and victims while requiring minimal additions to centralized bureaucracy. Vocational training in prisons helps equip the prisoners with skills that will help them get jobs after being released more official jobs might be hard for them to get given that they have a criminal record so the other skills for example bricklaying, plumbing, and painting & decorating jobs are helpful for the prisoners to have something to do after being released rather than for them to be idle. The rehabilitation programs in Zimbabwe prisons such as maize production, poultry, vegetable gardening, and cattle ranching are mostly agriculturally oriented (United Nations Asia and Far East Institute Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, 2007). Other rehabilitation programmes include academic education, and technical courses such as carpentry, motor mechanics, and welding. Most agricultural programs help the prisoners after being released because they can be self-employed since most companies are not willing to employ an ex-convict.
Another significance of vocational training is improving the country’s economy. The increased focus on vocational and employability skills provision within offender learning reflects developments in the wider skills system. Getting a country’s vocational and technical education system right is both socially and economically vital, to succeed as a nation, strong vocational education is essential. According to (Dixon & Casey, 2013) the prison or professionals offering vocational training rehabilitation conduct regular analyses of the learning and skills needs of offenders and work with employers to look at labor market information and develop vocational provisions. Engagement with employers through the bi-monthly employer forum and hosting several employer engagement events have been successful in getting employers engaged and securing work placements for prisoners on Release or Temporary Licence this is as reported by Wales (Dixon & Casey, 2013). Vocational training provisions are designed to match the needs of the local labor market as well as the needs and interests of offenders. Vocational provision includes employability skills that can be transferred across a range of employment settings, including skills for job-seeking and writing applications; interview skills; teamwork, organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills; and support with disclosure of convictions.
The provision of psychosocial rehabilitation at times does not help the prisoners especially when these prisoners are facing such psychological problems within the prison cell as some inmates are very aggressive towards others, and some women prisoners are raped in the prisons adding to their psychological issues so at times these programs do not work. There are also problems of unavailability of resources which makes it very difficult to successfully carry out rehabilitation programs. Despite the great importance of prison vocational programs studies have pointed to a wide variety of barriers that inhibit the released prisoner's chances to integrate into the labour market, this defeats the whole purpose of vocational training rehabilitation.
In conclusion, the provision of psychosocial and vocational training for prisoners is very important as it reduces recidivism, improves the mental health of prisoners, enhances social skills, and creates employment for the prisoners just to mention a few. In the writer's view, the above-mentioned rehabilitation skills are important for prisoners despite that they have their downsides, such as the unavailability of resources and many more.
References
- Austin, J., & Hardyman, P. L. (2004). The risks and needs of the returning prisoner population; The review of policy research, 13-29.
- Blakey, R. (2017, December 21). House of the Lords. Retrieved from Research briefing: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/LLN-2017-0102/LLN-2017-0102.pdf
- Clear, T. (2007). Imprisoning Communities: How Mass Incarceration Makes Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Worse. New York: Oxford University.
- Dixon, A., & Casey, L. (2013). Vocational Training and Employability Skills in Prisons and Young Offenders Institutions. Leicester: Niace.
- Essays, U. (2008, November). A significance of rehabilitation criminology essay. Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/criminology/a-significance-of-rehabilitation-criminology-essay.php?vref=1.
- Gatotoh, A. M. (2011, April). Gatotoh, A. M., Omulema, B. E. E., & Nassiuma, DCorrectional Attitudes: An Impetus for a Paradigm Shift in Inmate Rehabilitation. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, vol. 1.
- Gonzalez, J. (2016, January 19). The conversation. Retrieved from Mental health care for prisoners.
- Jones, R. S. (2009). The first dime; A decade of convict criminology. The Prison Journal 89(2), 151-171.
- McKean, L., & Ransford, C. (2004). Current Strategies for Reducing Recidivism. Center for Impact Research. New York: Macmillan.
- Muchena, T. (2014). Factors contributing to reoffending among ex-prisoners in Zimbabwe after rehabilitation. A Case of Bindura Prison. Bindura University of Science Education.
- Roberts, R. A. (2008). Critical issues in crime and justice. London: Sage Publications.
- Travis, J. (2004). Prisoner Reentry: The Iron Law of Imprisonment. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall Publishing Company.
- United Nations Asia and Far East Institute prevention of crime and the Treatment of offenders. (2007). Animal report for 2006. Viena, New York: Sage.
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