The prison population in America has continued to increase in recent years. It has caused the growth of a cottage industry with the prison system. More prisons are being built but it cannot stem the tide of an increasing population of candidates being incarcerated. The result is that larger numbers of prisoners are being released into the community.
Advocates promote prisoner rehabilitation to help the offenders adjust to life outside of prison as well as to stop them from committing crimes and returning to the criminal justice system. Some statistics state that 60 to70 per cent of the released inmates return to jail within a few years. Many of these include sex offenders and violent criminals. A good prisoner rehabilitation program would not only benefit the criminal but society at large.
Some say that prisoners cannot be rehabilitated. If the numbers are correct then there are a substantial amount of prisoners that do not return to prison. They go on to become contributing members of society. Were they the subjects of a good prisoner rehabilitation program or is it their will and determination that keep them on a straight path? Advocates and opponents disagree on whether or not prisoner rehabilitation programs work.
Faith Based Programs
One of the largest types of prisoner rehabilitation programs are the faith based initiatives. Clergy of various denominations make the rounds to prisons to counsel the inmates and offer resources that they may not find elsewhere. Even the Scientology group offers a program to help inmates find the skills to re-enter society.
The goal of the faith based prisoner rehabilitation programs is to first shift the spiritual prospective of the inmates to a larger prospective than what first led them to a criminal life. These programs offer different resources depending on the prison and the group. It is found that a large segment of the prison population is unable to read or write. This of course limits the types of work or jobs that they are able to do on the outside. A major goal of many faith based prisoner rehabilitation programs its literacy.
It has been found that if the prisoner gains basic reading and writing skills, and gets a GED or further education their chances of functioning in the community increase dramatically. Also many of these programs focus on drug or alcohol abuse counseling as well. Chronic drug abuse is the cause of many arrests, as it affords a way to pay for the addiction. Counseling both spiritual and interpersonal by qualified clergy personnel can help the prisoners find better tools to cope with and handle their lives. More research is needed to see the results of fait based prisoner rehabilitation programs.