Constant Stereotypes that People Place on Former Prisoners Essay

Consequently, former incarcerated individuals will become in danger of remaining a permanent lower class because they have many limitations on the type of jobs that will be available to them, which mostly pays minimum wages. To make matters worse, many former incarcerated individuals do not obtain much education, which will diminish their ability of facing the challenges of 21st century workforce and reduce any chance for a high quality of life. Many inmates may possibly entered prison without obtaining any high school credentials, which could be one of the reasons that recidivism remains prominent. “Three-quarters of state prison inmates are dropouts, as are 59% of federal inmates. In fact, dropouts are 3.5 times more likely than high school graduates to be incarcerated in their lifetime” (AYPF). Many of these prisoners may have been incarcerated for a long period of time; consequently, causing their skills to become more obsolete compare to skills that were required before they entered the penal system. The development of technology, scientific, and medical programs may not be as prominent and sophisticated as it was before their arrest, especially since United States just recently proposed implementing 21st century courses in secondary institutions. “State prisoners average a tenth-grade education and score below their grade level on cognitive tests” (Western 2008). They will have to start with lower level courses if they want to

Incarceration strives to isolate offenders from society but does not provide adequate therapy to change the mental states and behaviors of criminals. The recidivism rate, the rate of known and recorded relapse into criminal behavior after release from jail, proves that offenders need more than just isolation to change their behavior and eliminate their dangers to society. Communities need not only to provide help and pay attention to offenders with short sentences because of their earlier release than others. In California, an increase in parole grants in 2014 has resulted in 2,000 murderers, classified as the “highest Criminal History Category, VI,” returning to society with no therapy or assistance from reentry programs. 80% of offenders in the most serious criminal history category, the criminal group with the highest recidivism rate, relapsed and returned to prison within five years of release, and 60% of offenders returned to prison within three years of release (Prisoners and Prisoner Re-Entry, 2007; Sanchez, 2014; Sipes, 2017; St John, 2014). Overall, police officers arrest ex-offenders up to forty-five times more than they arrest members of the non-criminal population (Przybylski, 2012). Criminals need specialized psychological treatment to change their behaviors and make them safe to return to their communities. As recidivism becomes increasingly more problematic in today's society, criminal psychologists analyze the motives, incarceration experiences, and mental

Many inmates are incarcerated in prison for years and sometimes decades, then released back into society with little education or training. Studies have found that 19 percent of inmates are entirely illiterate, and 75 percent are functionally illiterate and read at a 4th-grade level. Therefore, without education, vocational training, or the ability to secure employment, many formerly incarcerated people maladapt to society and return to crime and prison. Thus, a vicious cycle of re-incarceration called inmate recidivism is created.

Currently there are 2.4 million inmates in state and federal prisons across the United States. (Cullen, 2011) Each year, more than 700,000 individuals are released from state and federal prisons. Statistics indicate that more than two-thirds of state prisoners are rearrested within three years of their release and half are reincarcerated. High rates of recidivism mean more crime, more victims and more pressure on an already overburdened criminal justice system. A topic of much discussion is what happens when the inmates are released back into society? Are they prepared for the “outside” world? Has the institution done enough to prevent recidivism? It can be said that prison based education is a means of rehabilitating and re-direction. If someone is released with only the same knowledge, skills, and abilities they entered prison with, then they are likely to become involved in the same activities as prior to being incarcerated. This action is known in the criminal justice community as recidivism. Recidivism is a tendency to relapse into a previous condition or mode of behavior. (Merriam-Webster, 2014) Recidivism is the largest concern for prison system professionals. The goal of most prisons is to rehabilitate the offender, not to punish per say. If the inmate is to return to free society, prison officials need to attempt to reduce or eliminate the possibility of committing criminal offenses upon release. Currently prisons provide various forms of education to

Over 700,000 inmates are released from state and federal prisons and put back on the streets. Over half of them end up back in the system (Cook, Kang, Braga, Ludwig, O’Brien (2015)). They end up back into the system because they can’t fend for themselves, don’t have family left or go back into the drugs and alcohol or what they were doing before. Re-entering into society can be hard, specifically talking about offenders who have been incarcerated for years. Those that are up for release and those who have been released have trouble finding a job or even getting a job. Being in a jail or prison cell is hard enough, let alone trying to re-enter society after many years behind bars. For some inmates, it is easy because they have family still in the area or those willing to come from far away to take them back home. Inmates re-entering into society have a lot of work to do starting with themselves. Male and female inmates have different recidivism rates and females have more access to re-entry programs than males do.

Most prisons provide the average high school education; thus, inmates can be academically prepared. In the GED Program, inmates participate and engage in their studies to make academic progress. The GED Program provides inmates the educational knowledge preparing them to overcome the difficult obstacles that come after being released from prison. GED inmates are motivated to break the cycle of recidivism to successfully integrate back into society. Lahm (2009) explains, “…the majority of research regarding prison education programs center around their effect upon recidivism…” but educational programs most likely provide statistical results from a small percentage of inmates from the total population (p. 39). With limit inmates and resources, the GED Programs provide positive results.

The prison system often proves ineffective at reconditioning prisoners to free life due to the high potential of recidivation soon after release, the decrease in education and other programs in prisons, and the physical and emotional results of the conditions in which prisoners live. Although some may argue that the threat of a prison sentence deters potential criminals from pursuing a life of crime, the experience of prison may result in increased criminality, subverting the goal completely. Firstly, many prisoners recidivate, or reoffend, soon after release. Of released prisoners, “44 percent... were rearrested within one year and 68 percent were rearrested within 3 years” (Mears). Since nearly one half of prisoners committed another crime in one year after their release, the rate of recidivism indicates that the prisons fail to recondition inmates to free life. This may be due to the failure of rehabilitation programs offered in prisons; many recently released prisoners end up back in prison soon after release due to the limited reentry programs (Pager 2). Rehabilitation efforts in prison aim to reduce recidivism by changing a person's mindset from one of crime and criminality to one of compliance with laws and consideration for others; however they do not often accomplish this goal well, if at all. Rehabilitation efforts in prisons produce less positive effects than those offered in the community (Clear 132). The lack of results likely stems from the poor environment

America has a problem: With over 2.3 million people incarcerated, we haven’t done enough to prevent reoffending. According to the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), nearly seven in ten people who are formerly incarcerated will commit a new crime. Additionally, every five in ten people will be behind prison bars within three years. Because 95 percent of those incarcerated will eventually rejoin society, it’s imperative we develop a solution to keep our communities safe and allow prisoners to reach their full potential.

So what accounts for the significantly different recidivism rates? Restorative Justice. Restorative justice is the idea that instead of punishing the prisoners, we should rehabilitate them. The Norwegian prison provides programs that focus on education and vocation to prepare them for the outside world (Sterbenz, C , 2014). A study published in the Journal of Correctional Education, the foremost publication of the Correctional Education Association, showed that educational achievement in prison is inversely proportional to prison recidivism; meaning that education in prisons reduces the rate in which people are reconvicted. This study shows that convicts involved in the Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) program are more likely to participate in pursuing higher educational degrees than those who don’t (Halperin, R., Kessler, S., & Braunschweiger, D. 2012). Providing prisoners with rehabilitation programs, such as the arts, encourages prisoners to seek out educational programs in jail as well. This show that if you provide prisoners with the help they need inside the prison, they won’t relapse back into the life of

The department of corrections has implemented various programs in order to further help offenders to become self-sufficient. Such programs include mental health, substance abuse, sex offender programs, and probation and parole just to name a few. While each program serves an important purpose I take interest in one particular program which is education that has been implemented around the country. Every year, thousands of adults that were incarcerated leave the nation’s jails and prisons only to return to their families, regular lives and community in which they came from.

Educational programs are implemented into prison to reduce or completely stop recidivism. These programs work if the individual is willing. “One of the possible explanations the program might not work is that while the programs can teach the skills necessary for employment, they cannot teach the attitudes necessary for successful employment” (Pollock 2006). Even though an individual possess and have been taught the skill required by certain jobs it is up to the individual to change their life for the better. There would not even be a chance if these programs were not in place, and there would be more repeat offenders returning back to jail and prison. There have been more favorable results when individuals enter into college programs, but an individual has to go through the general education program or possess a G.E.D before going forward into a college program. Those that “completed the community college program were found to have a 26.4% recidivism rate, while a similar group of non-college graduates were found to have a recidivism rate of 44.6%” (Pollock, p.150). The public in society have a problem with prisoners getting a college

“Prisoners have a variety of risk factors that make their transition to mainstream society more difficult. For example, 40 percent of state prisoners and 27 percent of federal prisoners have neither a high school diploma nor GED. By comparison, just 18 percent of the general population failed to obtain a GED or high school diploma”, Conis, Delisi (2013). Most convicted inmates typically don’t have any high education achievements prior to their convictions. In prison, inmates are revoked the opportunities such as work, education and social contact from the outside world. They chose this path by the actions they took to get them in a correctional facility. Prisons do offer education and vocational programs to rehabilitate them while

The consistent stigma and discrimination towards individuals with a criminal history makes the transition back into society particularly challenging. Individuals struggle to find gainful employment and stable housing, which often leads to their engagement with criminal activity, increasing chances of becoming incarcerated again. Incarceration should discourage prisoners from returning to bad habits, but unfortunately those who are released sometimes they feel they have no other choices. The judicial system needs to have proper systems in place to help prisoners transition into their new lives.

Education is that cost-effective intervention that leads these women prisoners down a different road, one that produces hope for them. A study of this is recalled in an article of the Seattle Times by Loretta Taylor, she mentions that “The cost to incarcerate an adult in Washington is approximately $35,000 per year. The cost to provide education in prisons is approximately $2,500 per year. The cost to incarcerate an adult in Washington is approximately $35,000 per year. The cost to provide education in prisons is approximately $2,500 per year.” It seems reasonable to say that taxpayers can lessen the costs of prisons by lowering the amount of people that go into the prison system or lowering the amount of people that return to it. Education is essential for reducing reoffending and saves

When convicts are released out of prison into the real world they have trouble adapting. They struggle with things like addiction, social skills, and job opportunities. For this reason, committing crimes is a tempting decision. On average 70% of ex-convicts will be in prison within three years of being released. When prisoners are educated in prison and either get a degree or learn a trade they have a 46% lower chance of being reincarcerated, compared to those who did not participate in prison education. This is because the education provided in prison prepares the inmates for a normal life. When they come out they either have a degree or a new skill. This new knowledge can provide opportunities of jobs and a future for the ex-convicts. Frank Harris a man form London, England has firsthand experience with prison education. He was expelled from school at the age of twelve and grew up as a delinquent. For thirty years Frank had been in and out of prison, until the age of fifty-three, when he found his way out through education. Frank now has a stable family and a job counseling those who are going through what he went through. Having an education helps the released inmates to have opportunities and a career path so they do not fall back into their old