Secondary Prevention Programs Essay

The way the criminal justice system should handle crimes has always been a debated subject. For over the last forty years, ever since the war on drugs, there are more policies made to be “tough on crime”. From then, correctional systems have grown and as people are doing more crimes, there are plenty of punishments for them. In the mid 1970’s, rehabilitation was the main concern for the criminal justice system. It was common that when someone was convicted of a crime, they would be sentenced to prison but there would also be diagnosed treatments to help them as well. Most likely, they would have committed a crime due to psychological problems. When they receive treatment in prison, they can be healed and would not go back to their wrong lifestyle they had lived before. As years have gone by, people thought that it was better to take a more punitive stance in the criminal justice system. As a result of the turnaround of this more punitive criminal justice system, the United States now has more than 2 million people in prisons or jails--the equivalent of one in every 142 U.S. residents--and another four to five million people on probation or parole. The U.S. has a higher percentage of the

The need for the Jail Diversion Program arises from the increasing number of mental health problems among the jail population in the United States. According to Bell, Decker, & Sullivan (2013), 64 percent of the adults incarcerated in the US prisons in

The United States of America is phrased by many, as being “the land of the free.” Yet, the Unites States currently has the highest per capita prison population than any other country. The United States makes up only 5% of the world’s population and of that 5%, 25% of our overall nation’s population is currently incarcerated. A few factors that attribute to our high rates of incarceration include, sentencing laws: such as mandatory- minimum sentencing, lack of initial deterrence from crime, the war on drugs and the presence of recidivism. With our ever growing incarceration rates and the cost of housing individual offenders averaging $22,000 a criminal justice agenda. Recidivism refers to a person 's relapse into criminal behavior resulting in rearrests, reconviction or return to prison with or without a new sentence during a three-year period following the prisoner 's release (National Institute of Justice.) Many programs have been implemented in our prison system to help reduce the recidivism rates. Programs such as educational/ vocational programming, reentry programs, substance abuse programs and subsidized employment are among many programs in which have been proven effective. Yet, due to costs deficits, the clock is ticking to find evidence based programs to invest in. So, the question currently being sought after is, which method is most effective in reducing recidivism rates?

Thousands of people are residing in United States prisons and jails, and they go untreated. The very institutions which confines offenders, creates people with mental illness and drug addictions disorders. Crime needs varying interventions targeting problem-specific areas due to numerous factors.

Behavior is reinforced when one or more of the following Guidelines for Success (G.F.S.) are met:

Incarceration has been the primary means of punishment for criminals who have been convicted of felony offenses. While prisoners are serving the term of incarceration they face many difficult situations. Some of these situations can include committing new crimes within the system which could lead to prolonging the current sentencing. Those who are able to make parole after meeting the requirements set in place by the court are faced with new difficulties when trying to reintegrate in society. While inmates complete sentences ordered by the court, they have the opportunity to take advantage of Federal Aid including continued education, job skill training, employment opportunities and support programs. These programs are designed to lessen the struggle offenders’ face as they reintegrate into society by offering a positive direction upon their release. The overall goal is to achieve a reduction in the rate of recidivism.

Per the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), nearly 50% of current inmates are jailed for nonviolent offenses (Federal Bureau of Prisons, n.d.). Almost 68% (two-thirds) of inmates return to prison within three years of being released, and 77% (three-quarters) were arrested within five years of leaving (Topic, n.d.). These numbers are staggering and seem to go largely ignored by mainstream media and the public. Most of them view people in prison as deserving of it and see no need to offer them (prisoners) help. While there are some prisons that offer rehabilitation in forms such as educational programs, psychiatric treatment and various others, they are largely not implemented in prisons across the country. These programs are detrimental in helping inmates cope with prison life and ease the transition back into civilian life. Psychiatric treatment is of the utmost importance as it benefits inmates tremendously. College programs are another key beneficial factor in prison. Seeing as in prior years, a lot of inmates failed to find work after leaving jail. In more recent years, more and more programs are being added to prisons for inmates to take advantage of as well as the return of Pell grants for them. The programs allow inmates to train and become certified while in jail, and offer employment after being released. At least giving some hope to those who have none while incarcerated. Prison rehabilitation should be offered to inmates because it helps with psychological programs,

If prisons starting focusing on inmates as individuals, they will be able to address their issues and better prepare them to integrate into society upon release. Mental illnesses are fairly common among today’s prisoners. A third of deaths in jails are caused by suicide. (Fiscella 1). Giving inmates the resources to properly deal with mental illness, such as medication and therapy, will help to lower the suicide rate. Offering programs to prisoners that address their individual needs will increase their chance of success outside of prison. Programs that target the needs of an individual such as parenting courses and anger management classes will help to decrease the chance of an individual being rearrested. (U.S. Department of Justice Roadmap to Reentry 3). Addressing these needs while an individual is in custody can resolve them before they are released. This may be what they need in order to break their cycle of crime. A prisoners family is also affected when it come to their incarceration. Children who have a parent in prison are more likely to struggle with mental illness, poor relationships with family members, bad grades in school, and misconduct. (Bender 3). Having an absent parent is a disadvantage in any child’s life, especially if the parent is incarcerated because the child is likely to develop similar behavior. If jails and prisons

We are living in a society where state and federal governments have implemented and developed new alternatives to reducing overcrowding in correctional facilities, costs, managing higher-risk offenders in the community, reducing crime and achieving greater fairness and effectiveness in criminal sentencing for adults. These innovations are called intermediate sanctions. It includes intensive probation supervision, house arrests, electronic monitoring, restitution orders, shock incarcerations or split sentences and residential community corrections. The intermediate sanctions have the advantage of offering alternatives to overcrowded jails and prisons. Consequently, penal institutions have not only proven to be costly but also ineffective and

There should be some program for prisoners to go to when they are close to getting released. This program can help inmates find jobs and a place to live either friends or family house once they are released. The prison system should also allow those who have been released free counseling once a week for those who want someone to talk to. I believe this would be a great way to rehabilitate inmates and give them a proper second chance. What about therapy for those who were victims of prison rape and violence? They too should be able to free therapy once released from prison.

While, building more prison facilities will increase the number of housing available for inmates, a more viable option would be to focus on rehabilitation programs as a method to reduce the number of inmates served in our prison system. One major problem is that the prison system fails to recognize the difference between punishment and restraint; people who are dangerous need to be restrained and should be incarcerated. (Prison Overcrowding is a growing concern in the U.S.).However, this incarceration should not be about punishment. Furthermore, research has shown that punishment only makes an individual more violent. In addition, it does not serve to change the behaviors that resulted in the original crime. However, punishing criminals only creates a vicious cycle of violence that does nothing to serve the good of mankind.

Treatment plays a very vital role in today's prison however, many do believe the treatment does not work. For most cases that is completely true but we need to ask ourselves why aren't these programs more effective? My belief for why these treatments don't work is because we are not giving the inmates the right kind of treatments. We are giving offering a bunch of stress relieving classes and boot camp programs to these inmates. The reason why these treatments offer no solution is because all they do is keep the inmate occupied for a couple hours a day. You can't stick a drug addict in a boot camp program and expect them to all of a sudden become sober. We need to start offering actual treatment programs. I am talking anger management

The author states that the best way to set up an intervention plan for our clients is “to start with the client. Ask the client about what it is that he or she wants to work on” (Ward & Mama, 2006, 131). The author suggests that we may see the obvious things that the client wont and that we should see if it would be an interest for them to work on it as well. (Ward & Mama, 2006, 131) But that we should wait until the end of our meeting after the client has told us what they want to work on. After we have done out intervention plan the author explains that we need to take our plan to our supervisors and explain the client and the presenting issues and goals to them so that they have sense

Recently in the United States, there has been a drive at both the state and national level to provide universal screening for newborns to detect hearing loss. Although the idea of a universal screening in newborns is a new phenomenon, research has examined the impact of early intervention and screening for children with hearing loss. “Most professionals in the field feel strongly that early identification of hearing loss and early implementation of intervention enhances the child’s social, communicative, and academic development” (Calderon, 1998, p. 54). With that, the two studies used participants in the same early intervention program and mainly focused on the importance of the age of enrollment. Furthermore, the age of enrollment

Many people claim that school based drug and alcohol prevention programs do not work and are just a waste of money. (Hanson, 2002) What people want to know is how much do we spend on these programs? What are the programs actually trying to prevent? And does the program work? It is questions like these that leave people so confused about the decisions they make regarding the program like, determining if the program is benefiting their child or wasting school time that could be used to teach something more useful.