To Rehabilitate or Not to Rehabilitate

In this article, we review the recommendations on corrections made by the U.S. President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice under President Johnson in 1967 and compare these with the changes made in U.S. corrections over the past 50 years. Shortly after the Commission completed its report, dramatic changes occurred that impacted correctional policy and practice as support for law and order and correctional control moved corrections far from the Commission's recommendations for rehabilitation. The results of this research demonstrate that these approaches have not solved the nation's crime problems and have imposed hardships on individuals and communities. A current focus on evidence‐based corrections may provide a model for future decision making depending on whether the “times are ripe” for a return to a philosophy of rehabilitation. Any new commission will benefit from the research evidence that points to successful correctional interventions. Yet, there is much that still needs to be studied and learned. A new commission must be aware of and respond to the broader social conditions and beliefs and opinions of policy makers and the public that will influence receptivity to correctional reform. Recommendations should include clear guidelines for how research findings could be used to answer the still unanswered questions about rehabilitation interventions, as well as for how to ensure quality program delivery and public safety.     

The Re-integration Process from the Perspective of Prisoners: Opinions, Percieved Value and Participation

In this article the presence of the rehabilitation goal in the policy of the prison system in the Netherlands will be discussed first. Particular attention will be paid to the question as to why the rehabilitation goal, in spite of the doubtfull status of its impact, still plays a role in the increasing instrumentalist policy of the Dutch criminal justice system. In addition, some limitations of a one-sided 'nothing works' approach of rehabilitation will be discussed. Next, empirical research is examined for what it teaches about the functioning of correctional programmes within the prison system. Special attention will be paid to the attitudes of inmates toward rehabilitation. It will be shown that in spite of a considerable body of research on institutional adaptation, little is known about the dynamics between inmates' attitudes and personal, situational and organisational background variables. In addition, the results of a survey, conducted on the nature and sources of inmates' attitudes towards rehabilitation, will be presented. Finally, this article will offer reflections on the benefits of a process-evaluative approach of correctional interventions.     

The Impact of Punishment and Rehabilitation Views on Organizational Commitment Among Correctional Staff: A Preliminary Study

It has been long recognized that organizational commitment is an important component of effective organizations. It has, however, received relatively little attention in the correctional literature. Furthermore, much of the research to date on correctional orientation has focused on examining how various forces affect the punishment and rehabilitation views of correctional employees, but ignored how these views affect employees’ organizational commitment. Using a data set collected from 272 staff members at a Midwestern, high security state prison, this study examined the impact of punishment and rehabilitation views on organizational commitment. It was found that support for rehabilitation was associated with higher levels of organizational commitment while support for punishment was related with lower levels of organizational commitment.     

Assessing the correctional orientation of corrections officers in South Korea

The correctional goal in South Korea has recently changed from the straightforward punishment of inmates to rehabilitation. Currently, emphases are being placed on education, counseling, and other treatment programs. These changes have consequently begun to also change the corrections officers' roles from a purely custodial role to a human service role, in which officers are expected to manage rehabilitation and treatment programs. Despite these changes, few studies have examined the attitudes of corrections officers toward rehabilitation programming. This is an important dimension to examine in rehabilitation programming, as corrections officers play a major role in the delivery of institutional programs. This study examines the attitudes of South Korean corrections officers toward rehabilitation programs. Approximately 430 corrections officers were sampled. Results show that correctional attitudes are largely influenced by not only officers' own motivations for joining corrections but also by institutional factors such as job stress. Policy implications are discussed.     

当代国际行刑领域正在发生的变革

20世纪70年代由于监狱人满为患,重新犯罪率持续不降,很多国家开始在行刑领域进行改革。其基本内容包括:拓宽行刑目的,从矫正目的论发展到矫正、惩罚、帮助罪犯重返社会与剥夺多元目的论;改革监狱管理制度,从实施累进处遇制发展到推行危险管理制度;变革矫正制度,将"传统矫正"制度发展为"项目矫正"。我国需要研究国际社会在行刑领域的行刑变革理论与实践。     

Examining the predictors of juvenile probation officers' rehabilitation orientation

According to the importation model, individual attributes such as gender and race influence correctional orientation. In contrast, the work/role model contends that differences in correctional orientation are due to work experiences and environment. The purpose of the present study was to explore whether individual attributes, work-related experiences, and perceptions of one's own cultural competency and juveniles' social supports predicted rehabilitation orientation for one hundred juvenile probation officers working within an organization framework that favored a balanced approach to juvenile justice. Multiple regression results indicated that the importation variables were not predictive of rehabilitation orientation, either as a set or individually. The work/role model and the perception variable sets predicted rehabilitation orientation. Employment type and perceptions of social support were most strongly related to rehabilitation orientation. The study's unique contribution stems from its use of unordered sets analyses to examine the relative validity of theoretical grounded sets of variables.     

How staff attitude and support for inmate treatment and rehabilitation differs by job category: An evaluation of findings from Pennsylvania's Department of Corrections' employee training curriculum ‘Reinforcing Positive Behavior’

In July 2006, the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections began delivering a training session titled Reinforcing Positive Behavior to all new employees. The training educated staff about the department's philosophy on inmate treatment programming and about staff responsibilities for reinforcing treatment concepts. Findings from a survey administered immediately after the training revealed that treatment and clerical staff strongly agreed that how they treat inmates and how they behave in a correctional facility impacts inmate rehabilitation efforts, and that reinforcing positive behavior among inmates was a requirement of their profession. Also, treatment and clerical staff, more so than correctional officers, recognized that staff support of treatment programs impacted inmate rehabilitation outcomes and that staff actions and interactions with other staff and inmates can make a correctional facility a more positive place.     

Prisoners' Adjustment, Correctional Officers, and Context: The Foreground and Background of Punishment in Late Modernity

Past research indicates that front-line criminal justice workers are the critical players in determining whether innovations in penal policy are realized. Recent attempts to understand the diversity in the application of the penal harm movement have, however, sidestepped the primary audience of these policies, the population of convicted offenders. This article uses data from two prisons to examine the effects of correctional officers on women prisoners' adjustment to prison life. Using regression models and interview data, we find that correctional officer behavior has a profound impact on women's ability to adjust to prison, and this effect is largely independent of the prisoners' characteristics and the institutions in which they are housed. On a theoretical level, the findings speak to recent calls to examine the background and foreground of penal culture. On a practical level, they highlight the need to understand the environments from which women are emerging, not just the communities into which they are released.     

CORRECTIONAL POLICY AND PUBLIC VALUES

Since 1960, research on various options in correctional policy has emphasiz ‘two basic dimensions: the offender and the community. Under the assumptions that the community and the offender are not separable concerns and that the community is a complex system with many different and conflicting elements, this study examines public values regarding several popular correctional options. Data obtained demonstrate two normative clusters, one concerned with retribution and one with rehabilitation. Examination of the social status of respondents suggests a complex relationship between community structure and norms concerning correctional programs. Recommendations for further research are outlined, as well as for ways that correctional officials could reduce public resistance to the programs favored by officials.     

THE TWELVE PEOPLE WHO SAVED REHABILITATION: HOW THE SCIENCE OF CRIMINOLOGY MADE A DIFFERENCE

Three decades ago, it was widely believed by criminologists and policymakers that “nothing works” to reform offenders and that “rehabilitation is dead” as a guiding correctional philosophy. By contrast, today there is a vibrant movement to reaffirm rehabilitation and to implement programs based on the principles of effective intervention. How did this happen? I contend that the saving of rehabilitation was a contingent reality that emerged due to the efforts of a small group of loosely coupled research criminologists. These scholars rejected the “nothing works” professional ideology and instead used rigorous science to show that popular punitive interventions were ineffective, that offenders were not beyond redemption, and that treatment programs rooted in criminological knowledge were capable of meaningfully reducing recidivism. Their story is a reminder that, under certain conditions, the science of criminology is capable of making an important difference in the correctional enterprise, if not far beyond.     

Canadian Human Rights Commission recommends prison needle exchange programs

In a report released on 28 January 2004, the Canadian Human Rights Commission recommended that the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) implement a pilot needle exchange program in three or more correctional facilities, at least one of them a women's facility, by June 2004.     

Correctional officer attitudes toward inmates and working with inmates in a “get tough” era

The past few decades have seen an ideological shift to a more punitive attitude in policy and practice toward crime and criminal offenders. This study examined the orientation of local correctional officers toward inmates and worked with inmates to ascertain whether their attitudes mirror this punitive inclination. Findings indicate that despite the more punitive sentiment among the public and policymakers, officers still do not express a punitive attitude toward inmates and generally support rehabilitation programs for inmates. The study also looked at the impact of several individual characteristic and work variables on officer attitudes. Results show work variables are more strongly associated with attitudes among correctional officers. The implications of this research for correctional management are discussed.     

Therapeutic jurisprudence and responsivity: Finding the will and the way in offender rehabilitation

Correctional systems worldwide are currently undergoing a shift towards rehabilitation. Underpinning rehabilitation are the principles of risk, need, and responsivity. Responsivity includes internal responsivity (offender characteristics) and external responsivity (staff and setting characteristics). The responsivity principle has been neglected in the literature. While contemporary psychological theories of offender rehabilitation address internal responsivity, they do not address external responsivity, particularly in relation to the impact of the law. Therapeutic jurisprudence as a legal theory provides the opportunity to complement psychological theory and to address responsivity in offender rehabilitation. Therapeutic jurisprudence utilizes psychological knowledge to determine ways in which the law can enhance individual well-being. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate a psycholegal approach to offender rehabilitation. Psychological approaches can be applied to motivate offenders and provide them with the opportunity to make informed decisions about participation in rehabilitation programmes. However, this approach will not succeed without harnessing correctional staff as legal actors and potential therapeutic agents. A cognitive--behavioural model of an organizational culture change towards rehabilitation is proposed. In this endeavour “the will and the way” in both offenders and staff can be harnessed to maximize the therapeutic effects of the law.     

FORGIVENESS AND FUNDAMENTALISM: RECONSIDERING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CORRECTIONAL ATTITUDES AND RELIGION*

Although research typically has failed to establish a relationship between religious affiliation and correctional attitudes, recent assessments have revealed that fundamentalist Christians tend to be more punitive than are nonfundamentalists. These studies have advanced our understanding considerably, but their conceptualization of religion and correctional attitudes has been limited. Using a statewide survey, the present study demonstrates that compassionate as well as fundamentalist aspects of religious beliefs are related to public correctional preferences. Further, our results reveal that religion influences support for rehabilitation as well as punitiveness. These findings suggest the need for scholars to think more broadly about the role of religion in criminology.     

Recommendations for Correctional Leaders to Reduce Boundary Violations: Female Correctional Employees and Male Inmates

The correctional profession continues to report boundary-violating behavior by correctional employees with inmates, such as aiding an inmate in an escape and engaging in sexual contact with an inmate. These criminal behaviors obviously threaten the safety within the institutions and the community; however, these types of actions are normally preceded by minor boundary crossings within the institution. Therefore, all types of boundary violations and crossings between an inmate and an employee must be examined and eliminated. This article offers correctional leaders recommendations for organizational change that may reduce the number of boundary violations and crossings between female employees and male inmates. These recommendations are built on a larger qualitative study that used portraiture methodology, by interviewing 4 former female correctional employees who developed relationships with male inmates.     

Application of personal telemonitoring to current problems in corrections

The first electronic monitoring system in corrections was developed in 1964. It was used as an alternative to the incarceration of parolees and mental patients. More recently, with rapid advances in communications technology and data management, personal telemonitoring systems are being developed at several locations in the United States and other countries. Current case law suggests that at least some types of electronic monitoring may be legally permissible when they are used to verify compliance with other acceptable conditions of probation or parole and have demonstrated therapeutic effectiveness. Three major correctional objectives may be achieved through the use of telemonitoring systems: (1) reduced correctional costs, (2) extended protection of the public, and (3) improved rehabilitation of offenders. Considerations should now be given to the important legal and social issues involved in the large scale use of telemonitoring.     

Predicting work-related stress in correctional officers: A meta-analysis

The present review examined the predictors of job stress in correctional officers and marked the first meta-analysis of this topic area. Twenty studies were selected for inclusion, producing 191 individual effect size estimates. Overall, the findings revealed that work attitudes (i.e., participation in decision-making, job satisfaction, commitment, and turnover intention) and specific correctional officer problems (i.e., perceived dangerousness and role difficulties) generated the strongest predictive relationships with job stress. Furthermore, both favorable (i.e., human service/rehabilitation orientation and counseling) and unfavorable (i.e., punitiveness, custody orientation, social distance, and corruption) correctional officer attitudes yielded moderate relationships with job stress, with the country of study emerging as a critical moderating variable. The weakest correlates of job stress were demographic variables and job characteristics (e.g., security level). The implications of these findings are discussed and directions for future research are provided.     

Correctional Treatment Programmes for Young Offenders in Europe: A Survey of Routine Practice

This article presents the results of an international survey of European correctional treatment programmes for young offenders. Questionnaires gathering data on programmes’ design, implementation, structure, and evaluation were collected from 112 programme administrators in 25 European Union countries. Results demonstrated that although there was a commitment to young offender rehabilitation in almost every country, programmes adopted many different approaches and were implemented with varying levels of adherence to evidence-based principles of ‘best practice.’ The majority of programmes adopted a cognitive-behavioural approach, and clinical discretion was prioritised over systematised, empirically validated assessment instruments. Most programmes were administered by centralised government agencies; however, process and outcome evaluation was rare. These findings suggest a strong need for improved systematic evaluation in most European countries.     

Corrections: The state of the art

The failure of the correctional system to rehabilitate the criminal is discussed in terms of the controversy over external and internal issues that has inhibited the establishment of goals. External problems include: (1) the possibility that crime and the criminal serve a purpose in society, (2) the latent functions of correctional functions, and (3) the crime themes that pervade our society. Internal problems include: (1) the absence of a theoretical framework, (2) the lack of negative feedback, and (3) the inappropriate use of the medical model. If the correctional system fails to develop goals for rehabilitation and prevention of recidivism, then political pressures for a punitive justice will prevail.     

Changing approaches to corrections

A new training program was developed for correctional officers and other new employees. The training was designed to focus on a positive philosophy toward rehabilitation rather than emphasizing techniques for managing inmates. Attitude questionnaires were developed to test attitudes on treatment and security. The questionnaire was administered before and after the training to determine changes in attitude. The trainees' attitudes were compared to those of college students who had completed an internship. There was a significant difference in the attitudes of employees before training and after training. There was also a significant difference in attitudes of interns and employees before training but not after the employees had been trained.