行刑方式的改革对监狱服刑人员回归社会的影响

开展社区矫正作为我国行刑方式改革的措施之一,其发展将对监狱服刑人员回归社会产生重要影响。我国监狱绝大多数服刑人员回归社会的现行方式是服刑期满释放回归社会,这一方式存在着不能合理配置行刑资源、不能克服监禁化的弊端等问题。需要对监狱服刑人员回归社会的现行方式进行改革,确立假释为监狱服刑人员回归社会主要方式之一。建立监狱服刑人员回归社会新的途径,将有助于提高服刑人员改造质量。     

The Liberal Polity,Criminal Sanction,and Civil Society

The article explores an intersection of moral psychology and political principles regarding criminal sanction. A liberal state cannot require that persons acquire certain states of character or lead certain specific kinds of lives; it cannot require virtue. Moreover, it would be wrong for the state to punish offenders in ways that damage their capacities for agency, and in ways that encourage vice. In the U.S. the terms and conditions of punishment often have deleterious effects on agential capacities, undermining the ability to reintegrate in civil society. Prison experience is often antithetical to maintaining or acquiring the dispositions of prudence, accountability, trust, and trustworthiness needed for participation in civil society, raising significant questions concerning the legitimacy of punishment.     

Social justice and women leaving prison: beyond punishment and exclusion

Questions related to social justice are often considered frivolous or irrelevant in the context of people who come into conflict with the law. Young (1990, Justice and the politics of difference, Princeton University Press) has pointed to the importance of social justice, especially in societies where the dominant perspective of the privileged is regarded as neutral (and presumably fair), while others remain oppressed and excluded. We investigate the relevance of social justice in the treatment of women who are in prison. Based on more than a decade of practice and four years of research with women in one of Canada's federal prisons for women, we explore the question of social justice in the context of a recreation and leisure initiative whose aim is to assist women not only while they are incarcerated but most especially on release. The social recreation program is brought into the prison by a restorative justice community‐based organization. Men and women from the community come into the prison to recreate together and, in that context of natural conversation, relaxation and dialogue, Circles of support may develop. If a Circle is formed, volunteer members then follow the woman into the community and support her efforts to live as a participating citizen on release. The relevance of the work of Circles in furthering social justice within a system that, despite recent potentially innovative approaches to incarcerating women, has struggled to move beyond traditional practices of punishment and exclusion, which tend not to encourage strong and healthy community life, will be explored.     

A Public Administration Headache: An Evaluation Analysis of Prison Policy and Recidivism Toward Social Reintegration

We focus on discovering, describing, and understanding prison recidivism; secondly, we intend to know if the prison policy contributes to deterrence of crime; thirdly, we want to know if prison labor and vocational education and training influence the rate of prison recidivism by increasing social reintegration or decreasing prison recidivism. We use a sample of n = 1643 prisoners, multivariate clustering methods, focusing on latent class models, to trace the profile of prisoners, and we use the chi-square test to test dependence/independence of some variable pairs. Data support the heterogeneity of inmates, resulting in two clusters, recidivists (50%), and nonrecidivists.     

The use of tactical polygraph with sex offenders

Abstract

Little is known about current re-entry practices, nor the extent to which they facilitate re-entry, reintegration and, ultimately, desistance from future offending. Göbbels, Ward and Willis recently developed the Integrative Theory of Desistance from Sex Offending (ITDSO), which comprehensively describes the individual desistance process in four phases. In the current research, the re-entry phase of the ITDSO was used as a theoretical framework to evaluate current re-entry practices in five North American sex offender treatment programmes. Inductive thematic analyses were conducted using interview data from programme directors and final client assignments. Eleven themes were identified. Findings are discussed in relation to their fit with the ITDSO and suggestions are made for improving re-entry practices so that they better promote desistance.     

Rehabilitating the Terrorists?: Challenges in Assessing the Effectiveness of De-radicalization Programs

Renewed interest on how and why terrorism ends has emerged in parallel with increased visibility of some new and innovative approaches to counterterrorism. These are collectively known, whether for good or bad, as “de-radicalization programs.” However, and despite their popularity, data surrounding even the most basic of facts about these programs remains limited. This article presents an overview of the results of a one-year pilot study of select de-radicalization programs and investigates critical issues surrounding assessment of their effectiveness and outcomes. We argue that Multi Attribute Utility Technology (MAUT) may offer promise for future empirical assessment of what we prefer to designate “terrorism risk reduction initiatives.” Perhaps less obviously, and until more data surrounding the efficacy of such initiatives becomes available, MAUT may also provide a conceptual basis for planning, evaluating, and guiding the development of future such initiatives and may have the unanticipated consequence of facilitating progress by encouraging greater exploration of efforts to change behavior from other contexts.     

Restoring the social: offender reintegration in a risky world

How to manage and reintegrate offenders released from prison is a vexing problem for governments. The challenge of reintegration has forced a pendulum shift in corrections toward a more social-psychological understanding of the nature of offender release, after decades of purely psychological paradigm dominance. This article explains how reentry problems and practice encompass the shift in a context of a risk-centric and averse public. New reentry models such as Circles of Support and Accountability demonstrate an approach to reentry that draws upon the tenets of restorative justice and desistance theories. Using qualitative data on reintegration within New Zealand, this article contributes to our understanding of the problems for correctional departments to facilitate reintegration in the context of risk managerialism, and theorizes about the dimensions and implications of “restorative reentry.”     

No One To Stand By Us: Reintegrating Formerly Abducted Child-Mothers in Uganda

The returnee child-mothers who have survived abduction by the Lord's Resistance Army return to civilian communities in Northern Uganda as stigmatized outsiders. They are child-mothers with children who are not accepted by the community. Years after they have returned to civilian communities they are struggling for themselves and their children. This failure to access security on a social, economic and personal level is found to garner further insecurities including neglect and abuse, which prevail and are passed on to their children. The need to provide reintegration and reconciliation assistance is recognized by both the international community and the Government of Uganda; however, it is found that assistance is failing to help this group of formerly abducted people to reintegrate in communities. This article analyses the multi-faceted perceptions and experiences of reintegration, identifying root causes and gaps where assistance can provide security and integration to these returnees.     

TURNING OFFENDERS INTO RESPONSIBLE PARENTS AND CHILD SUPPORT PAYERS*

This article describes four demonstration projects that strive to promote responsible behavior with respect to parenting, child support payment, and employment among incarcerated and paroled parents with child support obligations. These projects, conducted in Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Texas, with support from the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement and evaluated by the Center for Policy Research, led to a number of common outcomes and lessons. The projects revealed that inmates want help with child support, parenting, and employment and that prisons can be effective settings in which to conduct such interventions. Family reintegration programs were popular with inmates and may have helped to avoid the rupture of parent–child relationships commonly associated with incarceration. Although employment is the key to child support payment following release, rates of postrelease employment and earnings at all project sites were low and the employment programs were of limited utility in helping released offenders find jobs. Agencies dealing with child support, employment, and criminal justice need to adopt more effective policies with incarcerated parents including transitional job programs that guarantee immediate, subsidized employment upon release, child support guidelines that adjust for low earnings, and better training and education opportunities during incarceration.