Rehabilitation in prison plays a major role in the people who will be rejoining society after they finish their sentence, but are the rehabilitation programs effective? It should be effective for both the individual that is in prison, as well as the society; however, this is not the case and result in bad consequences for both parties.
Rehabilitation In German and the Netherlands vs. America.
Now back to the original question–are the rehabilitation programs they are receiving effective? The short answer is no. When comparing prison reform to other countries around the world, America falls short and there are several reasons why. VERA: Institute of Justice’s report titled, “Sentencing and Prison Practices in Germany and the Netherlands; Implications for the United States” found that there were several issues with the approaches to prison reform in America. The first problem being the imprisonment of criminals. The American prison population has increased by 700 percent in the last 40 years, but not only that it has cost the state corrections expenditures about $53.5 billion in 2012 (Subramanian & Shames, 2013). It was furthermore found that mass incarceration and increased investment in corrections did not bring better safety in return. In other words, there is only about 20 percent reduction in crime since the early 1990’s. This is why rehabilitation programs should be a key factor in reducing crime and furthermore reduce crimes committed by individuals that have been in prison and are returning to society. But why are more Americans being sent to prison, but crime rate has not lowered drastically? Is it because Americans have become more violent over time or are there perhaps other reasons? There are several reasons to this; first being that Americans are being sentenced for “petty” crimes such as drug offenses or theft. They can even get imprisoned for life for such crimes, whereas German and Dutch systems use a different approach. For example, possession of drugs won’t get you imprisoned, but they focus on bigger crimes such as drug trafficking, and if the individual who is involved with drug trafficking is addicted to drug, they can access detoxification or substitution therapy or needle exchange programs, which are lacking in American prisons and should be implemented (Subramanian & Shames, 2013).
When looking further into the lives of prisoners in the three different countries, America stood out quite a lot. In German and Dutch prisons, they try to prepare the prisoners for life after jail. On the other hand, American prisons use dehumanizing methods and focus more on punishment rather than rehabilitation.
German and Dutch prisons have “the sole aim of incarceration to enable prisoners to lead a life of social responsibility free of crime upon release.” They do this by giving the prisoners a fair amount of control over their daily lives such as what they wear and making their own meals. Another example is that guards knock on the prisoners’ doors before entering, which gives the prisoners a sense of privacy, and their toilets are walled. German and Dutch prisons believe by implementing these factors, it will contribute to the prisoner’s success in life after prison. As one of the German prison stated, “if you treat inmates like humans, they will act like humans” (Subramanian & Shames, 2013). On the other hand, American prisons focus less on reform but rather on punishment, American prisoners have to follow strict rules such as daily schedule–when to wake up, what and when they eat, what they wear which is usually a uniform. It has been found that these factors lead American prisoners to not function in society after being released; they found that simple things like daily decision making is harder for them and making it hard for them to adjust to society (Subramanian & Shames, 2013). Another practice which is rarely used in German and Dutch prisons is solitary confinement. American human rights advocate states that the amount of times that prisoners spend in solitary can amount to torture, and in some cases American prisoners can spend up to years in solitary (Human Rights Watch, 2012). On the other hand, German and Dutch prisons when they do use solitary confinement it only amounts to a few hours or days (Subramanian & Shames, 2013). This is an inhumane practice and I cannot see how these individuals are expected to adjust to society after years in solitary.
Now the next question is what can we do? First, we have to rethink how we treat prisoners, as our lesson book teaches us. Therapeutic communities can promote the personal growth and development of the residents (Schneider, 2012). This approach can be seen in the German and Dutch prisons, but not so much in American prisons. If we want to help former criminals to be better citizens and not commit crimes again, we need to create and focus on rehabilitation program in prisons.
My experience in a European Prison
When I lived in Denmark, I had the opportunity to visit a prison during a school trip, because we were learning about rehabilitation and the Danish prison system. Just like Germany and the Netherlands, Danish prisons have a high rate of rehabilitation success. I did not know what a prison looked like, but I had some ideas, because I watched American movies and saw how it was “supposed to” look like. To my surprise, I found myself walking among prisoners–my classmates and I were shocked. I saw that the inmates were wearing normal clothes, walking in and out of their rooms, and in the kitchen cooking their own food. I remember thinking that it was crazy that a criminal was holding a knife, and worrying for my safety. I later found out that prisoners go to therapy regularly, get education, and have a great amount of personal responsibility leads to a higher successful rehabilitation rate. The prison was not a scary place with people behind bars screaming at us; rather, it looked like a college dormitory–they had their own rooms with private toilets, a shared kitchen for each floor where they can cook their own food. They even had a TV in their respective rooms. They can do several different types of work such as cleaning to earn points to use towards buying a TV, books, and other “luxury” items. This technique will also prepare them to work for their money and help them adjust to society after being released.
Conclusion
To increase the success rate of American rehabilitation prison programs, we might want to take some notes from countries that are successful. First, we should revisit our system, such as which crimes should be a life sentence. Furthermore, we need to revisit our approach to how we treat prisoners humanely and how we can assist them in becoming better citizens. Rehabilitation programs should be aimed at individuals who have been sentenced and are expecting or eligible for release. I am not saying that the Germans and Dutch have all the answers to our issue, but revisiting and thinking outside the box might help us succeed in increasing the rate of successful rehabilitation programs in America and furthermore help the individuals in a humane and correct manner.
References
Human Rights Watch (2012). US: Look Critically at Widespread Use of Solitary Confinement. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/news/2012/06/18/us-look-critically-widespread-use-solitary-confinement
Schneider, F.W, Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied Psychology (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Subramanian, R., & Shames, A., (2013). Sentencing and Prison Practices in Germany and the Netherlands: Implications for the United States. Retrieved from https://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/vera/european-american-prison-report-v3%20.pdf
This was a very interesting post! I definitely agree that something needs to be done if we truly wish to see an actual decrease in crime and especially recidivism. For inmates who meet certain criteria (type of crime, criminal history, etc.) the goal should really and truly be rehabilitation. But under the current system in the US, there is not really any good-faith effort to actually try to rehabilitate anyone it seems. My overall impression of what the current goals of our prison system seem to be is in line strictly with retribution, seeing the prison sentence as a form of repayment for the crime committed (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). But the research paints a pretty clear picture that incarceration is actually of little value in the reduction of crime and poses an increased risk to recidivism (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2012). I liked the quote you presented that was along the lines of, “treat inmates like humans and they will behave like humans.” That’s an important philosophy and one that many people don’t seem to understand. Yes, they have committed crimes, but they are still human beings. Sometimes all a person needs to turn a corner into a better life is to be treated like someone believes they can be and do better.
References
Schneider, F.W, Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.