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Andres Rivera

Mr. Powers

English 1302

November 12, 2023

Prison Rehabilitation Society's Changing Impacts

Throughout the years, Prison Rehabilitation has received more and more support. Yet

there is still a debate on whether Prison Rehabilitation should continue receiving funding or if we

shouldn’t invest money into inmates. Rehabilitation has been proven to help aid offenders

change for the better and give them the help they need to make it outside of prison. Along with

receiving more support, it has helped lower crime rates, save taxpayer money, lower recidivism,

have safer communities, benefit offender's lives, change offenders’ lives, and help ex-offenders

lead a successful life post-prison time. Therefore, Prison Rehabilitation is such an important

topic to be aware of, especially when there are currently 1.9 million people incarcerated (Wendy

Sawyer, Peter Wagner). With 1.9 million people incarcerated, there should be awareness that as a

society should try our best to understand and view how we can lower these numbers (Wendy

Sawyer, Peter Wagner). Prison Rehabilitation is a great initiative to help the world be a better

place which is why it should continue to be supported and receive more support. Many argue that

inmates do not rehabilitate into good crime-free lives but as seen throughout many studies, it has

been proven to successfully rehabilitate inmates. Instead of letting criminals be criminals, we

should rehabilitate them to lead a crime-free life.

Lower Crime Rates, Lower Recidivism, and Safer Communities

Rehabilitation has been shown to help criminals lead crime-free lives post-prison time.

Sheldon begins his argument by saying that “as a correctional focus, is noteworthy because

studies have discovered that rehabilitating inmates is significantly linked to lower recidivism

rates (186).” Sheldon analyzes how the rising numbers in recidivism rates are due to the lack of

“inmates' absolute right to rehabilitation” (183). Sheldon’s point shows how not offering

offenders help makes them fall into a cycle where they commit more and more crimes. In

correlation to Sheldon, Andrew Day writes on how there exists a correlation between the amount

of money being invested with the number of successful cases that prove that rehabilitation helps

keep crime off the streets (Day). Andrew Days’ position helps view how with more rehabilitation

programs being offered in prisons, there are lower recidivism rates which ultimately means fewer

crimes have been committed by the people who received help. Both authors throughout their

articles have connected in a way that helps show how rehabilitation has helped lower crime rates

by helping criminals not commit future crimes, explaining how rehabilitation has helped lower

recidivism rates by once again leading ex-offenders to lead crime-free lives and obtain safer

communities by not having more and more crime accumulate without there being a prevention

system such as Rehabilitation programs. With this being said, as prisons stay in a basis where

prison turns into a place where they no longer get anywhere and don’t learn anything it creates

more dangerous criminals to follow Sheldon provided a source that mentions how the majority of

inmates have little to no education and many suffer or mental illness or have health problems.

These reasonings help establish as to why rehabilitation is crucial to our societies and how they

can be even more helpful in the future.

Rehabilitation Changes Lives and Benefits Ex-Offenders Vocational Success

In addition, Prison Rehabilitation also affects vocational rehabilitation, helps ex-

offenders succeed outside of prison, and helps change offenders for the greater good. Zivanai,

Eugenia, and Gilbert Mahlangu explain that people use digital media to interact with family and

friends and apply for jobs, most jobs require a form of technology, and most jobs use technology

that these ex-offenders may not know how to use. So, the authors argue that digital media is an

important step in helping convicts lead crime-free lives and be able to be successful in life. These

examples give a great insight as to why inmates learning modern-day technology is crucial to

them being able to find a source that aids them in their journey to try to maintain a crime-free

life. Since most crimes are committed to obtain money. Similarly, McNeill and Katie-Marie

argue that Vocational Training in prison is a necessary step towards helping ex-offenders lead a

productive crime-free life. The authors talk about the reformatory system in Canadian prisons

and explain how re-entry into society for ex-offenders is smoother and they now have a skill that

could get them somewhere. They speak on how offenders manage to earn their degrees while in

prison and this has been seen to be a successful system that has helped many offenders look

forward to a form of being able to make money so they will not have to use illegal forms of

obtaining money. A great point from these two articles is how a job can change a person's life

because now they have a source of income and a job where they can depend on and have the

skills to qualify them for that job. Which brings more tax money since they are no longer in jail

and pay taxes from their job. Overall, a source of income brings great stability to a person’s life

and is an important factor in having these ex-offenders successful outside of prison.

Rehabilitation helps save taxpayer money and helps lower prison population

Even with Rehabilitation changing lives and helping offenders have vocational skills,

Rehabilitation has also been linked to lowering the prison population and with this, taxpayers
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save money from having to pay more in taxes due to more funding being delivered to help

maintain, feed, and shelter inmates. Jaime Munoz, throughout his article, created the idea that

through having these programs and them being successful in keeping these people from having

to once again be sheltered and maintained by taxpayers. Jaime also mentions how with lowering

the prison population rates, there won’t be a need for money correctional jobs and facilities.

Although it is a method that requires a span of years in order to see progress, the long-term

outcome can make it become a safer place and less expensive tax prison usage. In addition,

Tomer Einat in his article mentions how community corrections is a form of rehabilitation that

helps keep offenders in check. Within these community corrections, they go through a system

that gives them probation officers, requires drug tests, makes them have a job or do voluntary

work, helps give them therapy sessions, and overall keeps offenders in check outside of prison

while serving their sentences (Einat). As researched, Ohio has presented a program named

HOPE, which has been a system that runs this rehabilitation system. It has correlated to saving

money by not housing these offenders. This HOPE system has been having great results that

prove that offenders can be better off outside of jail than be in it going nowhere and doing

nothing. This system creates a system of events that helps researchers and studies be findings

that can later impact our correctional system. With this being said, these types of systems can

help reform our corrections which can eventually lead to a better system that maintains less cost.

While also making their lives better and contributing to paying taxes. Sophia Lam argues that the

reason people don’t support Prison Rehabilitation is because it’s meant to be a place of

punishment (Sophia Lam). While this argument is valid, it is seen more as a classical school

form of thinking. Modern-day societies have now gone away from this theory and realized that

helping these people change and not just locking them up is for the greater good. Another
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argument is that Prison Rehabilitation programs are extortionate. While this is true, the bigger

picture of having criminals in jail or prison is also very expensive so it goes in between. As

mentioned Prison Rehabilitation is more of a long-term effort. After many studies, it can be

concluded that rehabilitation does help with recidivism and lowering prison populations.

Essentially the theory is that reducing crime would create a smaller prison population and would

then reduce money being used to pay for these facilities.

Conclusion

Essentially, Rehabilitation programs have been made to help offenders be able to live a

crime-free life, survive outside of prison, be able to obtain a job, receive mental help, lower

recidivism rates, lower crime rates, lower prison populations, lessened taxpayer money, and

overall change in offenders. With this being said, these benefits from Rehabilitation are key to

creating a safer environment for our future generations, and with time it should only get better.

These programs are here to benefit everyone, not just criminals but to help lower victimization.

As many argue that Prison Rehabilitation is a waste of money, it has been proven by the studies

mentioned that it really does change an abundant amount of lives. Prison Rehabilitation is a topic

that is still under-researched and needs more concrete statistics as to how it changes generations’

crime rates. It is important that we keep in mind the same goal, to have a safer environment for

our future generations, and help everyone succeed.

Works Cited

Wendy Sawyer, Peter Wagner. “Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2022” Prison Policy

Initiative, March 14, 2022.

Day, Andrew. “At a Crossroads? Offender rehabilitation in Australian Prisons.”

Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, Vol 27, No. 6, 2020.

Seigafo, Sheldon. "Inmate’s Right to Rehabilitation during Incarceration: A Critical

Analysis of the United States Correctional System." International Journal of Criminal Justice

Sciences, vol. 12, no. 2, 2017.

McNeill, Katie-Marie. "A Re-Education on how to Work: Vocational Programs in

Kingston-Area Prisons.” Scholarly Journal, No. 89, 2022.

Zivanai, Eugenia, and Gilbert Mahlangu. "Digital Prison Rehabilitation and Successful

Re-Entry into a Digital Society: A Systematic Literature Review on the New Reality on Prison

Rehabilitation." Cogent Social Sciences, vol. 8, no. 1, 2022.

Tomer, Einat. “The wounded healer: self-rehabilitation of prisoners through providing

care and support to physically and mentally challenged inmates.” Journal of Crime and Justice,

Vol. 40, No. 2, 2017, PP 204-221.

Muñoz, Jaime P., et al. “The Scope of Practice of Occupational Therapy in U.S. Criminal

Justice Settings.” Occupational Therapy International, vol. 23, no. 3, 2016, pp. 241–54.

Sophia Lam. “Updating the Prison System: Rehabilitation Reform.” 2020.