This thread is for posting Types of Rehabilitation. It can be from any year. Any country. Any gender, Adult through Juvenile.

Whether it was successful or was not. Or whether it was successful and was discontinued because it was sucessful.

Post all of the information here so we can get a look at the possibilities for models.

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Just exacly what are we considering sucsessful please?!

By whose standard are we calling sucsess?

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when an an offender is given the tools and encouragement to go back out into the community and make a life for him/herself. And then actually does it!

Success is different for all of us.

Spooky

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There are many facets to the word rehabilitation.  To name a few that comes to mind: education, counseling, training, socialization, and maturing.  But unlike when you break a leg and need rehabilitation, the people in jail often need to learn to do something that they never did before.  It is more than doing what you know is right.  It is giving these people the skill to live, support themselves, and develop a life style which is fitting to live in society.  TO LIVE: remove bad behaviors.  TO SUPPORT THEMSELVES: have a wage and skills to live on ones own, LIFESTYLE: understand and follow accepted patterns of social behavior.  Rehabilitation is like learning to walk again.  What we are asking of these men and women is to do something for the first time.  That is so different and so hard. 

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There are many facets to the word rehabilitation.  To name a few that comes to mind: education, counseling, training, socialization, and maturing.  But unlike when you break a leg and need rehabilitation, the people in jail often need to learn to do something that they never did before.  It is more than doing what you know is right.  It is giving these people the skill to live, support themselves, and develop a life style which is fitting to live in society.  TO LIVE: remove bad behaviors.  TO SUPPORT THEMSELVES: have a wage and skills to live on ones own, LIFESTYLE: understand and follow accepted patterns of social behavior.  Rehabilitation is like learning to walk again.  What we are asking of these men and women is to do something for the first time.  That is so different and so hard. 

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are very important of course. Keep in mind that many inside have come from a dysfunctional environment and this is not only in the home but society at large.

There are so many mixed messages in peoples faces. Its cool to be a "gangsta" for instance. It`s business saavy to cheat people. Sex & Violence in the media.....the list goes on.

Some people are just more immpressionable than those who are able to resist this bombardment so unless we want them to continue this, Rehabilitation has to reprogram them.

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My impression is that the DOC in CT actually offers a wide variety of inmate programs designed not only to inrroduce themselves to concepts of living of which they may not be familiar, but also in education and useable skills.

The down side is that our max facility, Nothern Correctional,  is still an extremely inhuman place. It is designed to break down the spirits of those incarcerated there, which is entirely counterproductive! If anything, I think being in lockdown 23 hours a day all alone is likely to foster anger and insubordination as well as mental and perhaps physical illness.

Cate

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It's so good to see you here!

And I totally agree with what you said about 23 hr a day lockdown and inhumane conditions. These are the people who most often need to be shown a reason to want to change.

Over the years I have often heard this statement from both staff and offenders; "You're just too nice to work in prison." First time I heard it, well to be honest, first dozen or so times I heard it, I was angry. Then I got to really thinking about it. Now my answer is there should be many, many more nice people working in prison. Because the staff who have nothing to give offenders but hatefulness and dirty tricks are part of the problem. They perpetuate the cycle of destruction and violence. Now please don't get me wrong here. Nice does not = weak or stupid. It means having empathy and the ability to treat others like what they are, human beings. And that, my friends, can be the start of someone on the road to habilitation.

Spooky

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The attorneys and staff in our unit hear the same thing from a lot of people - "Why are you bothering with these convicted criminals? Let 'em rot."

Well, habeas corpus addresses issues arising from conviction, an d there are many that affect convicted persons! Just to name a few:

  prosecutorial misconduct

  due process issues surrounding warrants, conflicts of interest,  etc.

  ineffective assistance of trial counsel

  incorrectly calculated good time issues

  illegal sentences

and on and on...and we do what we do to make sure that every individual is treated fairly under the law...

What you or I or anyone thinks about a prisoner or group of prisoners, the law is the relevant standard that should be applied equally to all.

That's the bottom line!

Cate

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we all have a different bottom line? While I fully agree equal protection under the law for all is of utmost importance, my bottom line is helping my clients find the necessary skills to remain in society and not return to prison. Or, in some cases, find a reason to even care about developing those skills in the first place.

&

Spooky

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I was simply pointing out that we get the same kinds of questions and comments that people who work in prisoner rehab no doubt hear as well...I firmly believe in and support prison rehab that fosters learning to cope and acquiring new skills for living "outside" once released.

Blessings to you and all who work so hard to help others -  Cate

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I am a nurse and was Director of Operations for a drug and alcohol treatment center in NYC for 11 yrs.  Some general comments:

Our prisons are full of people who were arrested for using or selling drugs without any history of violence.  Imprisioning someone for using drugs is much more expensive than treatment.  It often harms the individual and their families more than it does society any good.  Treatment consists of education about how to live a life where words correlate with actions.  The actions are life affirming instead of self destructive.  Treatment is ultimately more successful.  What is success?  Staying clean in the outside world longer than any other time in their lives or forging a real relationship with children and family or seeing a physician about a chronic disease they ignored,e.g.HIV or finding work.  If the individual relapses, they generally relapse by using-not selling- and once again explore possibilities in their lives in a safe environment.  Remember, it is about half the price per day as a day in prison to our society and twice as useful.

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The Criminon Program

     One of Criminon’s primary tools for achieving this rehabilitation is The Way to Happiness Course, based on the booklet of that title written by Mr. Hubbard in 1980. This first step toward rehabilitation gives the prisoner, called a student once he is in the program, a knowledge of right and wrong. A non-religious, common-sense moral code, The Way to Happiness is practical and incisive and provides guidelines for behavior, missing in the life of many criminals.

     Just this step alone has created astonishing results. In the Alabama study that showed juvenile recidivism go from 80 percent to 2 percent, the juveniles had completed only the first step of the program, The Way to Happiness component. Danny O. Black, director of the juvenile court and chief probation officer at that time, said, “Over 90 percent of the juvenile offenders seem to internalize the values and we don’t see them again as court referrals. ... I have over 500 letters on file that these kids have written saying how The Way to Happiness helped them straighten their lives out.”

     Other courses in the Criminon lineup address vital yet often troublesome areas for the individual — how to learn, communication skills, personal values and integrity and other basics vital to successful living.

     These include:

• The Learning Improvement Course. A high percentage of inmates are illiterate, and this course in study skills teaches the ability to learn any subject. Literacy is fundamental to any vocational and other training that will enable a reformed criminal to make a living from his own production.

• The Communication and Perception Course. These communication exercises increase the inmate’s ability to face life and not withdraw from it — the very act that precipitated the criminal condition.

• The Ups and Downs in Life Course. When an inmate is released from prison and returns to his previous environment, he often falls back into old patterns with former associates and ends up back in prison. The Ups and Downs in Life Course helps him learn the social and antisocial characteristics of his friends, family and associates and makes him much less susceptible to bad influences.

• The Personal Values and Integrity Course. This study of all aspects of an individual’s life and his personal ethics and integrity helps the inmate take responsibility for his past misdeeds rather than perpetuating them.

     The comprehensive Criminon program totally replaces the unworkable rehabilitation methods that have only exacerbated crime. It directly rehabilitates individuals so the criminal behavior is laid to rest permanently.

     Its effectiveness is causing the word about Criminon to spread rapidly.

http://www.freedommag.org/english/vol27I6/page40.htm

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The results of the Criminon program tell the story. In a Butler Country, Alabama, study of juvenile offenders who compledted just part of the program, only 2 percent of the pilot group were recidivist; of a comparable control group not on the program, the usual 80 percent were recidivist.

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I've heard of many inmate rehab programs that show promise, but none with the kind of statisitc that criminon claim. Obviously the problem is that none of the promising programs are embraced by the DOC. Is there any evidence that the DOC (in any state) is getting closer to implementing any large-scale rehab effort? Specifically any that have been proven to be effective?

Kris

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Commencement Address
Alyse Pivovarnik
La Habra High School, Class of 2006

It was a lively debate on capital punishment in Mr. Thompson’s 4th period U.S. Government class. Crips founder Tookie Williams was to be executed and seniors had a lot to say.

 Some said, “Criminals never change.” A few even said, “We should just kill ‘em all; bullets are only 34 cents at Wal-Mart.”

Tempers flared, but I sat quietly despite my emotions. I wasn’t ready to challenge their prejudices. I wasn’t ready to tell the truth. Today l am.

Those Wal-Mart bullets my classmates so readily would have the state use to execute all its prisoners would have a1so extinguished the life of prisoner E82815. To you that could be a license plate. To you that's just another criminal, perhaps even one ripe for a bullet in the brain. To me? Prisoner E82815 is my father.

The only memories I have of my father are in a California Correctional Facility. My Dad struggled with a heroin addiction, and one day his luck ran out.

He was desperate for cash to buy a heroin fix and stole a boom box.
California’s Three Strikes law was fresh on the books and as he had two previous felony convictions for similar offenses, the boom box theft—stupid as it was-was his third strike. His sentence? Twenty-five years to life in prison.

My dad was banished from my life. Banished because his drug addiction was stronger than his love for me.
At first, we had non-contact visits. I talked to Daddy on a phone,
separated from him by bulletproof glass. I was five and couldn’t hug my dad. There he was in front of me; I could see him. I could hear him. But I couldn't touch him? Did he even exist?

For years I was angry at him, but with age comes wisdom—maybe life isn’t as bad as I thought. My dad was forced to sober up-stay clean. Now I am an adult. Now when I visit my father, my heart goes out to the 5 year old, who can ’t play ball with his dad.

So yes. I haven’t been completely honest with you. When asked, I have simply said, "My dad lives up North.” ! haven't been honest with my teachers. My classmates. My friends.

Yes. My dad is in prison. But let me tell you what that doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean my dad is a bad person. It doesn’t mean I’m a bad person. You might laugh when I say my dad is an inspiration, that he’s my best teacher, but he has given me the gift of understanding, he has always made me withhold my judgment until I know the whole story, and he has proven to me that everyone deserves the benefit of the doubt.

But. let me tell you what it does mean when your dad’s in prison. It shows that the people who give you life can make mistakes. It shows that they are human. And it shows that there is always hope in the changeable nature of the human condition.
Everyday we use stereotypes to protect ourselves from outsiders-those that dress differently, talk differently, and even believe differently than what society has decided is “normal.”

Sure, you could say that all homeless people are stupid and worthless, but look closer at that bum and it's William, with a PhD in economics, who works two jobs to pay his medical bills, and can't afford rent. And despite his own worries, William finds time to tutor high school students.  You could also say that all high school dropouts are losers, but Marie, a straight A student, would change your mind. She had to support her little sister and brother when her mom got cancer. But she went back to school at 30 and became a kindergarten teacher.

Nobody wants to be a bum, or a dropout, or a criminal, but we should not assume we are exempt from life’s hardships. Neither William, Marie, nor my dad thought their lives would be the way they are.  Challenges will come, but don't be defined by those challenges. Let them, instead, influence you to change-and create change-in a positive way. .

I graduate today third in my class. I’m off to UC Berkeley in the fall.
But I am the daughter of an inmate, a prisoner’s child, the kid of a convict.  But you didn’t know that until today. I don’t begrudge my classmates for wanting to empty our prison system with the help of Wal-Mart bullets, but I want to urge the graduating class, their families, their friends to recognize the prejudices we all have and to try to get past them. That bum might be tutoring students in economics, that dropout might be teaching your child, and
that prisoner might be my father.

Alyse Pivovarnik
Commencement Address
La Habra High School
Class of 2006
Used with permission
You may contact Alyse at: _pivo001@..._ (mailto:pivo001@...)

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I think our prisons and jails are a failure due to the fact that many people go back into the system.  Jails and prisons should offer classes to inmates where inmates can learn new skills that they can use when released.  For those who are in jail or prison or are going to prison and jail for alcohol/drug usage, they should be transferred to a treatment center where they can be safely detoxed and learn how to stay sober.  Inmates should also have better access to social workers, psychologists, psychiatrist, and doctors while incarcerated.

I did spend time in the Waukesha County Jail for 24 days on my 2nd DUI.  I was put in cell block 4 and was on lock down 24/7 while I was there.  The medications that I was on when I entered where not given to me as prescribed.  I only got one medication the entire time I was there.  The others were given to me for a week and then cut off, so I think inmates should definitely have access to medication that they need or are prescribed their by the doctors.  Was I rehabilitated by the Jail?  I don't think I was.  I had to do that on my own.

Thanks to all you have posted before me since this is an issue that needs attention.

Michael

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This is the story of an ancient meditation technique named Vipassana, which shows people how to take control of their lives and channel them toward their own good.It is the story of a strong woman named Kiran Bedi, the former Inspector General of Prisons in New Delhi, who strove to transform the notorious Tihar Prison and turn it into an oasis of peace. But most of all it is the story of prison inmates who underwent profound change, and who realized that incarceration is not the end but possibly a fresh start toward an improved and more positive life. These people have shown that reform can work if it is self-reform. Their success has been so dramatic that recently the Indian Government decided to apply Vipassana in all the country's prisons. Other countries are becoming interested as well. The filmmakers spent about two weeks inside Tihar Central Prison in New Delhi and Baroda Jail in the Indian state of Gujarat. They interviewed inmates and jail officials, and filmed in places rarely accessible to film crews, whether Indian or foreign.

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I'm so glad you posted this on Vipassana. I would only add that it is distributed by www.pariyatti.com and that I was totally blown away after watching it.  This approach could definitely work - now to find some prison authorities who are in a position to try it!!! I hope if you all haven't seen this documentary that you will give it a try. It's ony 52 minutes long and VERY illuminating. I pray someone will see this who's in a position to actually put it into effect somewhere.

Susan

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http://www.prison.dhamma.org/

This is a Web site that talks about using Vipassano meditation in prisons. Apparently, it is already being tried at some prisons in the United States.  There is a video on You Tube called Changing from Inside, but I couldn't seem to get it to load in this box.

More later.

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