Introduction
Culture is the shared traditions, norms, values, arts, and the history shared by a certain group of people, and which is usually passed from one generation to another. These cultures may influence how these people access services and resources from professionals. Culture changes how people view the world and the role they play in the world. Culture shapes personal and group values and attitudes. This also includes perceptions regarding themselves their beliefs, myths and misconceptions (Murtha & O'Connor, 2011). Understanding culture helps professionals to avoid typecasts and any biases that may arise in their line of duty and may undermine their services. Understanding culture also promotes focus on the positive values and norms of a community and also reflects the culture diversity in the world. In short, culture plays a vital role in job training programs for people leaving incarceration.
Description of the issue and the region selected
Finding a job after leaving prison seems to be an uphill task for most inmates. Reentry and employment for the formerly incarcerated continue to be a hard task since no one believes an inmate. Offering education and training services to these people might prepare them for a better future. The number of individuals incarcerated in the country grew steadily over the last three decades. Nevertheless, over the past few years, the number of incarcerated people has declined since the year 2008. However, statistics show that by 2012 there were 2 million people imprisoned in the prisons in the country. According to BJS, the average number of inmates released from the jails in the United States is estimated to be 600 000 (Nathan, 2015). Among all these ex-inmates, only 5 million have been incorporated in some community-based incarceration. Nearly, all offenders will go back to their homes one day.
However, if these people do not go through training programs, most people end up being back to jail according to BJS. Data collected between the year 2005 and 2010 show that 75% of the prisoners who were released within that period were either brought back into the prison for new crimes or violating of the release terms or came into contact with the critical justice system (Nathan, 2015). Reports also show that most of the people released from American jails are most likely less educated which makes it hard for them to be absorbed in the job activity. Others have mental disorders as a result of substance abuse. Incarcerating ex-offenders proves to be an uphill task due to the cultural diversity between the ex-offenders. There are many barriers to providing services for this population.
Challenges that human professionals face while training the ex-inmates
Many ex-offenders in the U.S are from a diverse culture. Training this person can be challenging due to the differences in the ages, gender, ethnic groups, personality, cognitive style, educational background, beliefs, values and their experiences. The challenges that professionals who are offering training programs to people leaving incarceration include communication, resistance to change, accessibility and social stigma. Perceptual, cultural and language barriers have to be overcome by the professionals aspiring to make the training programs successful (Rathod & Phiri, 2015). Ineffective communication between the professionals and the ex-offenders might result in confusion and low morale, and this might lead to failure of the rehabilitation process. Some of the ex-offenders might offer resistance to the changing programs that they are passing. Some ex-offenders are not ready to accept that their social status and cultural makeup is changing. Some of the ex-inmates have a mentality that it can only be done in his or her own way, and this may derail the whole process of training them. It’s also hard to access them since when most of them are released there lacks any clear and precise records showing where they have gone after being released from prisons (Rathod & Phiri, 2015). Prisons comprise people from different parts of the country. When they are released, they return to their various places. Accessing this person and putting them together becomes a hard task for the professionals who are willing to offer training activities to them. Also, people leaving jails face social stigma from the other citizens. These people are judged harshly, and they might end up losing themselves in the process. While training this kind of people, it becomes hard since most of them are hopeless and raising their confidence might be so hard (Rathod & Phiri, 2015). However, some strategies need to be implemented in the training programs to make it successful.
Strategies to assist reduce prejudice during service delivery
Some of the recommended strategies include ward off change resistance with inclusion as well as fostering an attitude of openness in the training programs, utilize diversity training and promote equality among all the people (Rathod & Phiri, 2015). Involving every person in the training programs may change the people's mind. Encouraging every person to be open and express their ideas and value and also attributing the sense of equality among all the people to counter the challenges. Also, professionals should utilize the diversity training as a diversity policy to shape the people.
Conclusion
In conclusion, training people leaving prisons and jails might be an uphill task for professionals. There are some challenges that these professionals face while training these ex-inmates. Some of these difficulties include communication, resistance to change, accessibility and social stigma. However, these challenges can be warded off through the implementation of some strategies in the training programs. Some of these strategies include ward off change resistance with inclusion as well as fostering an attitude of openness in the training programs, utilize diversity training and promote equality among all the people.
References
Murtha, S. M., & O'Connor, J. A. (2011). English the American way: a fun ESL guide to language and culture in the U.S. Piscataway, NJ: Research & Education Association.
Nathan J. (2015). Offender reentry: Correctional statistics, reintegration into the community, and recidivism. Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, 3-37.
Rathod, S., Kingdon, D., Pinninti, N., Turkington, D., & Phiri, P. (2015). Cultural Adaptation of CBT for Serious Mental Illness: a Guide for Training and Practice. Somerset: Wiley.
