Corrections, Recidivism, and Social Work
Introduction
Recidivism is a relapse of a person in the criminal activities that are based on the re-arrest for committing new offenses that pave the way to the incarceration. The recidivism is, however, associated with the process of releasing the prisoners back into the society known as reentry, and the acts that are involved in supervising them for ensuring the safety of the public (Bowman, and Travis Jr 9-19). Recidivism poses threat to the safety of the public, and is harmful to the communities which the prisoners choose in order to live. However, the countries have adopted, and still are adopting several corrections in order to control the harmful effects of recidivism. Social workers are also playing their role in this regard. In this paper, the reason of a high level of recidivism is discussed by emphasizing on the research question why the level of recidivism is high in spite of its awareness among g people. The suggestions are also given in order to control recidivism. This paper is significant because it will make additions to the existing literature by exploring the facts associated with the high level of recidivism, and suggesting a solution to the problem.
Background
Most of the countries are facing high recidivism rates such as in Australia the recidivism rate is 39% reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in the year 2010, Ireland 62% reported by Irish Prison Service Recidivism Study, Japan 43% reported by The Japan Times in the year 2013, Scotland 50%, reported by Scotish Government 2010-2011, United Kingdom 46% released by Ministry of Justice in October 2013, and in the United States the recidivism rate is 52%, according to the Commission on Safety and Abuse In America’s prison, 2006. The community corrections, community based agencies as well as professionals such as the social workers, are targeting the recidivism in order to provide the best possible treatment and policies for increasing the successful reentry for the ex-offenders in the community. The social workers, however, have unique viewpoint in this regard, they see the interaction and the impact a person has in correspondence to the world and systems around them (Abrams 61-85). Since, the social workers help in the promotion of the social justice, so they work in a way and adopt those strategies with community correctness that ensure smooth functioning of the society. For promoting correctness, they work in collaboration with the community based agencies and makes the provision of the care possible that may have begun earlier in the prison. Furthermore, they work outside and inside the prison by smoothing the reentry via addressing the barriers, and working on the construction of the suitable services before release. They also involve the offenders in these services that provide assistance in controlling the recidivism and increasing the success of the ex-offender (Somer 115-120).
The community corrections, which are pre-sentencing services provided by the court and supervision of the offender who is released on bail, however, provide several workable substitutes to the incarcerations for the offenders at different phases of the criminal justice process. The substitutes or the alternatives that may be available for the offenders include, restitution programs, bail supervision programs, fine option programs, probation, attendance center programs, community based centers, electronic monitoring, temporary absence programs and parole, and conditional sentence of imprisonment (Alarid, Cromwell and Carmen).
Literature Review
Summary
The social agencies, community correctness, social workers, and other professionals are making their efforts in order to control recidivism, people are also aware of the ill effects of recidivism, but still the rate of recidivism is very high such as in the United States, which is facing a high rate of recidivism. The prisons of most of the countries are overpopulated, and research has highlighted the fact the prison is not playing their role fully for transforming a large number of prisoners into the functioning part or members of the society. Further, the recidivism rate is also higher because of the fact that even if the criminals are equipped with the required and necessary sanctions and they are willing for changing their behaviors, and also actively participates in the rehabilitation programs, they can still return to the world of criminal activities because of the outside social impacts such as pressure from the peers (Martinez, and Abrams 169-189).
For example, if a teenage offender is facilitated in the drug rehabilitation program, and he/she also wants to refrain from the use of drugs, then he/she may reengage in the use of drugs if insisted by the friends. So, recidivism is positively related to the social stimulus on which the criminal justice system is not maintaining effective control. Further, the rate of recidivism is high because of the fact that the offenders after spending a long time in the prison find it difficult to reacclimate themselves in the society after the release. With the modifications and advances in technology, spontaneous changes take place in the public policy, political area, and in the ideals of society, so they find outside world quite different from their previous world in prison (Bailey 6-17). The failure of offenders in adjusting to the latest norms and patterns of changing society, so they engage themselves in the illegal practices in order to satisfy their wants and needs. This is indicative of the fact that recidivism is not provoked by the sentence imposed, nor by the offender, instead it is provoked by the difficulties that the individuals face in re-integrating into the society.
Evaluation
Martinez, and Abrams have rightly mentioned that the recidivism rate is high because of the bad influence of peers. Bailey is also right that the released prisoners fail to cope with the changing pattern of society, so they involve back into the crimes, increasing the level of recidivism. But, these arguments have ignored the fact that recidivism levels are high because of the ineffectiveness of the support mechanism available to the offenders. Additionally, high recidivism rate has also resulted because of the failure of programs. A program in the prison, part of probation or parole is effective if the offenders participate fully in the program. The absence of commitment to the objectives and goals offer the chance to re-offend. Furthermore, the economic stress is also responsible for the high rate of recidivism. The major aim of people is to achieve economic wealth as well as stability in life. So, the people adopt illegitimate means for attaining their goals, and deny the legitimate methods of achieving the. Further, if the offenders are not able to support themselves after the release, and feel pressurized by lower socioeconomic status, then they may engage again in the illegal behaviors. So, it is evident from the fact that the recidivism takes place not as a result of the failure of the rehabilitation program, but because the individual is not able to recognize his/her wrongdoing, and because of the failure of offender to meet the economic goals in the capitalistic system.
Original Argument
The level of recidivism is high in spite of its awareness, this is because of the pressure from peers, ineffective reformation programs, because of populated prison the criminals fail to give full attention to the programs, and failure to cope with the changing pattern of the society, which push the offender back to the criminal activities. This is the case both with the developing as well as developed countries. But it is claimed that the community correctness, social agencies and social workers are playing an effective role in controlling recidivism, but why still its rate is high in the developed as well as in the developing countries? In order to answer this question, I present my own analysis of the developing country Pakistan. The Pakistani prisons called jails, are overpopulated with people. The people are living in unhealthy conditions, because of shortage of space they are frustrated and quarreling with each other, no proper educational system was there for them. The Pakistan Prison Rules, which are about 28 years old are still implemented in the current system of jails (Ali). The prisoners do not have even clean water to drink. The criminal justice system of the country is sluggish and unfriendly. The Non-governmental organizations, i.e., NGOs and the social workers are claiming that they are doing a satisfactory job for the promotion of justice, and eliminating the problems such as recidivism from the society, but in fact they are just considering their own motives of profit maximization, and are not concerned with the social benefits. The political conditions of the country are also not satisfactory (Memon , Shaikh , and et al 31-43). The dominant political parties are not letting commuinty corrected to work properly. So, a prisoner who has faced such a conditions how he/she can be motivated to become a good human being? Obviously, he/she will consider his/her conditions and after the release he/she will use the illegal sources to get everything from which he/she was deprived of in the jail, he will indulge again in the criminal activities that paved the way to increase levels of recidivism.
Conclusion
Continuous re-engineering and evaluation of the practices and the programs should be the part of correctional procedures and policy if it is desired that longitudinal and positive changes take place. The correctional programs, policies, and education, should be introduced in a way that they help the offenders to develop social associations with those members of society that encourage them and support them, the correctional agencies should keep an eye on these individuals that do not make ties with those individuals who can reengage them in the illegal acts and action, and again push them towards darkness (. The governments of different countries should also play their role by funding the social agencies and community correctness activities, so that such agencies can work efficiently in order to combat the recidivism from the world as a whole. Such agencies should develop associations among each other so that they can share the knowledge and recommendations for effective control over recidivism.
References
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http://tribune.com.pk/story/589786/reforming-pakistans-prisons/.
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Memon , Aslam Pervez, Saima Shaikh , et al. "Political Instability: A case study of Pakistan ." Journal of Political Studies. 18.1 (2003): 31-43. Print.
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