Prisons and Improvement
Drug and alcohol problems for prisoners are treated so as to reduce the rate of relapse and recidivism as well as to lower prison misconduct and better relationships. Effective treatment consists of Drug Abuse Education, Nonresidential Drug Abuse Treatment (which focuses on cognitive behavorial therapy (CBT) and is helpful for prisoners with a short sentence or who are transitioning back to a community), Residential Drug Abuse Treatment (which also uses CBT), and Community Treatment Services, which offers a network of providers to released inmates.
The employment policies for prisoners in the U.S. differs from prison to prison, but prisoners can be employed by private companies while incarcerated; however, they will not be paid a fair minimum wage in most cases but will instead earn the kind of wages that their Asian counterparts earn, which is next to nothing. These policies have been described in some detail by journalists like Chris Hedges who has found this to be the case in for-profit prison systems. Arguments can be made that this type of employment at least keeps prisoners busy, but the implication is obvious as this is a type of slave labor that corporations like Chevron take advantage of. In prisons that are not for-profit, there is less risk of being taken advantage of by corporations in this way, and employment policies are a little fairer. Here the implications are that prisoners can participate in a trade, can learn skills...
Education classes are available to help with reintegration and with finding employment. This consists of
learning to read, learning social skills, and learning trades. This is similar to the treatment programs and the employment policies: everything is geared towards helping the inmate become a productive and contributing member of society. Thus, this type of training has the goal in mind of lifting the inmate out of his or her problems and giving him or her the tools to be competitive in the
workplace.
Effective correctional programming is based on identifying risk/reward motivators, identifying appropriate interventions for individuals and groups, removing offenders from antisocial belief systems, providing psychological treatment and CBT to help get the prisoner to think more positively, providing positive stimulation and reinforcement as well as on-going support.
Research indicates that this type of correctional programming is most effective in reducing recidivism and helping inmates to turn their lives around upon re-introduction into…
