I need help with my law enforcement presentation. Correctional facilities.?
Hypothesis: If we have more extracurricular activities and more educational opportunities then the inmates would have a higher success rate and it may prevent any further crime inside the jail and the officers will be more safe
If we had more activities in the jails such as: libraries, sports, group activities, workshops, auto mechanics, and many other things in the jail would it help them get better?
My question is what activities do we currently have in the correctional facities and what should we add to these facilities to help the inmates have a better success rate?
I need to know any good ideas for inmate activities?
What is happening in jail NOW and what could be IMPROVED in the future to help inmates have a better success rate and be better to society?
ANY information will help. 
Hello Tom. If this helps at all, I will give you some thoughts from inside the wire and some facts to be considered.
Until the mid 70′s in the USA, when a person was convicted of a felony crime, they were basically kicked off the face of the planet ( this was called Civil Death). They had NO rights while incarcerated. They worked in a prison factory, road gang or performed necessary services within the prison and were paid about 15 cents an hour. Life was harsh. No rehabilitative therapy was offered and the offender was forced to consider his ways and what would happen if he continued on a path of crime and was resentenced again later. The recidivism rate ( which means the offender is sent back to prison for a second time) was running about 15% during this.
Somewhere around the mid 70′s, the liberals started taking over the prison system and have inaugurated various plans of rehabilitation. Today’s inmate sits around all day watching 60 inch color TV’s, working out at the supplied gym or sitting in the supplied legal library trying to find a loophole to beat their case. The current correctional facility ( it is no longer politically correct to call it a prison) looks like a college campus with razor wire on the perimeter. If an inmate ( again, not allowed to call them cons or convicts,,,,sounds too harsh) makes an allegation against correctional staff, we have to prove we did not do what was alledged by someone who robs, rapes, steals and kills as a way of life. The judicial system has turned into a revolving door and a cottage industry. The current recidivism rate is at 84% and the liberals are crowing "Look, we are saving 16 out of each 100".
Rehabiliation works ONLY when a person is willing to accept it and wants to make a change in their life. We are forcing this on the inmates today and the upper echelon just cant figure out why it isnt working.
When inmates sit around all day with nothing to do, it gives them all the time they need to continue their criminal activities inside the wire. I constantly uncover protection rackets and gangs within the blocks. I find homemade weapons and shanks on a daily basis.
If you truly want to see recidivism rates reduce again, take AWAY all the priviledges. I am not advocating bringing back Shawshank Redemption. That was nothing but fear, intimidation and torture. What I do refer to is make the inmates WORK. All the prison factories are gone now. Give the inmates some structure back in their lives. Get them up at 6 am and off to work at 8. Let them work hard 8 hours a day and when they get back to their cells, they are too tired to plot various schemes. Let them consider what this is like working like Hell and getting $18 a month in pay. Then you will see recidivism rates go in the proper direction.
Instilling some good work ethics would also give them the idea of actually working for a living back on the streets. It will get them used to getting up at set time periods and being responsible for their actions.
This is strictly my own personal opinion, but it is based on my observations over the last 20 years and watching the prison system turn into what it is today.
Best of luck and I hope this can be useful to you
Source(s):
20 years as a Corrections Officer in a max prison
Hello Tom. If this helps at all, I will give you some thoughts from inside the wire and some facts to be considered.
Until the mid 70′s in the USA, when a person was convicted of a felony crime, they were basically kicked off the face of the planet ( this was called Civil Death). They had NO rights while incarcerated. They worked in a prison factory, road gang or performed necessary services within the prison and were paid about 15 cents an hour. Life was harsh. No rehabilitative therapy was offered and the offender was forced to consider his ways and what would happen if he continued on a path of crime and was resentenced again later. The recidivism rate ( which means the offender is sent back to prison for a second time) was running about 15% during this.
Somewhere around the mid 70′s, the liberals started taking over the prison system and have inaugurated various plans of rehabilitation. Today’s inmate sits around all day watching 60 inch color TV’s, working out at the supplied gym or sitting in the supplied legal library trying to find a loophole to beat their case. The current correctional facility ( it is no longer politically correct to call it a prison) looks like a college campus with razor wire on the perimeter. If an inmate ( again, not allowed to call them cons or convicts,,,,sounds too harsh) makes an allegation against correctional staff, we have to prove we did not do what was alledged by someone who robs, rapes, steals and kills as a way of life. The judicial system has turned into a revolving door and a cottage industry. The current recidivism rate is at 84% and the liberals are crowing "Look, we are saving 16 out of each 100".
Rehabiliation works ONLY when a person is willing to accept it and wants to make a change in their life. We are forcing this on the inmates today and the upper echelon just cant figure out why it isnt working.
When inmates sit around all day with nothing to do, it gives them all the time they need to continue their criminal activities inside the wire. I constantly uncover protection rackets and gangs within the blocks. I find homemade weapons and shanks on a daily basis.
If you truly want to see recidivism rates reduce again, take AWAY all the priviledges. I am not advocating bringing back Shawshank Redemption. That was nothing but fear, intimidation and torture. What I do refer to is make the inmates WORK. All the prison factories are gone now. Give the inmates some structure back in their lives. Get them up at 6 am and off to work at 8. Let them work hard 8 hours a day and when they get back to their cells, they are too tired to plot various schemes. Let them consider what this is like working like Hell and getting $18 a month in pay. Then you will see recidivism rates go in the proper direction.
Instilling some good work ethics would also give them the idea of actually working for a living back on the streets. It will get them used to getting up at set time periods and being responsible for their actions.
This is strictly my own personal opinion, but it is based on my observations over the last 20 years and watching the prison system turn into what it is today.
Best of luck and I hope this can be useful to you
Source(s):
20 years as a Corrections Officer in a max prison
References :
I have a feeling there are more programs available to inmates than you could possibly imagine. Take for consideration the California Department of Corrections has spent millions of dollars to just change it’s name to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Think about letterhead, patches, uniforms, etc. Just to change the perception. There are many, many programs available for inmates. I support anybody that wants to turn their life around. The programs are there for them: Substance Abuse programs, education programs, vocational programs (welding, auto maint., auto paint, water treatment,electical, plumbing, etc etc etc).
Now when you say "success rate" I gather you mean they don’t come back to prison. Now let me ask you this. What do you want these programs to accomplish? Obviously the goal is to have them commit fewer crimes. Why do they commit crimes? Is it because they don’t have opportunity? Of course they have opportunity. They simply chose to take the road of least resistance, which is to steal something from good americans. Or rob someone or somewhere. Or maybe they have anger issues. Maybe they have sex issues. Most likely it’s drug issues (selling or using). Maybe they just don’t care about other people. They have learned to take advantage of people. And they do so until they are caught. So how do you fix that with a program? Trust me when I say most of them don’t give a crapola about your program. It’s only a big fat pacifier until they get out. The reason I know this is the big fish feed on the smaller fish in prison. The nicer you are as an inmate, the weaker, and you are a big, fat target. So teaching them to be nice only makes them a target in their world, so are you helping them or hurting them?
Let’s talk about sex offenders. It would make your head spin to know the crimes these people have committed. They have ruined families-both their families and families of complete strangers. They have ruined childrens lives. I’m not judging, but think about it. So, how you rehabilitate that? With a feelgood program. Don’t think so. It is a very, very large percentage of inmates in the prison system. It (sex offenses) effect more people in terms of population than any othe kind of crime because it destroys families. In the prison system, their commitment offense is kept a secret so they are not targeted. They cant let that happen because they are making the problem worse by feeding the bigger fish. So what program helps them?
Sorry to be so cynnical, but our kids wont get the same help that inmates get. Our kids will have to pay for education, while an inmate can get a degree, for free. Good for him, but is that really fair? Our kids wont get the same access to medical care either. Billions have been put into the prison system health care system, but that doesn’t help us any. They get the programs, and medical care because they committed crimes against good american people. So is that fair? If it worked, I’d say maybe its’ fair, but the same inmates keep coming back because it’s a way of life, and they don’t know how to change because we as a country don’t know how to change them. The prison system programs are great on the surface, and they help a small percentage. The prison system is turning into a system afraid of legal lawsuits because one inmate can sue and change an entire prison system. All of the prison systems biggest changes have occurred as result of a lawsuit because an inmate felt his rights were violated. Now tell me that’s not ironic.
If you want to improve it. Make it more difficult on them. Physical labor. No free time. Either they get involved in an academic/ vocational program, or they do hard labor. Screw the lawsuits. The courts committed them to prison, they need to stop granting thier whiney little lawsuits. Put them to work! Make them build more playgrounds! No TV, except PBS! That’s how you do it my friend.
References :