What can U.S. criminal justice system do to improve the rehabilitation of offenders?

Question

Just explain that...

Answer 1

There would be some regardless of what the penal system did they could not be rehabilitated. But, the U.S.A. prison system is much in need of overhaul. The first step is pay the guards decent wages so qualified men and women can be hired. Most are not paid much more than minimum wage. People do not realize how corrupt the employees in the prisons are and how often they supplement their income with contraband/favors. The prison system should be self-supporting as it once was in Texas. There are presently some programs where private industries are using prisoners to produce their products/services and these programs have been successful for the most part. There is a wide array of work skills that the prisoners can be taught that are related to the computer service industry. The prisoners for the most part prefer to work rather than sitting around in day rooms or roaming around exercise yards. There was a time when soap, vegetables, license plates, meat products, uniforms, etc were all produced by the prisoners themselves and they even supplied other governmental agencies. The prisoners could have wages placed in a trust fund available to them to purchase commissary goods and as start up money upon their release. Serious educational courses, vocational courses, counseling and drug treatment programs are lacking. The average prisoner cost $35 to $50,000 a year to house and unfortunately the way the prison systems are being operated today what many who have replied to your question have said is correct - they will leave better criminals.

Answer 2

first, there's a lot of money put into the system that can be redirected towards rehabilitation. i'm talking about libraries, excersize equipment, sports equipment etc. who cares if these guys get in better shape if they don't leave with better minds? i don't want to pay for a criminal to become more physically capable of killing me- do you? Second, the method of most rehabilitative therapy is self defeating. it teaches selflessness and learning the effect your actions have on others. how is that type of logic going to get through to an innately selfish person? instead, why not teach people principles based on the self? appeal to their selfish nature by making them better people for the sake of being better than their former self- and anyone still like that. i'm a selfish person and i can tell you- my core motivation for holding true to my principles is not religion or my parents wisdom- it's that i feel good being better than someone. lol. sick i know but i'd probably be a criminal if i weren't too conceited to stoop to it. in reality this is how most people work- they just don;t want to admit it. their failure to admit the true nature of the human being negatively effects any system dealing with human psychology. that's why rehabilitation and most phycologists and social workers really don't do much good. they try to approach a selfish person as if they should want to be selfless. what they really need to do is offer them different motivations for selfishness.

Answer 3

Some offenders may never be rehabilitated, that's why we refer to them as habitual offenders. But many can be, I think we could keep more people out of prison if they had adequate money for keeping their homes heated in the winter time and for food for the table. So many of the criminal element are simply poor.

Answer 4

Rehabilitation doesn't work, and is an outdated concept in criminal justice. These are people who have already rejected the idea of living productive law abiding lives. You think you can make them want to work harder for a smaller paycheck?

Answer 5

nothing. It depends on if the offend want to do right. Why make it so hard for them to get a job because of their offense. That only leads to them doing more crimes. they need a satisfying job to keep them straight. But there are to many people who think it is easy being bad then being good. To do something bad takes little or know thought but to do good takes a whole lot of planning. The government should put more into fixing our problems before trying to help some other country. Just because we are the land of opportunity, doesn't mean everyone here knows how to achieve it.

Answer 6

95% of the population in prison are there because of alcohol or drugs. Prison does not rehabilitate. Get these people the help they need and then help them to reenter society by having more long term treatment facilities for them to start out in when they get out. And help them find gainful employment.

Answer 7

look at sweeden. They cain people as capital punishment.
People have an immortality complex, they don't believe they will die. It's a lot easier to believe someone will beat the **** out of them :O)~

I wish it were as simple as a single answer. sadly, criminals are largely a result of an unhealthy society. We have to fix our social foundational flaws...

Answer 8

for starters, stop making so many prisoners out of law abiding people that like to smoke weed, etc. prison does not ever re habilitate..it just teaches more criminality

Answer 9

Better public schools,longer sentences for child molesters and less wait period on deathrow sentences.

Answer 10

Quit teaching them to be better criminals.