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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
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Results for prisoner reentry (europe)
1 results foundAuthor: Casey, Joe Title: The Social Reintegration of Ex-Prisoners in Council of Europe Member States Summary: The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) has a long history of campaigning for prison and criminal justice reform. Working within this 350-year tradition, the Quaker Council for European Affairs (QCEA) is actively involved in promoting respect for human rights in the way society deals with crime. QCEA carried out extensive research into the conditions of women in prison in member states of the Council of Europe (CoE), in partnership with the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) in Geneva, Quaker Peace and Social Witness (QPSW) in the UK and the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) representatives to the UN Crime Commission in Vienna. The subsequent 2007 QCEA report, Women in Prison concluded that whilst in many cases prison sentences do little to reduce the risks of reoffending, the social cost to both prisoners and their families is disproportionately high. To support this recommendation, QCEA investigated the use of alternative sanctions to imprisonment in CoE member states. The resulting report, published in early 2010, presented a range of alternatives to prison, which ‘when implemented and assessed effectively, are often more successful at providing society with a suitable and effective response to crime and more often than not significantly less expensive’. Nevertheless, QCEA recognises that imprisonment will remain a part of European criminal justice systems, as ‘a last resort’ to be used where there is a pressing case to control offenders so that they cannot harm others. We argue in this report that whenever prison is used, it must be rehabilitative. Most offenders sent to prison will eventually be released. It is therefore incumbent on prison systems to invest adequately in rehabilitative programmes, so that prisoners have a better chance of reintegrating into the community after their sentence is finished. Such a policy respects the human rights and human dignity of those who break the law, but this is not the only reason to favour rehabilitation in prison management. An effective rehabilitative prison system can bring financial benefits too. Policing, investigating, and administering criminal justice systems are all expensive, as is imprisonment itself. This is not to mention the negative effects of crime on the community. Justice systems which can successfully rehabilitate offenders will save money and better meet the needs of society, since the alternative (longer and longer sentences) produces an unsustainable solution. These issues are explored in Chapter 3 followed by a short outline of how we have compiled the evidence used in this report in Chapter 4. There are many challenges to meet in making a rehabilitative prison system work. Among them is prison overcrowding. This problem is analysed in Chapter 5. Overcrowded prisons strain the resources invested in them and achieve less success in rehabilitating prisoners, because they are reduced to ‘coping’ rather than fulfilling their primary, rehabilitative function. Another challenge is ensuring that prisoners’ transition after their sentence is properly managed. This involves a balance between managing exoffenders and the crucially important goal of connecting them to services and opportunities (such as housing and employment) that will lend stability after the initial shock of leaving the regimented, structured life of prison. These need not be mutually exclusive goals. The role that probation services can play is explored in Chapter 6. Prisons must also understand and address the factors that, in many cases, drive criminal behaviour. Rehabilitation programmes for alcohol and drug addiction are vital in this regard as are programmes that aim to help prisoners understand the motivations and reasons for their crimes. Policy and best practice in alcohol and drug rehabilitation, and in sex-offender rehabilitation, are surveyed in Chapters 7 and 8. Yet the main challenge for prisoners remains how they will readapt to life in the community after their release. Preparation for this should begin immediately after their admission to prison. This is a huge adjustment for the prisoner and their families to make, especially after a longer sentence, and one where a number of factors come into play. Education (Chapter 9) is vital; if successfully completed it can have benefits both by offering prisoners employment skills they may not have had before and by allowing prisoners a different perspective on their lives. Preparation and support for prisoners to help them with the search for housing and employment are also important, as is the availability of training to improve their financial skills and thereby plan for the financial uncertainty and period of unemployment that may follow release. Current policies and best practice in these areas are explored in Chapter 10. Prisons should also try as far as possible to ensure that prisoners are able to stay in close touch with their families. Families provide the kind of motivation and support that official agencies simply cannot, and prison administrations must therefore make sure that they do not break family ties. This theme is explored in Chapter 11. Chapter 12 argues for the inclusion of prisoners in society more generally by arguing for the ending of blanket bans on prisoner voting. Finally, Chapter 13 makes the case for greater use of Restorative justice practices within and alongside the existing criminal justice system. Restorative justice aims to deal with conflicts (in this case, those caused by crime) by helping those affected explore the harm done and how it might be repaired. Such interventions may not be suitable in all cases and must be done with the consent of the individuals concerned, but have been shown to powerfully affect both offenders’ and victims’ perspectives on crimes. They work because they address the individual needs and issues caused by crime. At the core of all these issues and approaches is the fact that prisoners, for all that they may have committed acts that society disapproves of or even abhors, remain individual people, and they remain members of the wider community. If law-abiding behaviour arises out of respect or consideration for other members of our community, then dealing with crime solely by excluding its perpetrators from the same community that desires their future respect and consideration is unlikely to work. Continuing to exclude them after their release from prison merely exacerbates the problem, as does allowing prisons to become so overcrowded that prison staff cannot know or address the individual needs of prisoners. Proponents of an evermore punitive prison policy must confront this uncomfortable truth. There is no ‘catch-all’ solution to criminality and the policies and practices described in this report will not all apply to all offenders. However, exploration of best practice is worthwhile. Such practices, combined with a realistic policy on sentencing and prison population, may allow prisons to become genuinely rehabilitative. In so doing, prisons could be made to serve better the society that invests so heavily in them. Details: Geneva: Quaker Council for European Affairs, 2011. 156p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 24, 2012 at: http://www.qcea.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/rprt-reintegration-full-en-may-2011.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Europe URL: http://www.qcea.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/rprt-reintegration-full-en-may-2011.pdf Shelf Number: 125752 Keywords: Correctional ProgramsPrisoner Reentry (Europe)Prisoner RehabilitationPrisoner Reintegration |