Criminal Justice

Prison inmates who obtain support, both education and vocational training are appreciably less likely to return to prison in contrast to inmates who did not receive such opportunities. The counterarguments for the need for aid programs is mainly to give the prisoners abilities and knowledge to acquire employment after release and to make the transition again to the society smooth and easy for the ex-prisoners. Many criminal justice officers across the nation are struggling to find a answer for the recidivism cycle and offering support programs to the inmates will go a lengthy way to reduce the prison budget and lowers the quantity of prisoners in incarceration. The argumentative paper seeks to find the counter argument for those that argue support programs are not important and that they are a waste of taxpayers’ money. The paper will provide reasons in support of support programs for inmates and the impacts of the education and vocational training in reducing the recidivism and preparing the inmates for life after release.

According to Graffam et al. (350), prison education programs are cost effective in the long run. Research conducted by RAND Corporation shows that every dollar spent in prison education translates into savings of 5 dollars on imprisonment costs down the line. Further research shows that educating prisoners is a cost-effective approach to eliminating the recidivism cycle and increase the employability of the offenders once they leave the prison. In the United States, 40% of the inmates who receive an education have lower chances of returning to prison since they have the skills and knowledge to integrate back into the community and being active players. Prisoners who serve longtime sentences can have a problem leaving in the world since they have been incarcerated for long and have no survival mechanics such as employment, money and family support to stay out of prison. Therefore, the inmate support programs such as education and vocational training can be an effective measure for both reducing the prison management cost and correcting the inmates.

In addition, the argument for prison support program is backed by the statistics that shows lack of education and skills leads to incarcerated individuals violating the terms of their release within three years. According to Laura Bates, showing concern and care to prisoners even the hardcore have a significant effect in motivating them to leave criminal activities, focus on getting better, and return to the community as active members. The education program is wide, and inmates can choose from vocational studies, post-secondary education, basic education and GED to improve the chances of the prisoners to secure good jobs after prison and reduce the recidivism rate (Janetius 45). The vocational training equips the inmates with market-ready skills that will help them secure readily available jobs upon release, which will help them join back the world smoothly.

Another prison support program for inmates is the counseling and rehabilitation for the drug addicts, rape case offenders, and support for the first time inmates to avoid suicides and other psychological problems. Prison support programs are important in rehabilitating inmates to be ready to integrate back into the community after release. The main objective of counseling and rehabilitative programs is to provide drug addiction treatment through counseling and therapy such as humanistic narrative that helps deal with the individual specific problems and drugs to help in withdrawal symptoms. In many prisons, the programs incorporate family and group therapy to give the inmates the community help to feel loved, cared and be motivated to get back to the community(Cook 360). Issuing aftercare services to prisoners will help reduce the addiction problem and chances of the ex-offender to commit any drug-related crimes, which may cause recidivism. The main reason why support programs are important in prison is to ensure the offenders have a reason to get back to the community and stay out rather than normal incarceration with hard labor that makes the prisoners angrier and increases the chances of committing crimes again.

In conclusion, support programs for inmates are important in rehabilitation and preparing the prisoners for returning to the community and become active members. Programs such as education and vocational training aimed at equipping the inmates with employability skills to increase the chances of securing a good job once released and reduce the recidivism rates. Research shows that offenders who have education and training opportunities are less likely to return to prison since they have an easy time getting jobs and interacting with the world smoothly. In addition, other forms of prison program such as counseling and therapy aim at rehabilitating offenders both psychologically, mentally and spiritually to be fit to return to the community. Mostly, drug addicts and sex addicts receiving counseling and mental assistance to deal with the addiction and regrets their action to successfully integrate with the real world again and become active members with no criminal behaviors. The opponents of support programs for inmates argue that it is a waste of taxpayers’ money. However, the paper shows that education support programs are cost-effective and efficient in rehabilitating inmates.

Works Cited

Cook, Philip J., et al. "An experimental evaluation of a comprehensive employment-oriented prisoner re-entry program." Journal of Quantitative Criminology 31.3 (2015): 355-382.

Graffam, Joseph, Alison J. Shinkfield, and Barbara Lavelle. "Recidivism among participants of an employment assistance program for prisoners and offenders." International journal of offender therapy and comparative criminology 58.3 (2014): 348-363.

Janetius, S. T., and P. Govindarajan. "Mental Health Problems among Prisoners and a Peer-help Counselling Model for Suicide Prevention." (2017).