NEW LOOK TOWARDS REHABILITATION AND REINTEGRATION OF PRISONERS
– Dr. Mridul Srivastava*
“Crime is the outcome of a diseased mind and jails must have an environment of hospital for treatment and care ……..An eye for an eye would turn the whole world blind”.
– Mahatma Gandhi.
Prisons in India are governed by the Indian Prison Act and also the rules and regulations for administration of management of prisons as specified in the Prison Manuals of each State. The emphasis is not only on safe custody but on reformation and rehabilitation of offenders in society. Prison occupies a unique position in society, as it is the final repository for society’s failure, of those persons who are labeled as losers and temporarily or semi-permanently or permanently irredeemable.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India observed that the fact must be recognized – that a criminal is largely created by social conditions and, instead of being punished, they has to be treated, as one is required to be treated for a disease. The prison is an institution of the state which consciously maintains opacity by regulatingits interaction with civilsociety. Imprisonment as a mode of dealingwith offenders has been in voguesince timeimmemorial.Though the foundations of thecontemporary prison administration in India were laid during the British period, the system has drastically changed over the years, especially since the dawn of Independence in 1947. Prison as an institution has moved much on the ladder in view of national- internationalhuman rights instruments and covenants together with the policy framework adopted to underline human face in processes of imprisonment and punishment.Apart from the native genius, which finds its expression in the FundamentalRights and Directive Principles of State Policy enshrined in the Constitution of India new ideas and correctionalpractices in various countries haveconsiderably influenced the texture of prison reforms and prisoners’ status in the country.
The issues of prison governance and the practices of reform in prison are crucial aspects through which the character of the state finds expression. India shares a universally held view that sentence of imprisonment would be justifiable only if it ultimately leads to the protection of society against crime. Such a goal could be achieved only if incarceration motivates and prepares the offenders for a law abiding and self-supporting life after his release. It further accepts that, as imprisonment deprives the offender of his liberty and self- determination, the prison system should not be allowed to aggravate the suffering already inherent in the process of incarceration. Thus, while certain categories of offenders, who endanger public safety, have to be segregated from the socialmainstream by way of imprisonment. All possible efforts have to be made to ensure that they come out of prisons as better individuals than what they were at the time of their admission thereto. In fact according to Foucault, the emergence of prison as the form of punishment for every crime grew out of the development of discipline in the 18th and 19th centuries. He further looks at thedevelopment ofhighly refined forms ofdiscipline, concerned with the smallest and most precise aspects of a persons’ body. Discipline, he suggests, developed a new economy and politics for bodies. Modern institutions required that bodies mustbe individuated according to their tasks,as wellas for training, observation,and control. Therefore, he argues, discipline created a whole new form of individuality for bodies,which enabled them to perform theirduty within thenewforms ofeconomic, political,and military organizations emerging in themodern ageand continuingto today and thus despitehumanitarian movements Prison stillcomes with signifiers more in the domain of deterrence and prevention.
Needless to reaffirm that we all are living through difficult times and in many ways our lives are destined to move towards an end the day we become silent about things that matter and hence we would like to contextualize the theme through a poem- APrison Evening by Faiz Ahmad Faiz.
Each star a rung,
night comes down the spiral
staircase of the evening.
The breeze passes by so very close
as if someone just happened to speak of love.
In the courtyard,
the trees are absorbed refugees
embroidering maps of return on the sky.
On the roof,
the moon – lovingly, generously –
is turning the stars
into a dust of sheen.
From every corner, dark-green shadows,
in ripples, come towards me.
At any moment they may break over me,
like the waves of pain each time I remember
this separation from my lover.
This thought keeps consoling me:
though tyrants may command that lamps be smashed
in rooms where lovers are destined to meet,
they cannot snuff out the moon, so today,
nor tomorrow, no tyranny will succeed,
no poison of torture make me bitter,
if just one evening in prison
can be so strangely sweet,
if just one moment anywhere on this earth.
It is in the context ofthe preventiveand reformativeapproach pertaining to rehabilitation of prisoners, which we aim to contextualise in view of the contemporary critical reality as also within the theoretical frames. The search for a new approach in the 21st Century has as many meanings as there are moral and social philosophies, and academic opinion ranges over the entire spectrum. Some important voices think justice is only the symbolof an irrational hope whose function is to arouse the emotions of creatures addicted to self-deception, while at the oppositeextreme arethe contemporary adherents ofclassicalnatural law realism. In view of the general abandonment and criticism in contemporary moralphilosophy of emotive positivism, its invalidity should notdeter us in underliningthat deterrencehas outlived its utility and a new approach highlightingthe justpart ofjustice is a meaningful expression today more than ever before. The new approach must intend to and dealwith justice through the forgotten portals of human values. Probably this is what Neeli Cherkovskimeant when he wrote A Prison Poem
I wrote for love
but love was lost
I wrote for freedom
but it is just a word
I wrote for dignity
but it belongs only to the rich and powerful
I wrote for God
but he was not home
Thepublic executionwas thelogicalculmination ofaprocedure governed by theInquisition. Thepractice ofplacing individuals under observation is anatural extension of a justice imbued with disciplinary methods and examination procedures is what Foucault also argues. He adds further thatthe idea of reform entails makinga prisonerinto a normal(?) citizen, fit to return to life in society. However,in thepractice ofreform, emphasis gets misplaced and mislocated and the reformative practices become strategies of control,dominance and surveillance alone.The programme of reform then becomes a site for exercising arbitrary controlover the prisoners as thefacilities forimproving the materialconditions of prison lifeare granted arbitrarily. Sinceprison administration and rehabilitation of prisoners havea direct bearing on the improvementof the quality of life of those who deviate from the accepted social norms, the development of prisons shall be pursued as an integral part of the national development plans. Despite all best intentions of the government, there are numerous questions on prison reforms, reformativeapproaches, rehabilitation methods; conditions of prisoners in prison and after release are yet to be answered in the changing socio-economic realities of the society.
Crime and punishment both are interlinked process and these given below points need to be taken into consideration before making any policy for the criminal justice system. These points are:
1. Crimehas a legalas wellas sociologicaldefinition. Legally, crime is to act againstlaw. Sociologically, crimes are conducts harmful to the society.
2. Study of crime must be done scientifically and objectively with the use of empiricaldata and grounded theory.
3. Crime can only be completely understood and effectively dealt with in cultural context. How criminals, victims and society perceived and received crime depends on cultural meaning assigned and feelings evoked.
4. Criminals are not born evil but a product of their social environment. People are born into pre-existing roles and relationships which affecttheir outlookand determinetheir action.
5. Prisons should not bean institution of punishment,but a place to reform offenders.
6. Prisoners should be treated individually. Collectivetreatment and punishment of prisoners with uniform rule, identicalpolicy and fixed regulation willnot be effectivein reformingprisoners, who suffer from different personalities, labour under disparate life circumstances, and offend in unique situations.
7. Prisons should be staffed by socialworkers schooled in treatment ofsick peopleand notprison guards specialized in the punishment of offenders.
The aim of the criminaljustice administration is theeffective reduction of crime and protection of society. The fourth component of the criminal justice system i.e. prison administration has to play a vital role in this regard. As many prison officials often says that”Prison is a place where alltypes of criminals are kept altogether. One criminalwho is not convicted creates a lot of problem for the society so think about the condition where all such criminals areliving together.”
There are dual goals of Rehabilitative framework :
1. Offender Risk Management
2. Increase Offender Capabilities.
In India, particularly the safety and security of prisoners and daily Bandobast of meetings, clothes, food, admission and release etc. are the biggest challenge before the prison administration.Althoughthese daily Bandobast things in the prison also brings prosperity for some of the prison officials. This is another hard truth that where they have timeto work for the correction, reformation and rehabilitation programmes. Some prison official says that these are fancy terms and no change can be brought among prisoners so there is no need to run such programmes.
Initially the strategy for the punishment system in primitive society was retribution and deterrence and the focus was on the elimination of wrong doers.Then in 19th century,in thefirst halfthe approach was preventive (imprisonment) and later on the approach has shifted towards reformation, rehabilitation and community based treatment programmes.
With the changing perception towards prisoners,prisons areno longer regarded only as a place for punishment. Instead, they are now being considered as reformatories.As a result in some states the name of the prison department changed and renamed as Department of Corrections. Greaterattention is being given to amelioratethe conditions in jails so that ithas a healthy impacton prisoners and apositive attitude can be developed among prisoners.
In the era of reformation and rehabilitation the role of prisons has changed and prisons are now the treatment centers and place of correction. The education, training and experience of the prison population will determine the quality of the reformative programmes. Rehabilitation planning of prisoners is the process of developing and determining objectives, policies and programs that will develop and utilize the skills of the prisoners so as to achieve economic and other go als . In oth er terms , the go al of the refor mation a nd rehabilitation schemes is to reintegrate the prisoner in society after release. However excellent may be the state of technology in an organization, unless suitable climate is created by pursuing and implementingreformation and reintegration policies and plans in which the prisoner is motivated to give its best to the society, the objectives and plans of the organization can not be achieved. The goals of the rehabilitation and reformation can be categorized into different categories like intermediate and ultimate goal, specific and general, social and individual, dynamic and static, long term and short term goals. The correctional institutions are less willing to underwrite the cost of providing decent conditions and rehabilitative programmes because in fact the after care schemes are not running properly and there is also absolutely no follow up of the conditions of the prisoners who released from prison. The state is not bothered about their employment,social tie up, shelter etc. The financial support and other assistance needed by the correctional institutions for after care programmes are denied. Commitment to prison would become a beneficial act for the offender only at helping him to a better future life. The “Sick Model” of the management of offenders has never been tested in correctional fields.Thus there is little hard evidence either for or against its usefulness in rehabilitating offenders.
Research in the problem of crime in India has not yet made sufficient advance. The immediate task is to change or modify existing policies and programmes in order to adjustthem to new objectives which seek to protect the interest of society and achieve a total rehabilitation of the offender. Crime is stimulated by conditions prevailing in society and it is due to personaland psychologicalfactors.Economic conditions have always been a factor contributing to crime. Intensive surveys to study the causes, nature and extent of crimeshould be undertaken by research organisations, universities and other private agencies. The treatment of the crime, problem is intimately related to the nature of legislation, and the approach of the judiciary to crime. So far there has been no basic approach towards the various problems of correctional administration, but a number of useful steps have been recently taken by States and there is growing interest in the reform of penal administration.
The problem of correctional administration has to be dealt with in three stages: the pre-committal stage; the administration of correctional institutions; and probation and after-care. The principle that no person should be considered an offender till he is proved guilty should govern the treatment of accused and under-trial persons. The administration of police lock-ups and jails needs to be reviewed in the interest of the proper treatment of the inmates of the lock-ups. Special care must be taken when first offenders are committed to jails, so that no serious psychologicalharm is done to them. The administration of correctionalinstitutions is governed by jail manuals.A recent conference of State Inspectors-General of Prisons has proposed the appointment of a committee to suggest the basis on which jailmanuals may be revised to suit the new objectives, methods and programmes of correctional institutions,remove theinflexibility of rules, and permit greater freedom to the authorities on the spot to interpret sympathetically the rules so as to serve the objects of rehabilitation.Changes in the jailmanuals willnaturally requirea revision of the Prison and Prisoners’Act which would need to be modified to meet changes in correctional administration.
The need to utiliseprisons as agencies forthe rehabilitation of prisoners is generally accepted. Modern principles ofpenology requirethat each prisoner is to be dealt with as an individual, and corrective handling should be so devised as to be in consonance with his abilities, aptitudes, back-ground and also with the paramount purposeof enabling him to earn his living honestly as a law-abiding member of society. While this mustbe theidealand allplans must bedirected to this end,the possibility of utilising the manpower resources represented by prisoners on projects of socially constructive character should be fully explored. Central prisons and district jails should receive the assistance of Departments such as those concerned with Industries,Agriculture and Irrigation, so that the maximum advantage can be taken of the labour availablein correctionalInstitutions. Aprobation and after-care service is likely to minimise the cost of maintenance, as prisoners will not be called upon to servelong sentences during which they willbe maintained by State Governments. As life in prison has to be organised so that the inmates live as a community and as the method of case work is to be increasingly used to dealwith individualcases in correctionalinstitutions, welfare officers should be progressively employed in central prisons and first grade district jails. Officials of correctionalinstitutions should be given special training both before employment and during service.
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Prisons and jails may need to be reconditioned so as to provide arrangements to suitdifferent classes of prisoners. Separate correctional institutions may be provided for female convicts. It should also be possible to develop open and closefarm workshop prisons, agricultural colonies, and work camps at important work projects. The provision for Borstals, both open and closed, will also need to be expanded. It will be necessary to bring about greater uniformity in legislation applicable to first offenders and others charged more than once for minor offences. The appointment of probation officers and the release of prisoners on parole should remove a great deal of congestion from correctionalinstitutions, reduce the cost of prison administration, and enable many prisoners to live as normal citizens after they have served theirsentences. Thework of private agencies like prisoners’ aid societies and district probation and after-care associations has suffered on account of limited resources. It is desirable to entrust after-care work
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to probation officers, and a beginning may bemade by organising after- care departments in centralprisons and first grade district jails to deal with problems relating to work and employment, housing, health and family relationship. New developments in the administration and programmes of correctionalinstitutions requirethe guidanceand advice of experienced personnelworking together in a central organisation. Such an organisation can assist programmes in the States, undertake experimental work and pilot projects, and function as a centre of information and publicity on all matters relating to correctional administration. Recognising the need for such a central organisation, the recent conference of Inspectors-GeneralofPrisons recommended that a NationalBureau of CorrectionalInstitutions may be established in theMinistry of Home Affairs.
Development of Prison Policies in India
1. In 1835 Lord Macaulay appointed a Prison Discipline Committee and that started working on 2nd January, 1836. In 1838, committee submitted their report. The committee recommended more rigorous treatmentof prisoners and rejected allnotions of reforming criminals lodged in the prison.
2. Sir John Lawrence, again examined theconditions ofIndia Prisons in 1864 and this second commission of enquiry also did not dwell upon the concept of reformation and welfare of prisoners. However the commission made somespecific recommendations in respect of accommodation, diet, clothing, bedding , medical care of prisoners only to the extent that there were incidental to discipline and management of prisons and prisoners.
3. A conference of experts was held in 1877 to inquire into the prison administration in detail. Theconference resolved that the
Prison Lawshould be enacted which could secure uniformity of system. A draft Prison Bill was actually prepared but finally postponed due to unfavorable circumstances.
4. The fourth Jail Commission was appointed by Lord Dufferin in 1888 to inquire into the prison administration and the outcome was the Prison Act, 1894.
5. In 1919-20 AllIndia JailCommittee was the major landmark in the history of Prison reforms in India and is appropriately called the corner stone of modern prison reforms in the country. For the first time, in the history of prison administration, reformation and rehabilitation of offenders were identified as one of the objectives of prison administration.
6. The Constitutionalchanges brought about by the Government of India Act of 1935, which result the transfer of the subject of prisons in the control ofProvincialGovernments,further reduced th e po ss ibilities o f u nifo rm im plem en tatio n of the recommendations of the Indian Jails Committee 1919-20 in the country.
7. However, the period 1937-47 was important in the history of Indian prisons because states like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh etc. Apart from appointment of some committees and enactment of some Acts the first Jail Training Schoolin India was established at Lucknow in 1940.
8. Dr. W.C. Reckless, a United Nations expert on Correctional Workvisited India during 1951-52to study prison administration in the country. In his report he emphasized on the Corrections.
9. In 1957 All India jail ManualCommittee appointed.
10. In 1961 Central Bureau of Correctional Services was set up
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and in 1971 renamed as National Institute of Social Defence. (One of the organizer of this seminar)
11. In 1972, the Ministry of Home Affairs appointed a Working Group on Prisons.
12. In 1978,the seventh Finance Commission dealt with the financial aspects of prison administration. Anorm of Rs.3 per head for dietand Rs.1per prisoners for otheritems likemedicine, clothing etc. per day was set up.
13. The Government of India convened a Conference of Chief Secretaries of all the States and Union territories on April 9, 1979. The recommendations like development of education, training and work in prisons, setting state board of visitors etc.
14. AllIndiaCommittee on JailReforms under thechairmanship of Mr. Justice A.N. Mulla was constituted in 1980 and it submitted its report in 1983.A Total658 recommendation made regarding each and every aspect of Prison including the reformation and rehabilitation of Prisoners and also to form NationalPolicy on Prisons.
The role of Bureau of Police Research and Development, Ministry of Home Affairs is remarkable and the Bureau is organizing so many training programmes and research project countrywide. Out of 10 research studies conducted by the Bureau only one is focused on the “Impact of VocationalTraining on Reformation and Rehabilitation of Prisoners in Madhya Pradesh and Chattishgarh.” The Bureau also prepared Model Jail Manual and Draft National Policy on Prison Reforms and CorrectionalAdministration in 2007.
Prisoners Welfare and Rehabilitation Policy
According to the Prison Statistics Report 2008 which is a publication
of National Crime Records Bureau, Government of India the rehabilitation of prisoners is categorized in 4 different categories.
1. FinancialAssistance provided on release
2. Number of convict rehabilitated
3. Number of Prisoners to whom legal aid provided
4. Wages paid per day to convicts.
Only 1180 prisoners were provided financialassistance, 1913 convicts rehabilitated, 45585 prisoners provided legalaid and more interesting that asmallstate Goa is paying wages Rs. 120 to their skilled prisoners, Rs. 90 to semi skilled and Rs. 80 to unskilled prisoners. This is the highest in the country.Although some other states are paying 60, 45, 26, 24, 20, and 18 to the skilled prisoners. In the same country so much disparity is there.
Society reacts to criminal behavior in a number ofways, one of which is the practice of incarcerating the offender, to serve the purpose of ” Corrections” . Corrections, is the part of society’s agencies of social control that attempts to rehabilitate or neutralize the deviant behavior by imparting various treatment programmes besides confining the offender.
Though in recent times reformation has been in focus of corrections prior to the emergenceof incarceration numerous forms of punishments were utilized as measures of social control (Reid, 1981) to serve the purpose of criminal sanctions. Retribution, expiation and deterrence were the justifications of punishments. As the popular conception of the punishment in the yesteryears amounted to inflicting some sort of pain in the offender for his violence of law (Allen et al, 1975). The impact of political, economic and social changes in the 18th century
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brought outthe beginningof an era ofchanges in the trend ofpunishment. In the 20th century the conceptof justification of punishmentshifted to deterrence followed by reformation,rehabilitation and reintegration of the offender into the main stream of the society (Reckless, 1971). In other words,the trend has been towards humanizing punishment and reduction of brutalities which ultimately gave rise to a new concept called “Corrections”.Whilehumanizingthe punishment,specialattention was focused on convicts in correctional institutions.
Theproblem of Social rehabilitation and treatment of prisoners is, with the passing of years, assuming larger dimensions in almost India. This is so because the moralconsciousness of human being is more actively manifest in the anxiousness of society to secure the redemption, treatment and rehabilitation of those who by committing less serious offences have stayed away from the time beingfrom thenormal walks of social life. The Social intervention of convicts ideally includes treatment in the forms of supervision,guidance and assistance. Despite the socialinterventions taking place in the prisons, certain precautions need to be taken in advance so that the convicts will not return to crime after release. Despite the usefulness of aftercare service, there has been very little progress in the area of treatment and rehabilitation in correctional organizations of India.
In the developed countries of the west, voluntary socialand religious organizations have been doing alotofextremely usefuland humanitarian work pertaining to the treatment and rehabilitation of prisoners. In the Indian context, a need to involve social work practice in prisons is required and employment oriented rehabilitation programmes to be introduced in the prisons. Socialwork intervention is to be developed for establishingand maintainingcontacts with employers and the selected
convicts. Social rehabilitation of convicts is now a matter of serious concern. It is felt that in the view of the failure of our existing prison system to reform criminals there is a need for increasing application of non-punitiveand rehabilitation based treatment of convicts. The social interventions maintain cohesion amonginmates, creates self confidence in inmates, develops mutualsupport, nature of adjustment in prison community and develops loyalty between convicts and society. Effective social work services to be introduced to reform the convicts. There is a complex two way process in which goals, ideas and beliefs influence and are influence by the social structure. Applying this to prisons it might be said that prisons relations are patterned by structural determinants. Meanings and motives ofprisoners are socially generate and sustained in ways of which prisoners themselves may be unaware. As such,along with structuralchanges,interpersonalrelations in prisons should be so permitted to develop that prisoners own motives and meaning may get importance in their behavior. There are a variety of ways to dealwith the stress created by prison life. Some inmates feel they must be actively constantly in order to survive the prison experience. Their activities may include some learning process that can help for the adjustment of convicts in the society after release. Social intervention can help a lot in the reformation, treatment and rehabilitation of convicts.
The correctional institutions are less willing to underwrite the cost of providing decent conditions and rehabilitative programmes. The financial support and other assistance needed by the correctional institutions are denied. The prison was expected to be self financing, even profit making through the exploitation of inmate labour. The long run trend however towards more humane and rational practices in
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corrections. Prisons are free to operate in less punitive and restricted ways. They mightsecure the financial support necessary to obviate the need to exploit inmate labour. Commitment to prison would become a beneficial act for the offender only at helping him to a better future life. The “Sick Model” of the management of offenders has never been tested in correctional fields. Thus there is a little hard evidence either for or against its usefulness in rehabilitating offenders.
There may be some regionaldifferences among correctional systems which are traceable to historical and geographical factors, while other distinctions between systems seem more related to differences in population and economy. The classification ofthe offenders should be on the basis of characteristics of the offenders. The needs for the rehabilitation process depend on the correctionalinstitution’s initiatives, creativity and capacity of risk taking. There is a need for evolving a common philosophy,fullsharing of information,flexible arrangements for accomplishing overlappingof contemporary task, poolingof scarce resources and closecollaboration in such vitalventures such as planning, public education etc.
Correctional institutions should concentrate more on giving treatment and training to their inmates and that should employment generating. The men/women convicts can not be put into the same categories because their requirements of training and treatment are not same. Historically the prisons were using the inmate labour for their own development withoutconsidering the inmate’s requirements.The prison population was their labour force and that is why prison industry came into operations. Consequently whatever provisions are to bemade for specialized services and differential care for offenders should come from within the institution, using whatever resources are available.
Offenders may also be encouraged to perform community service or make reparations to victims for damages. Some schemes may involve what is called “reintegrative shaming”. This is different from stigmatization (which tends to excludeand insolateindividuals) instead involves a sequentialprocess of first shaming the offender and then accepting him or her back into the community through gestures of forgiveness. Reintegrativeshaming is based on the beliefthat conscience is a more powerfulweapon to control misbehavior than punishment.
Five fundamentalconsiderations areusually in operation areas follows:
• Social Isolation and Confinement i.e. to isolate offender from society.
• Repentance i.e., to keep an offender in an isolated place where he could ponder over the consequences of his wrong deeds.
• Punishment and Deterrence i.e., to inflict some pain and suffering.
• Protection i.e.,protecting community from criminals.
• Reformation and Rehabilitation i.e., to change offender’s values,motivations, attitudes and perceptions through education, training, treatment or a combination of these and to resocialize him and restore him to community.
(Ahuja, Ram 1996, Pg 258-259)
DEFINING CORRECTIONS
Oxford dictionary definition : “Corrections in common parlance refers to all the efforts that are taken by the criminal justice personnel to effect some kind of correctional change in the offender in an effort to set right the deviant behavior”. Bartollas (1985) clarifies that the term correction in itself indicates that the major aim in dealing with offenders is to bring them to a recognition of their behavior so that it becomes more beneficial
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to the society and perhaps to their own goals. The evolution of this concept of correction was marked by increase in growth of imprisonment and its modifications as well as substitutes such as remission, parole and probation, short term sentences and fine. Prisons came to be called as “Correctional Systems” or “Correctional Institutions”.
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CORRECTIONAL GOALS
Broadly there are two types of correctional goals:-
1. Custodial Goal
2. Rehabilitative Goal
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The custodial goalrequires the incarceration of offenders in a safe but conditioned environment, to punish them for past crimes and deter
future criminalactivity (Grosser,1969). The rehabilitativegoal requires the provision of treatment through various kinds of programmes which are aimed at resocialization, reassimilation and reintegration of the offender into the main stream of social life after release. While the custodialgoal is achieved by confining the offender in prisons, the rehabilitative goalis achieved by means of various treatment modalities.
THE CORRECTIONAL MODEL
Any measure taken to change the offender’s character, habits or behavior pattern so as to dismiss his (or her) criminal propensities is referred to as correctionaltreatment and various methods adopted in bringing about such a change is referred to as a “Correctional Model”. This implies that instead of looking at the prisoners as an economic burden, we should look upon them as a resource for generating prosperity. It is regularly observed that there is a greater need for self development.And this can be achieved through motivatingan offender present behind the walls of prison towards self development. Rabindranath Tagore once observed that it was only a lighted candle that could light another. In broader sense developmentis synonymous with the process of learning. This process may be structured. Two such models incorporating treatment ideologies are the medical model and therehabilitative model.
The medical model implies that
1. Incarcerated individuals have problems, problems which are a direct cause of their behavior.
2. Correctionalprogramme personnelcan diagnosethese problems accurately and have appropriate treatments available for the individuals.
3. These treatments will be properly applied ; and
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4. The problems will be ‘solved’ ( or at least mitigated as a result of these treatments)
5. In addition theindividual’s criminalbehaviorwillbegin to diminish as a result of mitigating the problems (Maltz,1984)
The Medical Model
Offenders Problem ———- Crime———–Arrest———–Trial-
———Diagnosis—-Treatment———-Problems Mitigated——
—-Return to Acceptable Behaviour
By Goffman, 1961 This sequence of implications forms a logicalconstruct and is referred to as Medical Modelof Corrections (Goffman,1961). This modelforms the basis for the “Rehabilitative Model”.
The rehabilitative model implies that:
1. Offender’s problem begins in the society and must be solved where it began.
2. Society fulfills its responsibilities by helping law violators to reintegrate themselves back into the socialorder by means of correctional treatment.
3. Offenders learn howto utilizethese opportunities so as to mitigate the problem.
4. Meaningful community contacts are provided to achieve the objectives of rehabilitation, resocialization and reintegration.
5. Offenders are provided to assume their usual normal roles as citizens and family members ( O’Leary et al.,1971)
The rehabilitative model encompasses various approaches to the treatment of offenders. The psychological approach that employs intensive counseling via personality management and behavior
modification to treat offenders (Himselson,1976) ; the educational – socialization approach that provides inmates with educational opportunities thereby fosteringaccess to success goals through legitimate means (Merton,1957) Cloward and Ohlin,1960) the cultural- reorientation approach -a combination of the above two approaches thatidentifies the crux of the problem viz. thatthe offenders beliefs and values in conflict with the conventional culture and attempts to apply the remedy in a context that is conducive to mitigate the problem.
Endnotes
Abers E.R. (1943) Classifications in the state prison, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Vol XXXIV.
Adams, Kenneth, Katherine J. Benett, Timothy J. Flanagan, James W. marquart, Steven J. Cuvelier, eric Fritsch, Jurg Gerber, Dennis.
Andrews D.A., Ivan Zinger, Robert D.Hoge, James Bonta, P aul Gendreau and Francis T.
Cullen (1990) Does Correctional Treatment work? A clinically relevant and psychologically informed meta analysis: Criminology 8, 369-404 .
Applegate, Brandon K, Francis T. Cullen and Bonnies S. Fisher (2001) Public support for correctional treatment: The continuing appeal of the rehabilitative ideal: The prison Journal77, 237-258.
Barker F.A, (1944) The Modern Prison System in India, London (1944) P.4.
Baker J.E. (1964) Inmate self Government, Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science, 55 No. 1.
Chang, H.Dae and Iacovett, R.G. (1982) Perceptual evaluations as an index for conflict resolution and criminal rehabilitation. The Indian journal of Criminology and Criminalistics.
Cohen F (1980) The law of deprivation of liberty: a study in social control, St. paul, MN:west, 23-28.
Gerber, J., and E. J. Fritsch (1995) “Adult Academic and Vocational Correctional Education Programs: A Review of Recent Research,” Journal of Offender Rehabilitation 22: 119-142.
Glaser, D. (1964) The effectiveness of a prison and parole system. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs- Merrill.
Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (1976) Survey of inmates of state correctional facilities: Advance report, U.S. Department of Justice.
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Little, G.L., K.D. Robinson, K.D. Burnette, and E.S. Swan (1995),”Seven-Year Recidivism of Felony Offenders Treated with MRT,”Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment Review 4 : 6.
Megargee, E.I. ( 1996) P opulation density and disruptive behavior in prison settings. In
A.K. Cohen , F.G. cole & R.G.Bailey (Eds.) Prison Violence, Lexington books.
Megargee E.I.and Bohn, M.J. (1989) Classifying Criminal offenders. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
McDonald, D.C., and D.T. Rodda,(1994) “Offender Employment and Training Programs: A Review of the Research,” unpublished paper, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Abt Associates Inc.,
Morris, Norval (1982), Madness and the Criminal Law, Chicago: University of Chicago Press : 196.
MacKenzie, D.L., and R. Brame, “Moral Reconation Therapy and Problem Behavior in the Oklahoma Department of Corrections,” Unpublished Paper, College P ark: University of Maryland, n.d.: 6-7.
Prison Act 1894.
The P rison Act 1870, 1894. The P risoners Act, 1900.
Report of India Jail Committee 1864, P. 10 , 16, 20. Report of India Jail Committee 1919-20, P. 29.
Reckless, W.C. and Kay, B (1957) The self component in potential delinquent and non
delinquent. American Sociological Review, 22, 570 Report of the Indian Jails Committee, 1838.
Report of the Indian Jails Committee, 1864. Report of the Indian Jails Committee, 1876. Report of the Indian Jails Committee, 1888. Report of the Indian Jails Committee, 1892. Report of the U.P. Jails Equity Committee, 1929.
Report of the U.P. Departmental Jails Committee, 1939. Report of the U.P. Jail Industries Equity Committee, 1955. Report of the All India Jail Manual Committee, 1959.
Robinson, Louis N. (1947) Contradictory Purposes in Prisons, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 37: 449-457.
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