Rehabilitation

There's an argument to be made that everyone deserves a second chance. To comprehend compassion and understanding is to comprehend the importance of rehabilitation. As society becomes more progressive, and our methods for dealing with criminals become more advanced, the possibility for rehabilitation becomes more and more apparent.

Instead of focusing on punishment and public deterrence, we can instead guide those who need it toward making better choices, aiding their reintegration into society so that they can build a better future for themselves and their loved ones.

• We will first aim to understand what rehabilitation really means.
• Next, we will explore cognitive rehabilitation.
• We will then discuss the steps of rehabilitation.
• Finally, we will discuss the similarities and differences between rehabilitation and reintegration.

Fig. 1, Rehabilitation focuses on reintegrating members back into society, pexels

What is the Rehabilitation Meaning?

Rehabilitation, group therapy between four people sitting in a circle, Vaia

Fig. 1, Rehabilitation focuses on reintegrating members back into society, pexels

When a crime is committed, the normal reaction to it is that of punishment. However, while in some cases this may be necessary, it is important to acknowledge the importance of not just punishment, but of rehabilitation - a means by which individuals are able to reflect on their crime, understand why it was wrong and make an effort to be better.

The process of rehabilitation starts in Prison itself and carries on afterwards. The first act towards this was passed by the British government in 1779 - the Penitentiary Act - which stated that the rehabilitation of criminals should be implemented in all prisons. Ever since, while imprisonment is the form of punishment that is meted out to criminals, the need for and importance of rehabilitation has only grown.

The main goal of rehabilitation is to reduce criminal behaviour and increase pro-social behaviour.

Cognitive Rehabilitation

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a key component when it comes to the rehabilitation of juveniles and adult offenders. We know that it is our thinking that leads to our behaviour, so for criminal behaviour to take place, there must exist some form of criminal thinking, right? According to CBT, this is a dysfunctional pattern of thinking. Foroozandeh (2017) found that risky behaviours like crime and law-breaking are associated with impulsivity and cognitive impairment. ¹

Therefore, in this situation, CBT is based on individuals understanding their criminal thinking, thereby understanding what contributed to their criminal behaviour in the first place. This allows for the modification of their thinking, which contributes to the modification of their behaviours.

Techniques that help these changes occur are things like skills training, anger management, prevention of relapse, among others. The most common out of these is that of relapse prevention, and it is done by assessing the offender's risk towards a certain behaviour and then identifying any triggers towards it; this could be things like high-risk places and ineffective coping mechanisms.

Steps of Rehabilitation

Now, you might be wondering how rehabilitation comes about. Just like with any other method, the process of rehabilitation has some steps within it, attempting to help those who need it.

Token Economies

Token Economies are an integral part of the process of rehabilitation, and this is because it teaches the offender right from wrong. How, you may ask? It is simply a method of rewarding good behaviour, right? Not really. By identifying desirable behaviours that are acceptable (not just within the Prison, but in society), undesirable behaviours are being identified at the same time.

Then, by rewarding these desirable behaviours, the offenders are taught what is correct and what is not, and encouraged to continue carrying out the desirable behaviour; after all, the rewards are what will push them towards the desirable behaviour.

Having discussed this, it is important to note that the success of token economies is limited. This is because once prisoners are released and let back into society, the rewards for those desirable behaviours stop, reducing their motivation to carry them out. This can sometimes lead to re-offending².

Anger Management

Novaco (1965)³ suggested that an individual's thoughts are the manner by which emotional arousal takes place, and if this emotional arousal is that of anger, it could lead to aggressive, criminal acts. For this reason, it is believed that the thought must be dealt with at the stage of it being a thought, so that the behaviour does not arise - essentially, if a thought such as anger is experienced, then that should be dealt without before it leads to criminal activity.

Fig. 2, anger management is a form of therapy, pexels.com

There are three steps when it comes to anger management, and these are:

1. Cognitive Preparation: Here, the offender is required to take part in reflection, and think about a past situation that has caused them some form of anger or hostility. By doing so they identify the trigger(s). In addition to this, they are made to understand how they have interpreted that situation, as this interpretation is what would have caused their behaviour. Once both these steps are complete, they are now starting to become more self-aware, and are able to learn techniques that help them interpret situations differently.

2. Skill Acquisition: No one is saying that people should not experience anger - that is something that isn't possible. Offenders are taught a range of different skills that help them manage these overwhelming emotions. Examples of these skills could be effective coping mechanisms, positive self-talk, communication skills and relaxation and meditation techniques.

3. Practical Application: Once the above steps are over, offenders are given an opportunity to put their learning to the test, by means of role-plays of different situations. It allows the offender to identify how their behaviour has changed for the better and gives them the confidence they would need to keep using these skills. If their behaviour has not changed, it allows the person delivering this therapy to identify what has not worked.These role-plays are between the therapist and the offender, wherein a previous anger-inducing situation is re-enacted, and the offender is able to use techniques such as more rational and calm responses, showing that his interpretation of the situation has changed.

This technique aims to target the cognitive cause of anger, rather than just changing behaviour. It is for this reason that this could lead to long-term behaviour change.

However, there are a couple of weaknesses. The evidence of the long-lasting effects of anger management is very limited and this is because it is difficult for the role-play scenarios to account for all possible situations that can trigger anger. Further, not all criminal behaviour is motivated by anger⁴, so naturally, in those cases, anger management will not be effective.

Restorative Justice

In Restorative Justice, offenders are encouraged to take responsibility for their actions, by coming face to face with their victims. Taking an active role in the process, victims meet with the offenders in a supervised meeting wherein they are given the opportunity to talk about the impact the offender's crime has had on them, discussing any distress associated with it. This helps because it gives the offender a chance to see and understand the consequences of their actions, in the hopes that it won't happen again.

While this may sound like a good technique on the face of it, it has its weaknesses as well.

• It requires a lot of time and money to carry this process out and requires highly skilled professionals - not all of this is readily available, so this process needs to be prepared for.

• Additionally, if the offender has no feeling of remorse, and wants to change his behaviour for the sole reason of avoiding prison, then this technique will not work - he will not be open to understanding the consequences of his behaviour and will not take responsibility, which is an integral component of restorative justice.
• Conversely, if the victim/victim's family, are more focused on revenge towards the offender rather than their rehabilitation, they will be unwilling to take part in this.

Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (1974)

The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 allows individuals to choose whether or not they want to disclose any convictions that they may have; in cases such as applying for jobs and buying houses, this may be exactly what offenders need. There are two main aspects that the act focuses on, (a) applying for work and (b) purchasing insurance.

The Rehabilitation of Offenders act applies only in England and Wales, and sometimes the offender may need to disclose even their spent convictions if certain job roles are exempt from the act.

Rehabilitation and Reintegration

While rehabilitation and reintegration go hand in hand, and one is an outcome of the other, the key difference is that rehabilitation is mainly psychological in nature, as compared to reintegration, which is more social and environmental in nature⁵.

Even though prison rehabilitation programmes are aimed at bringing about a behavioural change in the offender, it is extremely difficult to know how successful these will be in the society of which the offender is a part.

Fig. 3, Reintegration into society, pixabay.com

There is a clear difference between rehabilitation and reintegration, and if overlooked, it can lead to the misinterpretation of the statistics on re-offending. The idea that changing one's thoughts thereby changing his behaviour will make him ready for reintegration into society, is a concept which lacks the understanding that these two ideas have a fundamentally different focus - with that of rehabilitation being thoughts of the individual, and reintegration being the society as a whole⁷.