Does rehabilitation work for criminals?

[Rex]

What is your take on the rehabilitation concept?

And if someone could be rehabilitated should they even get that second chance, after violating a law with consequences?

 

[Sunstone]

I think it works for some, not for others. A person has to want to change their life before they can change their life. You can't force a person to change, if he or she doesn't want to.

 

[Druidus]

I think it works for some, not for others. A person has to want to change their life before they can change their life. You can't force a person to change, if he or she doesn't want to.

Though electroshock therapy will cause some changes.

Rehabilitation will work for anyone willing to try to change. It will also work for some who don't want to change (What happens at insane asylums? Most people there may not wish to change, and yet, they still can). But a murder who takes immense pleasure in killing someone will probably have difficulty being rehabilitated, unless that murderer really wants to change.

 

[Rex]

So should the taxpayers have to pay to find out which ones want to be rehabilitated?

 

[Sunstone]

It's in the interests of society to rehabilitate those who can and want to be rehabilitated. Rehabilitation is an investment that society makes in order to reduce crime.

 

[Rex]

It's in the interests of society to rehabilitate those who can and want to be rehabilitated. Rehabilitation is an investment that society makes in order to reduce crime.

Wouldn't be in the interest of society to rid society of those that break such crimes that need rehabilitiation, thus removing the margin of error.

 

[Saw11_2000]

It can work sometimes, but I think money is better spend in prevention programs rather than rehab, and yes I know that you can't prevent 100% of them, but the ones that are succeptible to rehab should have a full mental evaluation to see if they would benefit from the therapy. The ones that the mental evaluation says are unsucceptible should remain in prison. I hope that makes a little bit of sense.

 

[Unedited]

Though electroshock therapy will cause some changes.

Rehabilitation will work for anyone willing to try to change. It will also work for some who don't want to change (What happens at insane asylums? Most people there may not wish to change, and yet, they still can). But a murder who takes immense pleasure in killing someone will probably have difficulty being rehabilitated, unless that murderer really wants to change.

I hate ECT. Scary.

I think it'd be nice to offer rehabilitation to those who really want it. I'm not sure how that could be done exactly. I don't really have a strong opinion on the subject, because I don't know much about it. I only know that what we have now doesn't work too well.

I could see the good in ECT, but I think it's important that it'd only be done if the prisoner wanted it, especially with the risks involved, though there is surprisingly little. And then, it would only do good on certain, few prisoners anyway. Paranoid schizophrenic serial killers I guess, would be most predominate, and there are lots of other nice (less frightening) treatments for that.

I think I'm rambling though, so I'll shut up.

 

[SoliDeoGloria]

Wouldn't be in the interest of society to rid society of those that break such crimes that need rehabilitiation, thus removing the margin of error.

First off, I would like to state that I spent four years incarcerated in the Iowa department of corrections.

The first thing I would like to ask about this conversation is what is meant by "such crimes", because as far as I know from experience, there is really no such thing as a person who has commited any crime that doesn't need rehabilitation depending on your definition of rehabilitation. Now the crime I comitted was a physically violent one and I most definitely needed rehabilitation. So the next question would be why should I get rehabilitated rather than just thrown in prison for the rest of my life?

Well, the constitution of the U.S. protects its citizens from "cruel and unusual punishment" for one, but that depends on one's definition of "cruel and unusual". Prisons are a cash cow for two, which is evident by the private prisons out there. So keeping people out of prison is actually better for the tax payer rather than throwing away the key. You'd be suprised at how much mony is spent on incarcerating one person for a year. On top of that, how many truly rehabilitated criminals could actually prevent other people they run across from committing the same crime simply with their testimonys?

The major problem with this issue is that a vast majority of inmates are not being rehabilitated so ofcourse the problems are just getting worse and worse. The statistics for ex-felons that go back to prison are staggering. From an inmates point of view, what I see as being the major problem is that despite the "treatment" programs out there for people who commit crimes, there is a very tiny amount of counselors or treatment facilitators who actually care about what they are doing. Most care about either money or their own reputations because of the money they make. I promise that you would sincerely be sickened at how politically motivated prisons and treatment programs are in these situations if you could've seen some of the things I have seen.

I am truly embarrassed to state that I had actually excepted Jesus Christ into my heart before I had committed the crime I had committed. I volunteered for a faith based treatment program called the Innerchange Freedom Innitiative( http://www.ifiprison.org ) and while I can state that I was rehabilitated and that being involved in a program like that was it's benifits from a spiritual perspective, I could tell you stories that make me very upset over the fraud behind most of the staff members in a program that claims to be "Bible based & Christ centered" but is no less politically and monetarily motivated than any other secular rehabilitation program. BTW, I am one of the very small few successfull graduates of the program.

Even as an ex-felon, I see very little, if any, hope in successfull rehabilitation of criminal offenders, not because people who commit crimes are buyond rehabilitation but because of the lack of sincere interest in rehabilitation by those who claim to be interested.

Sincerely,
SoliDeoGloria

 

[Melody]

What is your take on the rehabilitation concept?

And if someone could be rehabilitated should they even get that second chance, after violating a law with consequences?

Interesting idea. Assuming the criminal knew the difference between right and wrong before he committed the crime...and still committed the crime...exactly what is it you'd do to rehabilitate him? He already knew it was wrong and still did it. What about those who know it' wrong and don't give a hoot...it's every man for himself? I don't see how rehabilitation will have any effect.

I do believe people should be given a second chance and I don't believe that non-violent offenders should be in prison. With our current technology, trackable microchips could be embedded under the skin so that the authorities could do a Martha Stewart on someone. Instead of being a drain on taxpayers, they could still go out and work and support themself.

 

[almifkhar]

i think it is all a bunch of crap. the only way a person will change is if one wants to. pervention is crap too. if parents took the time to stress to their children about the consequences of their actions there would be less crime on the streets. people don't think because they are not taught to think and this to me is the root of the problem.

 

[Druidus]

Interesting idea. Assuming the criminal knew the difference between right and wrong before he committed the crime...and still committed the crime...exactly what is it you'd do to rehabilitate him? He already knew it was wrong and still did it. What about those who know it' wrong and don't give a hoot...it's every man for himself? I don't see how rehabilitation will have any effect.

If you've lied once, knowing it to be wrong, you are now a pathological liar, with no possible chance at ever stopping?

 

[Melody]

If you've lied once, knowing it to be wrong, you are now a pathological liar, with no possible chance at ever stopping?

No, you missed my point. My point was, exactly *how* will they rehabilitate if the person already knew they were wrong. Let me use a differently example.

When my son was in 7th grade, we received a note from his teacher that he would be receiving a D in math. Since every test paper had 100% plus bonus points, and all in class assignments had similar grades, this was puzzling. Turned out it was because his homework went missing somewhere between home and school. Now, the teacher and principal's solution was that Bryan go to summer school for math. The question then becomes....for what purpose? It's already apparent that he had mastery over the subject so summer school could only be seen as punishment. There was nothing to improve.

In the case of the criminal, if one assumes they already knew they were doing wrong, exactly what will you do to "rehabilitate" them? The logical thing, in my opinion, is to determine how dangerous they are to society. If their crime involved violence (i.e. armed robbery, rape, etc.), then I say lock 'em up for the protection of society. If they are non-violent in the sense that others were not harmed, then do the Martha Stewart thing. We have the technology.

 

[johnnys4life]

It doesn't work because these people need Jesus. Period. The only criminals I have every actually seen reform themselves long term are ones who found the Lord.

 

[Druidus]

We have the technology.

We can rebuild him. We have the technology.

It doesn't work because these people need Jesus.

No one "needs" him. I certainly don't, and I've never committed a violent crime. Neither have many atheists I know. One friend of mine actually did (assaulted and severely beat someone). He's still an atheist, yet he's never done something like that again, and is truly sorry for it, now.

The only criminals I have every actually seen reform themselves long term are ones who found the Lord.

You don't see many criminals, do you?