From Inmate life to Civilian Life, California Inmates Deserve a Better Shot
America has a unique view to prison, with the mindset being it serve as a form of punishment with suffering. While certain heinous crimes deserve the treatment, the truth is a large majority of inmates are in for “petty crimes” such as drug offenses or theft that outside factors largely influence why they even committed the crime in the first place. Factors ranging from unhealthy social lives, lack of community, and substance use, which are all fixable situations. While it’s true there are consequences to your actions, shouldn’t we as a society want to help improve the lives of inmates so they can do better in society rather than just “do their time?” The answer should be yes, which is why the state of California has in place rehabilitation programs to reduce the level of recidivism — the number of inmates that reoffend after release. However, what does the lack of rehabilitation programs or subsequently shortcomings of them mean for LA inmates’ future and how could rehabilitation programs based on European models change it for the better?
The state of California has rehabilitation programs ranging from employment preparation, academic education, and substance abuse treatment. This sounds fantastic, but it is not solely on having them available that will make the program a success. According to the “Legislative Analyst’s Office” of California’s 2017–2018 report, effectiveness is based on three key principles — being modeled after a proven effective program, evaluations for cost-effectiveness, and including a focus on high need inmates. However, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has its shortcomings as it falls to reach is goal of reducing recidivism, ineffectively uses space within the programs, and the measurement of success is flawed. For example, “In 2015‑16, almost half of inmates were released without receiving rehabilitation programs for which they have an assessed need” (LAO) and in the following year, “State auditors said poor administrative practices resulted in 62% of 24,000 inmates leaving state prisons without having those needs met” (Ulloa, Jazmine.) The repercussions of such shortcomings can be seen in the rate of recidivism which has averaged to about fifty percent for the past decade. So, we know that a lack of effective programs does nothing to help recidivism, but how do we know that having them will actually help in the long run? We take a look at our European neighbor Norway.
Norway prisons also offer rehabilitation programs like the US, however America has the having the highest recidivism rate worldwide at a 76%, Norway offers a stark contrast with the lowest rate of 20% according to the HuffPost. But Norway doesn’t just have rehabilitation programs — which they run much more effectively than us — they’ve completely reformed what prison means. At the heart of it is rehabilitation, yes they still have to serve time for their crimes, but the emphasis is for them to go back to society better than how they came in. From relationship with the ‘officers’(unlike ‘guards’ in America), treatment of inmates, to the architecture of the prison, everything is designed to improve the lives of inmates.
America has to take a long and hard look at how we currently run the prison system because Norway has paved the way to giving inmates a way to be better community members. It’s a good start to improve how effectively the rehabilitation programs run, but ultimately it’s up to us to choose to follow suite and give our community a chance to change for the better because as Fedrik, an inmate at Norway’s maximum security Halden Prison shares in a BBC interview, “If you don’t have opportunities and you are just locked in a cage, you don’t become a good citizen.”
Bibliography
“How Norway turns criminals into good neighbors” BBC 7 July 2019 How Norway turns criminals into good neighbours — BBC News 18 November 2021
Peterson, Jonathan and Lee, Anita. “Improving In-Prison Rehabilitation Programs” Legislative Analyst’s Office The California Legislature’s Nonpartisan Fiscal and Policy Advisor. 6th December 2017. Improving In-Prison Rehabilitation Programs (ca.gov) 18 November 2021
Ulloa, Jazmine. “Despite an emphasis on inmate rehab, California recidivism rate is ‘stubbornly high,” Los Angeles Times 31 January 2019 Despite an emphasis on inmate rehab, California recidivism rate is ‘stubbornly high’ — Los Angeles Times (latimes.com) 18 November 2021
Zoukis, Christopher. “U.S. prisoners the least rehabilitated in the world.” HuffPost 16 September 2017 U.S. prisoners the least rehabilitated in the world | HuffPost null 18 November 2021
