Prisoner Rehabilitation

Prisoner Rehabilitation

Antisocial personality disorder is considered one of the most difficult of all personality disorders to treat. Individuals rarely seek treatment on their own and may only initiate therapy when mandated by a court. The efficacy of treatment for antisocial personality disorder is largely unknown. Few individuals seek medical attention specifically for antisocial personality disorder, or ASP. Antisocials who seek care do so for other problems such as marital problems, alcohol or drug abuse or suicidal thoughts. Family members or the courts may send some people with ASP to a mental health counselor for evaluation. Antisocial individuals often have poor insight and may reject the diagnosis or deny their symptoms. Incarceration may be the best way to control the most severe and persistent cases of antisocial personality disorder, and rehabilitation should be attempted for these individuals.

Keeping antisocial offenders behind bars during their most active criminal periods reduces their behaviors' social impact. In rare instances, corrections systems (jails and prisons) provide opportunities for treatment or rehabilitation, but often, these environments, with their abundance of antisocial individuals, only promote antisocial behavior. Corrections officers must balance the goal of punishing offenders with that of preparing inmates for their eventual release into society while maintaining a prison environment free of violence and destructive behavior. While administering sentences corrections officials must strive to meet two major goals: punishment and rehabilitation.

The contradictory nature of punishment and rehabilitation becomes evident when we start to discuss prisoner rights. Many people hold the point of view that criminals chose to give up their rights and freedoms when they commit a crime. On the other side, prisoner advocates and those interested primarily in rehabilitation feel detainees should be allotted the same rights as ordinary citizens. Examples of these rights include the right to a fair hearing before being punished by prison officials (punitive actions within a jail could include being moved to solitary confinement or transferred to a higher security prison), the right not to endure arbitrary searches or lockdown and the right to fair and respectful treatment by prison staff. This is argued on the basis that prisoners will not learn how to function in society and will have limited success in their treatment programs if they are constantly subject to the frustrating reality of limited personal rights.

Theoretically, if we were truly interested in the rehabilitation and successful community reintegration of our prisoners, our prisons would be fashioned as treatment facilities where staff trained as counselors and therapists would help prisoners work through areas of addiction and social behaviors. The therapeutic approach would be most successful if carried out in an environment sensitive to the rights and dignity of those undergoing treatment. In addition,