Break the cycle of Crime – Konstantina Zivla

No single solution exists to break the cycle of crime. A combined effort is required across a range of government and community agencies within the justice and health services to reduce recidivism. Particularly, to reduce re-offending, the state-plan should focus on three pillars of priorities. Those pillars aim to address the root-causes that lead to reoffending, such as a) social isolation, b) inadequate education support, c) inadequate (or lack) of employment opportunities to ex-offenders.

Before embarking on the potential solutions, we should first understand the far-reaching effects of imprisonment. Prison is a closed environment. It deprives a person of their liberty. This inevitably means that prison life is fraught with societal, mental and psychological problems. Being sentenced to incarceration can be traumatic. It is closely related with mental health disorders and difficulty in re-joining society after the sentence. Prisoners are called to adjust to the deprivation of liberty, separation from family and friends, and generally adjust to the cut off from all social networks. Those repercussions of prison-life are directly associated with feelings of loneliness, loss of self-worth and high levels of uncertainty and fear. Those feelings lead to what has been described as “convict code” in prison, meaning that prisoners become tough with each other, avoid snitching and getting too close with correctional staff. These norms probably assist those incarcerated in surviving during their imprisonment;. however, they fail to ensure a successful reintegration.

Coming back to the main question: What are the solutions for preventing reoffending?

First solution: Prisoners’ Rehabilitation. International law’s standards highlight that the principle of assisting with prisoners’ social reintegration should be at the heart of prison management strategies. As the UN defined social integration, constitutes the process of integrating socially and psychologically into one’s social environment (UN).  Its utmost goal is to offer offenders assistance and the supervision they need to learn to lead crime-free lives and to avoid a relapse into crime. If we ignore rehabilitation and reintegration of people who have offended, then, we have given up on our beneficial tools for preventing recidivism. By combining restorative practice and trauma-informed practice, we can achieve a targeted approach that comes as a response to offenders’ social isolation (First1st root cause of reoffending).

Second solution: Education within Prisons. States should widen prisoners’ access to degree courses. 

It is not the prison as such, it is the productivity of the offenders within the prison that may affect their way of thinking, equip them with courage for a new-life, and subsequently distance them from crime.  Education is not only the engine of social mobility, but also the engine of prisoners’ rehabilitation. Education can unlock their educational and personal progression, prepare them for their after-prison life, and equip them with transferable skills – among them including skills (communication, reliability, organisation). Those social and marketable-job-skills have the potential to help them in their relationships with the co-prisoners and prison staff, and at the same time to help them in finding employment-opportunities when they are released from custody. Therefore, education is closely related to personal growth and employment opportunities (Second and third root cause).

This leads us to the third solution: Employment 

“Employability” has proven to be one of the biggest factors in preventing recidivism and rebuilding their lives. It is important, after their release, to have the chance to join a team that takes a holistic view of offenders and works encouragingly with them helping them to reach their full potential. Several voluntary organisations exist, including the charity “Unlock” that offer solutions in addressing the challenges of assisting job-seekers with criminal records into employment. They offer support to both, ex-offenders and to organisations that are open in providing training and employment to this disadvantaged group of people (in-prison and on release) (Third root cause).

The above mentioned, invite the conclusion that imprisonment accompanies severe problems for the prisoners. Crime prevention constitutes is one of its primary rationale. Prison is the “panacea” to crime – even though it can have a diametrically opposite effect if prison is not rehabilitative in a nutshell. Sound arguments exist about the impact that rehabilitation, education and employment can have on recidivism. These three pillars should be a basis for the government’s agenda for substantive policy against re-offending.   

Sources

[1] Coates Dame Sally, “Unlocking Potential – A review of education in prison” (Ministry of Justice, May 2016) https://epale.ec.europa.eu/sites/default/files/unlocking_potential_a_review_of_education_in_priso.pdf Accessed 18 March 2023.

[2] Hirschfield J.Paul and Piquire R. Alex “Normalization and legitimation: modelling stigmatising attitudes toward ex-offenders” (26 February 2010) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2010.00179.x Accessed 29 March 2023.

[3] Ministry of Justice, “Employing prisoners and ex-offenders” (8 March 2023) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/unlock-opportunity-employer-information-pack-and-case-studies/employing-prisoners-and-ex-offenders Accessed 28 March 2023.

[4] Nagin D.S., et al. “Imprisonment and Re-Offending” 38(1) J.Crim.Justice [2009] https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdf/10.1086/599202 Accessed 20 March 2023.

[5] UNODC “Introductory Handbook on the Prevention of Recidivism and the Social Reintegration of Offenders” (Criminal Justice Handbook Series, New York 2012) https://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/crimeprevention/Introductory_Handbook_on_the_Prevention_of_Recidivism_and_the_Social_Reintegration_of_Offenders.pdf Accessed 14 March 2023.