Recidivism Essay

The Importance of Reducing Recidivism

The relapse into criminal behavior is known as recidivism. It is determined by how often a previous prisoner is sent back there for fresh charges. The most effective programs for lowering recidivism among criminals with mental illnesses include supportive employment, in which those with mental illnesses are assisted in obtaining and maintaining stable work. Recidivism can be decreased by using assertive community therapy, which entails providing services to mentally ill offenders in settings other than clinical settings or psychiatric hospitals. Family members’ understanding of mental disease and its effects can be improved, which helps to defend mentally ill criminals. Illness management and recovery can also be advocated for in reducing recidivism (Seredycz, 2010).

Mental Illness and its Impact

Mental illness is a medical problem that involves changes in emotions, behaviors or thinking or a combination of both. It is normally associated with problems or distress in social, family or work activities. It is treatable condition and a common problem just like other diseases such as diabetes or heart disease. It is generally a collection of diagnosable mental disorders or health conditions the result in the change of thinking, emotions and those that results in distress and normal mental functioning of an individual. Mental illness results in lack of an individual to cope with life’s ordinary routines and demands (Espejo, 2012).

The Role of Collaboration Programs

Collaboration program are services aiming at helping mentally ill individuals in order to reduce the risk factors of mental illness and increase community support for such individuals. It is a program that improves the mental and psychological conditions of mentally ill persons through education, consultation, and advocacy through partnerships with the community service providers who work with mentally retarded or depressed individuals. These programs increase public safety as they facilitate collaboration between mental health and criminal justice and substance abuse treatment strategies in order to increase the mental health access and other treatment avenues for people with mental problems or recurring mental disorders. Such programs are essential in reducing the occurrences of recidivism (Donahue, Falk & Provet, 2000).

Mental Health Courts

Mental health court is a sort of courts that solves problems in combination with judicial supervision and community mental health initiatives to help in crime reduction and improvement of the quality of life of the mentally incapacitated individuals. The first mental health court was established in 1997 in Florida, USA and was first implemented by California in 1999. These courts were particularly established to make more effective use of the existing limited mental and criminal justice resources to help the community improve on mental crimes treatment and social services improvement. Such courts help in mental crime response, public safety and helps in addressing jail overcrowding with people suffering from mental illness in the criminal justice system (Springer & Roberts, 2007).

Practical Measures for Reducing Recidivism

Recidivism can be reduced when the judicial system applies the following practical measures. Identifying the individualized criminogenic needs helps the judicial system from the first day to plan and evaluate ways of preventing a criminal from recidivating. Early identification of such needs helps the judiciary to give appropriate services to the criminal that improves their situation. Building a school district within the federal prison system that offers correctional educational programs can help in improving the situation. Launching a tablet-based pilot program to educate the inmates has been seen as a practical policy in recidivism reduction. The inmates can also be encouraged to develop marketable job skills that would merit them securing helpful opportunities while released from the confinement prisons. Prioritizing treatment of mental health problems among the inmates and ensuring that the inmates receive appropriate substance abuse treatment could be helpful in fixing the situation (Seredycz, 2010).

The Role of Community Correction Officers

Community Correction Officer is a person who protects the community and helps in managing the risks that are posed by criminals and focuses on reducing the chance of offense recurrence. They highly contribute to guarding the safety of their community by managing the offenders. They work in community-based centers, courts, prisons and program centers. Their roles are difficult but worthwhile since they contribute towards positive change in the community. They engage with difficult to deal with and changing persons in the community. They supervise adult offenders and guide them on ways of reducing the occurrence of crimes in the community. The community corrections officers counsel and provide the offenders with intervention plans and work together in treatment programs (Lutch et al., 2011).

The Second Chance Act of 2007

688,384 men and women, approximately 1,88 people each day were released from the prison in 2011. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 4.8 million inmates were given community supervision by the end of their jail term. Most offenders find it difficult to smoothly transition and cope from the prison. Upon leaving the prison and entering the community, they struggle with substance abuse, limited housing, inadequate education, and mental health issues. Congress realized the predicament of these prisoners and passed the Second Chance Act of 2007 that provides for state grant programs and services that are helpful in reducing recidivism and improving the lives of the offenders after imprisonment. These grants provide for smooth reentry of the inmates into the society and catch up with the current trends in the community (Gaskew, 2016).

The Significance of Cultural Competency

Cultural competency is an important aspect of human services that describes values and principles that respect, acknowledge and work towards the ample relationships between individuals and various ethnic or cultural groups. It encourages the acceptance of differences and diversities in cultures and ethnic practices. It basically means being respectful and adaptive to the various beliefs and practices such as cultural linguistic differences and habits of diverse population groups. A set of policies, attitudes and behaviors forming a system of culture or ethnic group enables cross-cultural groups to work effectively together in a professional manner. Culturally competent individuals are able to effectively and efficiently cope in a culturally diverse setting and improve their survival capabilities (Gaskew, 2016).

Reference

Donahue, P. J., Falk, B., & Provet, A. G. (2000). Mental health consultation in early childhood. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Pub.

Espejo, R. (2012). Mental illness. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.

Gaskew, T. (2016). Rethinking prison reentry: Transforming humiliation into humility.

Lucht, J., La, V. N. G., Brazzell, D., & National Institute of Justice (U.S.). (2011). Enhancing supervision and support for released prisoners: A documentation and evaluation of the Community Supervision Mapping System. Washington, D.C: Urban Institute, Justice Policy Center.

Seredycz, M. A. (2010). Offender drug abuse and recidivism: An access to recovery program. El Paso [Tex.: LFB Scholarly Pub.

Springer, D. W., & Roberts, A. R. (2007). Handbook of forensic mental health with victims and offenders: Assessment, treatment, and research. New York: Springer.