Inmate Quadrant Analysis to Classify Types of

Prisoner

Prisoner rehabilitation is a costly affair and a heavy

burden to the tax payers. Billions are spent to assist
the criminals to turn over a new leaf while they are
serving their sentence. The goal of rehabilitation is to
reform the prisoners from committing crimes and
assisting them in starting normal lives once they are
released to the main stream of society. The house of
rehabilitation is set up in every prison with numerous
therapeutic and educational programs to assist them
to self-actualize besides helping them to acquire the
living skills to prepare them to earn a decent
livelihood and live a normal life.

According to an online article "Prisoner

Rehabilitation"
(http://www.rehabilitations.org/prisonerrehabilitation.html accessed 12 April 2012); research
indicates approximately 70% of the released
prisoners return to jail within a few years. They are
stucked with their old, die hard habits as envisaged
in the high rate of recidivism among offenders. In
addition, there are cases of small offenders who
evolve to become big offenders when they return to
jail.

In view of the above, there is a need to develop a

self-renewal quadrant analysis to enable the prison
officers to identify the types of prisoners, recognize
their pattern of behavior and help them more
effectively to change for the better.

Self- renewal of a prisoner is a function of the need,

desire or wants to change or reform and the
environment. The objective of the house of
rehabilitation is to energize these inner states for
change. During the period of sentencing while the
prisoner is going through the rehabilitation
programs, the prison officers as change agents must
be able to identify prisoner with high needs, desire or
want for change and those with low needs , wants or
desire for change.

Hence, prisoners lie on the continuum of "I don't

want to reform and live a normal life" to "I want to
reform and live a normal life" as shown below:

I want to
reform and live
a normal life

I dont want
to reform

Self renewal is also a function of how the prisoners

perceive the environment. A perceived favorable
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environment energizes and facilitates the desire or

wants to change or reform. A perceived unfavorable
environment diminishes and eventually stops the
want or desire to reform and live a normal life.

Hence the environment of a prisoner lies in the

continuum of Perceived unfavorable to perceived
unfavorable environment

Perceived
unfavorabl
e
environmen
t

Perceived
favorable
environmen
t

Crossing the two continuums a Performance

Quadrant Analysis (PQA) is developed to classify
prisoners into different types as shown in the
figure below:

I want to
reform and live
a normal life

Late
Adopter

Early
Adopter

Perceived unfavorable
environment

Perceived
favorable
environment

Resistor

Hard Core

I dont want
to reform

Q1: The early adopter

An early adopter is a prisoner who perceives the

environment is
favorable for him/her to reform and live a normal life
and wants to reform.

Below are the behavioral indicators of the adopter:

An inmate who wants to reform and perceives the
environment as favorable. Marked by the following
characteristics:

Demonstrates positive attitude towards self and

others

Works hard to acquire vocational and living skills

Participates actively in community services

Avoids getting into trouble with psychopaths and

drug addicts

High commitment to change for the better

Cooperative and helpful

Shows matured behavior

Believes in self to change for the better

Readily admits and become apologetic when

they make mistakes and willing to learn from them
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High respect for rules and regulations

Respects others rights and properties

Obeys and carries out prison officers

instructions

Able to take criticisms and reprimands calmly

Walks one's talk

Trustworthy, reliable and responsible

Displays great enthusiasm at work

Receptive to counseling programs

Helpful and cooperative

Able to get along well with others

Q2: The resistor is a prisoner who has made up his or

her mind initially not to reform but at a later stage is
partially influenced by the favorable environment
causing him or her to be indecisive to change and
live a normal life.
Demonstrates lack of trust for the prison authority
Demonstrates lukewarm interest to acquire
vocational and living skills
Inconsistent in following rules and regulations
Erratic performance
Moderate commitment to reform

 Average intellectual and analytical skills

Able to see parts of the big and small picture
Quite stubborn and hard headed
Tends to be aggressive and violent when provoked
Superficial relationship with others
Aloof and detached
Uncomfortable working in groups

Q3: The late adopter is a prisoner who wants to

reform but
could not reform due to unfavorable environment, for
example, he or she is rejected each time he or she
applies for a job to earn a decent living.
An inmate who wants to reform but perceives the
environment as unfavorable.
The late adopter is marked by the following
characteristics:

Believes in self to change for the better

Readily admits and become apologetic when

they make mistakes and willing to learn from them

High respect for rules and regulations

Respects others rights and properties


Obeys and carries out prison officers
instructions

Able to take criticisms and reprimands calmly

Indecisiveness due to lack of confidence

Pragmatic - wants certainties to have a better

life

Depends on others for help to make up one's

mind

Fear of adapting to a new or different

environment

Moody and erratic

Dependent on support from family and society

Respond positively to rehabilitation programs

Slow in making decision

Wants detailed information to ensure self-change

is for the better

Q4: The hard core is a prisoner who sees the world as

rats eating rats with the best transcending the rests.
He or she is a psychopath who thinks he or she can
outsmart everybody else for his or her survival and
to satisfy his or her dominant needs. He or she
perceives the environment whether it is favorable or

unfavorable as unfavorable and has made his or her

mind not to reform.
Below are the behavioral indicators of the hardcore
criminal:

Able to behave like a chameleon and conceal

their behavior

Puts up a mask when interacting and engaging

with others

A wolf in sheep clothing

Cunning, deceptive, complicated and

unpredictable

Revengeful know many ways to skin a cat

Influential with the ability to get other prisoners

to do things their way

Good at persuading, convincing mobilizing

others to create chaos

Able to manipulate and use others to achieve his

or her personal motive and agendum

Able to wriggle out of a difficult situation

Have many skeletons in their closet

Able to size people up and treat them like

puppets

Able to work themselves into the good books of

the prison authority
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Takes calculated risks

Is an Egomaniac believes he or she is always

right

Knows who, when, where and how to use their

resources to wrangle out of their predicaments

Possesses an unrecognizable pattern of behavior

that varies with the situation and across time

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