Prisons: Rehabilitative Centers or Enabling Centers?

Executive Summary
Prisons are supposed to be used as facilities for rehabilitation of people that will enter
back into society after committing a crime. Everyone that commits a crime is not a terrible
person, and people deserve second chances, especially after committing non-violent offenses. In
many cases people in prisons become institutionalized. Many people that spend time “away” end
up going back. This is for many reasons. The level of sanitation, education, resources, and living
quarters in most facilities is not up to par. Prison and legality reforms in America are a must.
Many inmates have longer sentences than what they should for certain crimes or compared to
that of their counterparts. Too often, prisons become an enabling center and a place for the
cultivation of people to go back out into the world and continue to commit crimes.

Background
Often, people do things they should not, but for different reasons. Each person that
commits a crime should be handled on a case by case basis. No two situations are the exact same
in terms of circumstance or legality. Throughout the legal system, attempts to lump situations,
people and crimes together often take place. This is one of the biggest issues in terms of
sentencing. Many long and extended sentences for inmates have connection to drugs in some
way, shape, or form.
Once people are sent to prison they are automatically grouped together. Prisons are
supposed to serve a greater purpose than just detainment. Often, the true purposes and mission of
prisons get overlooked and put on the back burner. At the root of what prisons are supposed to
do, needs to be greater amounts of support for those incarcerated—they are people too. The
overcrowding of facilities causes less attention focused on the needs of individuals in prison.
Separated by different levels of offenses and crimes committed, those that will be reentering
society are supposed to have the guidance they need to manifest the desire to never want to go
back to prison and improve their circumstances. Those that will not be reentering society need
the help they can receive to become the best people they can be, in the situations they are in.
In all cases, the prison systems must undergo reform to realign the purpose and focus of
incarceration in its most basic form. Once changes happen, there will be less re-incarceration,
cycles will be broken because people will receive the help they need, and society will become an
improved place. The lack of support for inmates is one of the biggest downfall the American
prison system today. People that want to do better do not have the means or resources to do so.

Outcomes & Objectives

- Identify the reason for lack of educational resources.
o Begin to implement more educational programs that are broad for inmates to have
access to.
o Circulate materials and resources such as books, newspaper, or magazines
throughout.
 - Identify the reasons for below standard healthcare, and revaluate it.
o Implement support groups throughout the system.
o Allot access to therapies of different kinds.
o Bring in better resources for medical care such as more doctors, nurses,
medication, and equipment that may be needed.
- Help bring living standards in prison up to standard across America.
o Take a look at each location on an individual basis, and increase sanitation,
cleanliness, and bring living quarters all up to a common standard.

Anticipated Obstacles & Challenges

- Unprofessional and unorganized research on the topic.
o There is not a lot of information that is organized in a professional manner that
answers all the questions one may have about standards in prisons.
- Insufficient statistics and records kept on repeat offenders and rehabilitated peoples.
o Statics on people that are one time offenders or are incarcerated on lesser crimes
are not always kept up to date. Repeat offenders across state lines may not follow
them in an easily traceable way.
- Information kept from the public about certain standards in certain locations.
o There may be gaps in the research location to location because not all prisons will
divulge the same information to the public.

Resources, Research & Case Study

All prisons and “rehabilitative” facilities keep records differently. According to the
British Journal of Criminology, hundreds of years ago they kept records of everything on
inmates. They even kept records of whether or not the inmates could read and write. Today, they
have gotten far away from doing so. America heavily based much of their grounding and
framework on their “mother country”, Britain. In many ways, the same things have taken place
in America prisons. America used to keep more information about inmates on file when there
were paper records kept of everything. Today, in the day and age of technology, many facilities
keep far less information that what they did a century ago.
According to research conducted by Lucius T. Outlaw III that was published by The
America Journal of Criminal Law, “There is a growing sentiment that the United States
imprisons far too many people for far too long, especially for non-violent drug crimes.” Crimes
committed should all be handled individually, case by case. In many instances high incarceration
rates for non-violent crimes stem from mass amounts of people having charges that are
associated with drugs in one way or another. These high sentences add to the overpopulating of
prison facilities, which in turn causes problems for the standard of living, sanitation, cleanliness,
medical care, living quarters, and regulation.
All of these issues make it harder for prison systems to serve the needs of the people.
People that have committed crimes are supposed to be taken off the streets so they do not
continue to do the same thing, and they are supposed to be rehabilitated after prison to be a
productive member of society. According to the United Nations: Office on Drugs and Crime,
Handbook on Prisoner File Management, “The treatment of persons sentenced to imprisonment
or a similar measure shall have as its purpose, so far as the length of the sentence permits, to
establish in them the will to lead law-abiding and self-supporting lives after their release and to
fit them to do so. The treatment shall be such as will encourage their self-respect and develop
their sense of responsibility.” Prison is supposed to manifest and encourage people to want better for
themselves once they are released. Each person should have a specific case by case plan to help get them
to where they need to be. People in prison are all grouped together, and treated like the masses.
Individuals are not looked at as individuals, thus causing more problems for these particular people down
the line.

Methods
Through means of creativity and expression people are able to release issues they never
even knew they battled or struggled with. According to Kelley and Kelley, design thinking stems
from the natural and coachable sensations that humans have to be intuitive about the world
around them that have some relation to emotional yields and functionality. This all means that
beyond incarceration people have the ability to create based on their environment and the
struggles they face on a very basic humanistic level. People need to have the means to express
themselves through outlets that are vessels for the creation and exuding of basic and common
relation to the world around. No matter the circumstances people are brought together by the
similar struggles they face. Circumstances and situations may be different, but the overarching
idea and creation behind storytelling, expressive media, and digital expression of sorts is the
commonality it has to connect everyone in some way or form.
In the text, Creative Confidence by Kelley and Kelley, they discuss how art form and the
artistic nature people once boxed together is very different. The art field is constantly changing
and broadening its horizons in the sense that art happens in more ways than painting and drawing
in the technology and media based world that exists today. They continue and touch on and
explain what creative confidence really is. In many instances, it is in its simplest form, a mindset
or way of thinking that stems from ingenuities and constantly updating, changing, and creating
new approaches to situations that need solutions. In a way, it can be related to thinking outside of
the box. Having the confidence to be creative stems from support and a positive environment to
create, this is what inmates need—support, resources, and encouragement. These principles of
creative confidence, if implemented correctly into facilities would help manifest positivity out of
the people detained in them.

Concluding Remarks
Positive prison and legal reform will help propel the American prison system in the right
direction. In many instances, it is unfortunate that incarcerated peoples have so many issues
getting acclimated and accustomed to being back in the “real world” once they have completed
their sentence. While in prison, there should be resources to better oneself and access to
opportunities for education and trade skills. Prison should not be detaining places for the mind,
but of the body. There needs to be access to better medical care, therapy of all kinds, and
medication. The better the prison systems become, the better the once incarcerated people will
reenter society and become productive members.
 Citations
Outlaw III, Lucius T. “Time for a Divorce: Uncoupling Drug Offenses from Violent Offenses in
Federal Sentencing Law, Policy and Practice.” American Journal of Criminal Law, 44, 2,
2017, 217-237.

Understanding the Criminal: Record-Keeping, Statistics and the Early History of Criminology in
England. The British Journal of Criminology, 2016,
https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article/57/6/1442/2623949. Accessed 2 Dec 2018.

United Nations Office on Drug and Crime. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2018,
https://www.unodc.org. Accessed 2 Dec 2018.