Rehabilitation, Treatment, and the Management of Offenders: Can Punishment Cure?

Rehabilitation, Treatment, and the Management of Offenders: Can Punishment Cure? Abstract This paper will discuss how the authors of three particular articles, Megan Comfort, Mona Lynch, Kelly Hannah-Moffat and Paula Maurutto, interpret the rehabilitative processes for criminal offenders. The authors’ arguments of who is responsible for this rehabilitation vary widely. There will be a brief summary of each author’s argument and the essay will conclude in explain which authors argument is most comprehensive in explaining who the responsibility of rehabilitation falls on. Key words: Punishment, Rehabilitation, Rhetoric, Responsibility ] The Best Seven Years I Could’a Done: The Reconstruction of Imprisonment as Rehabilitation By Megan Comfort The Best Seven Years I Could’a Done by Megan Comfort is about the rehabilitation process experienced by many low-income men in the United States. Rehabilitation is defined as restoring someone to a useful role in society (Rehabilitation, 2009). Comfort says that the men who are incarcerated in California turn to prison as a way to achieve healthier relationships and to improve themselves. Since rehabilitation programs are scarce, the individual becomes responsible for their own improvement. We can see that people report making the best of their situation even when there are not sufficient programs available to help them get clean. However we can see that the lack of these programs can be a risk towards reoffending. Even though there are some programs available, the offenders claim that these programs lack anomity and would rather spend their time behind bars because they are able to establish goals that they want to achieve once they are released. Thus, the responsibility of r ehabilitation is shifted on to the individual, and we can question if the role that parole agents play is of any significance at all. Comfort also finds that these men engage in a period of acting as if their experience in the penitentiary is effective in preparing them for re-entry into society. However, after these men are in fact released from the penitentiary, they realize the negative repercussion of not effectively being rehabilitated. In contrast, rehabilitative treatment in the forms of therapy, job training, and education can show much more favourable outcomes for an individual being reintegrated back into society. Rehabilitation as Rhetoric: The Ideal of Reformation in Contemporary Parole Discourse and Practices By Mona Lynch Mona Lynch talks about the shifts in the purpose of parole throughout history. She marks three strong changes in parole history in which each era has a different view on who is responsible to improve the parolee. The three eras of parole are marked thus; the disciplinary era, clinical era, and the managerial era. Lynch discusses the first two as being a combined responsibility of the state, community, and the individual to help them become normalized into society. In the third era, she states that the responsibility is shifted on to the parole agent and the offender to help him improve. We can see that there is a shared responsibility. Lynch goes on to say that there is little investment put into rehabilitative measures and programs to assist the parolee to improve. In conclusion we can see that the issues that the agent would help the individual with are actually being addressed as the poor choices of the individual, and while there are programs in place to help fix the poor choices the individual has made, they are actually used as coercive tools against the parolee. We can see that the rhetoric of rehabilitation is expressed as placing unrealistic demands on the individual to normalize themselves, and if he does not succeed it is considered their own fault, and the agents are able to use coercion when they believe it is necessary to protect society from deviant behavior. Shifting and Targeted Forms of Penal Governance: Bail, Punishment and Shifting and Specialized Courts By Kelly Hannah-Moffatt and Paula Maurutto Shifting and Targeted Forms of Penal Governance by Hanna Moffat and Paula Maurutto discusses rehabilitation in Canadian specialized courts. They state that rehabilitation today is much different from the past. Throughout the history of the criminal justice system, rehabilitation took on the purpose of providing therapy to the individual offender, but today it operates on two levels. The first is to provide therapy to the offender through job training and counselling and the second purpose of rehabilitation is to exercise control. The latter purpose can be seen as being intrusive. The criminal justice system is combining rehabilitation and punishment as a punitive measure. They argue that rehabilitation does not serve a single purpose but it is binary. In conclusion we can see that rehabilitation is very messy because it is both a combination of punishment and therapy and also takes the role of being coercive and controlling. The Responsibility of Rehabilitation Rehabilitation has shifted in form throughout history and has gone from being therapeutic to taking on a controlling and coercive appearance. Many people argue about which form of rehabilitation is most effective but the purpose of rehabilitation is to figure out why an individual committed a crime, and focus on those aspects to foster a permanent change. It is part of a larger modernity. There are many articles about who should take on the responsibility of rehabilitation and through this analysis I will outline how the authors Megan Comfort, Mona Lynch, Hanna Moffatt and Paula Maurutto write about the subject. Then I will conclude with which author presents the most comprehensive argument for who should take on rehabilitation responsibility. To begin with, Mona Comfort says that jail fails to rehabilitate an individual back into society because the prison system does not have programs in place which could assist the offenders in becoming normalized into society. She says that the prison only serves the purpose of being a â€Å"primary means of service access† where these men who are denied social welfare are now able to get a hold of it within the penitentiary (Comfort, 2008). These men act as if the prison will help them re-enter society because they are able to establish goals that they want to achieve. However, Comforts studies show that tens of thousands of released prisoners who relapse and reoffend are a blunt testimony that the California Department of Correction or Rehabilitation is wearing very few rehabilitative clothes† (Comfort, 2008). Even though men believe that the prison will make them â€Å"clean†, studies prove that they more often than not will reoffend because the programs to help them become â€Å"normalized† in jail were non-existent or inadequate. In contrast, Mona Lynch writes that rehabilitation is more present in penitentiaries than Comfort would argue. She states that although rehabilitation has changed into being more â€Å"managerial†, it still holds onto some past ideologies so we can look at it as merely re-invented. It is holding the old rhetoric but doing it in different or modern ways. In the past it took on a therapeutic form but today it is binary in being both therapeutic and coercive. In her opinion, rehabilitation is a combined responsibility of both the offender and the parole agent, but there is more emphasis on the offender â€Å"wanting† to improve. She also writes that rehabilitation appears important for the agency to portray to a number of audiences, including the public, the clients, and the agents responsible for putting goals into actions. The commitment however does not extend past this rhetoric (Lynch, 2000). Finally, Hannah-Moffat and Maurutto see rehabilitation in a different form than Comfort, but somewhat similar to Lynch. They see rehabilitation motivated by therapeutic and preventative goal and they rely on relationships with community groups to create a range of interactions with the court and the offender (Hannah-Moffat Maurutto, 2012). The way that rehabilitation has shifted from being just therapeutic, then to coercive, and then into a meshing of the two, is a new feature of the Canadian criminal justice system. They write that rehabilitation is a shared responsibility, and it extends beyond the prison. It takes the combined efforts of professionals and the community to work together to re-integrate an individual back into society. One can also argue that this type of rehabilitation would be fairer in terms of seeking the best program to treat the specific needs of the offender, and will be more successful in reintegrating them into society as a result. In Maurutto and Moffattà ¢â‚¬â„¢s argument, rehabilitation is able to be a life-changing experience rather than just an effort to change a person’s deviant personality. In conclusion we see there is a variation in the arguments presented by Comfort, Lynch and Maurutto and Moffat. However, in my opinion I believe that the latter two authors who argue that the state and community should work together to make the individual more responsible is more comprehensible than the other two arguments. Although Comfort states that the responsibility falls on the offender, studies show that they will risk reoffending if left to their own devices. This does not then seem realistic to make the individual responsible for their own rehabilitation, because the purpose of punishment is to deter an action that deviates from the societal norms. She also argues that the prison does not offer programs and even when they do that they’re counting on you not to use them (Comfort, 2008). Instead the state decides to spend $35, 587 a year to imprison an offender, forgetting that they could use those funds to re-integrate the offender. The individual is made responsible a nd they leave the prison with â€Å"no additional skills or information to help him enter society (Comfort, 2008). It is therefore not effective to not make the state responsible because the individual cannot find a job on his own and he is left seeking the criminal justice system to help him get clean, but this only provides him with temporary access to social welfare. On the other hand, Lynch’s argument that there is a shared responsibility between the parole agent and the offender is more comprehensive and potentially effective than Comforts because there is an external assistance system set up to rehabilitate the offender. There is also the implementation of punitive punishments. The reason why Comfort’s argument in making the individual responsible does not bode well is because you cannot expect someone who is deviant to be responsible. However with parole agents taking on part responsibility, it seems more likely that rehabilitation will have a greater success rate. Lynch argues that in the past, parole served the purpose of being therapeutic and today it takes on both therapeutic and coercive roles. This is more of an effective argument because the purpose of jail is to punish as well as to help them get back into society. The new era of parole is more effective because the state is protecting society from risky offenders while helping them get back to being normal and productive in society. In conclusion, this model is not completely casting off a segment of the population, rather crime punishment and disciplinary action are working together to make combined efforts to help make the offender responsible (Lynch, 2000). However, the argument made my Hannah-Moffat and Maurutto offers an even more comprehensive argument for who should hold the responsibility to rehabilitate the individual. They argue that rehabilitation happens the moment you are charged, and since there are specialized community groups working with the offender, they are able to address the underlying holistic needs of the offender in order to ensure successful completion of a treatment program (Hannah-Moffat Maurutto, 2012). Conventional courts are criticized for failing to address effectively chronic social programs which is why if the specialized courts take the responsibly they are better equipped to target specific needs (Hannah-Moffat Maurutto, 2012). The whole process of how best to rehabilitate specific cases and individuals would begin the moment the charged person entered the courtroom and would not wait until they entered jail itself. Each method starts rehabilitation at a different time in the individuals interaction wi th the criminal justice system, but in the third one it starts from the beginning; the moment the individual is charged. This is almost more of a preventative style of rehabilitation and a hybrid. In conclusion, using Hannah-Moffat Maurutto’s ideas on the responsibility to rehabilitate an offender being shared between specialized courts, community programs and the individual is better because it takes on preventative therapeutic practices but they have not eroded the traditional form of punishment (Hannah-Moffat Maurutto, 2012). The opportunity to participate in these programs is beneficial for the parolee because â€Å"their charges may be withdrawn, or they may get an absolute or conditional discharge† (Hannah-Moffat Maurutto, 2012). This seems more effective because the courts are working together to normalize the offender and this allows them to not have the stigma of being a criminal. The offender can find a job without the trouble of their record following them. Therefore having specialized courts and therapeutic programs, and the individual work together to help rehabilitation is more comprehensive compared to having an individual take on full responsib ility or having the state take on sole responsibility. Working individually, neither party can be trusted to make the right or rational choices for the prisoners, thus a binary response is needed for joint liability and oversight. References Megan Comfort (2008). â€Å"The Best Seven Years I Could’a Done: The Reconstruction of Imprisonment as Rehabilitation.† In Pat Carlen, Imaginary Penalties, Cullompton, Devon: Willan. Pp. 252-274. Coursepack. Mona Lynch (2000). â€Å"Rehabilitation as Rhetoric: The Ideal of Reformation in Contemporary Parole Discourse and Practices.† Punishment Society 2(1): 40-65. Stable URL. Kelly Hannah-Moffat and Paula Maurutto (2012). â€Å"Shifting and Targeted Forms of Penal Governance: Bail, Punishment, and Specialized Courts.† Theoretical Criminology 16(2): 201-219. Stable URL. Rehabilitation. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/rehabilitation

Morality & Social Justice-Rubric for Essay Essay

Seven influential moral thinkers hammered just war tradition which has been distilled into seven principles where five of the principles judge whether a decision to go to war is actually justifiable while the other two are a guide to just conduct in waging a war. The principles of a just war include: legitimate authority, just cause, just intent, last resort, reasonable chance of success, principle of discrimination and the principle of proportionality. The Spanish and Portuguese were not justified to go to war with the Guarani but the Guarani were justified to war with the Portuguese and the Spanish. Subjecting the Portuguese and the Spanish to the seven principles of a just war they were not justified to go to war. The first principle which requires that before a war is started, it must be declared by a legally recognized authority which in most cases is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces while in United states it the Congress was not met by the Spanish and Portuguese soldiers. The soldier according to Alves were sent to relocate the Guarani but when they resisted they resorted to military action where many natives were killed and other were taken as slaves without the order of the legal authorities of the two nations (4). Before going to war with the Guarani the just war principles demand that Spanish and Portuguese leaders and soldiers were to seek an order from the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of their respective countries before waging a war with the natives which they did not do. The second principle of a just war that requires that a war should not be started on the basis of expanding a territory or national pride but only for a just cause like resistance to aggression by means of threat of attack or attack was not met either by the Portuguese and the Spanish in fighting the Guarani people. They instead invaded the people with an aim to relocate them to take them as slaves but when the Guarani resisted they started war with them thereby breaching the just cause (Alves 4). Another principle require that before starting a war the aims of the war should be just and limited which should be restoring justice and peace and not vengeance. The Spanish and the Portuguese breached this principle as well since their intention was not to restore peace or justice among the Guarani people. They waged the war out of their own selfish gain because the natives were living peacefully before. Their interest was the land of the Guarani and to enslave them as well. It was not the last resort for the Portuguese and the Spanish to start war with the Guarani people. The principles requires that all other means should be used to resolve dispute between contending parties and that the means must have been tried and found to fail before going to war. In the situation of the Portuguese, Spanish and the Guarani people there was no dispute in the first place. It is the Spanish and Portuguese that were determined to take the land that belonged to the natives and to take them as slaves and even after the natives resisted their effort they never used any other means to resolve the dispute but war. There should be reasonable chance of success before starting a war which the Portuguese and the Spanish did not take to consideration. The principle requires that the situation should be accessed to ascertain if there is a possibility of success before initiating or continuing a war. They never considered this fact and that is the reason why the war continued for several decades and they were eventually defeated (Elves 6). Another principle of a just war tradition that the Portuguese and Spanish violated is the principle of civilian immunity or honor of noncombatant where the noncombatants are not targeted to avoid civilian deaths. It also requires that prisoners captured should be treated humanely and that military forces desist from rapes, massacres, looting and other atrocities. This was not the case in the wars of the Guarani where all sorts of atrocities were committed against the people since children, women and men alike were taken captives and were not treated humanely. The principle of proportionality which requires that the harm to be caused by a war must not exceed the good the war can accomplish. Before the Europeans invaded the natives they were living peacefully in their land but after they attacked them they were left with sorrows since some died, others were enslaved, property destroyed and families disunited forever. It therefore goes without saying that the Spanish and the Portuguese caused several harm and zero good to the Guarani which is against this principle of just war. The Portuguese and the Spanish were not justified to initiate and continue the war with the Guarani after being subjected to the seven principles of a just war tradition. In all the instances they went contrary to the principles. They were not interested in the plight of the people or the outcome of the war but their own selfish gains. Works Cited Alves, Wesley. The Mission. 2007. 3 May 2010 http://people. bu. edu/wwildman/WeirdWildWeb/courses/thth/projects/thth_projects_2007wesley_alves. pdf

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet - Friar Laurence Essay

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet - Friar Laurence Friar Laurence plays a most intriguing role in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. He is a priest, and a friend to Romeo. With the absence of Montague parental scenes, Friar Laurence also becomes like a surrogate father to Romeo. Romeo seeks him out to marry him and Juliet, obviously assuming that the friar would without parental permission. The friar greets him and addresses Romeos past love. He even tells Romeo that he mistook what he felt for Rosaline as love when it was not, and therefore not be too haste, They stumble that run fast (2.2.94). Therefore, not only has Romeo discussed matters of the heart with the friar, but also the friar himself feels in the position to be able to†¦show more content†¦The friar does not believe that this union will endure the test of time; however, he is still wiling to bind them together as one in the eyes of the Holy Church. He seems to be working towards the greater good, that is ending the feud between the Capulets with the Montag ues. Thus, shunning away the Biblical commandment of honoring thy father and mother, he agrees to marry the two and says, Virtue itself turns into vice misapplied, / and vice sometimes by action dignified (2.2.21-2). Friar Laurence continues to honor Romeo and Juliets love without taking their parents wishes into account. He goes on deceiving the Capulets by keeping the union a secret and having everyone believe that Juliet will marry Paris (4.1). He goes against the state law by harboring a criminal when he hides banished Romeo in his home and devises a way for him to get away from Verona and head to Mantua (3.3). At this point, the friar feels himself to be a part of the lovers cause because when advising Romeo he uses the word we, as if he feels responsible and will not abandon them, he says for Romeo to stay in Mantua until: We can find a time/ To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends, / Beg pardon of the Prince, and call thee back/ With twenty thousand times more joy/ Than thou wentst forth in lamentation (3.3.149-53). The next thing that the friar has a hand in, in fact concocts, is having Juliet drink distillingShow MoreRelatedRomeo And Juliet Analysis1384 Words   |  6 PagesAnalysis Essay #1: Romeo and Juliet Below write your essay based on the outline that you created. In William Shakespeare’s famous play, â€Å"Romeo and Juliet,† the supporting characters play enormous roles in the plot of the performance by helping Romeo and Juliet be together. The Nurse and Friar Laurence both cause dramatic changes to the play through the course of their actions, both with their own goals and reasons for their behavior. The Nurse is caring and pure, wishing simply for Juliet to be happyRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Romeo And Juliet1325 Words   |  6 Pagescase. In this case though the Friar mislead these kids Romeo and Juliet where they shouldn’t have been lead. In Shakespeare’s â€Å"Romeo and Juliet†, Friar Lawrence’s impulsive decisions contributes to the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. First off, in beginning of the play the the families the Montague’s and the Capulet’s have had a total of three brawls (Shmoop Editorial Team 1). The families fighting has led to people despising them including Friar Laurence. Friar Laurence was a priest of the town andRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s Romeo And Juliet1721 Words   |  7 PagesA significant quote from Romeo and Juliet: â€Å"Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast† (2.3.94). This is the advice given by Friar Laurence warning about the dangers of fickle love, but it also says something about how action may lead to disaster. In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the two protagonists for whom the play is named, Romeo and Juliet, are children of two relentlessly feuding families. Juliet belongs to the Capulet family while Romeo belongs to the Montagues. When the two meetRead MoreEssay about Evaluating an interpretation of literature653 Words   |  3 Pagesinterpretation of Shakespeareâ €™s Romeo Juliet which portrays arguments about Friar Laurence, indicating that he was to blame for the tragic ending to the play. Marlowe Claims Throughout the plot, it is the actions of Friar Laurence, and he alone that are most significant in ensuring the final tragedy of the play. The statement proves that she believes the Friar to be the influence or the main reason the star crossed lovers die whereas in Shakespeares original version he made the Friar a caring manRead More Role of the Friar and Nurse in William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet891 Words   |  4 PagesIn William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet, the nurse and Friar Laurence play an enormous role. Not only does their advice aid Romeo and Juliet but their actions and the decisions they make throughout the whole play affects the whole outcome of numerous situations. Had the nurse and the friar not made the decisions they did, the tale of Romeo and Juliet might have not ended in tragedy. Friar Laurence is a Franciscan friar who aids both Romeo and Juliet throughout the whole play. Choices he madeRead MoreShakespeares Romeo and Juliet703 Words   |  3 Pagesnot show his head. Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things. Some shall be pardon’d and some punished, for never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo† (Act V Scene III of William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet). That is what the Prince decrees at the end of the play, he is speaking of the love Romeo and Juliet had for one another. The prince believes that the reason they killed themselves is because they loved each other so much that they killed themselves becauseRead MoreRomeo and Juliet by Wiliam Shakespeare698 Words   |  3 PagesIn William Shakespeare’s, Romeo and Juliet, there are numerous of dramatic purposes that the characters serve in the building of the story. One major character that stands out is Friar Laurence who is a wise and holy man respected by everyone in Verona. However, you should not let that presentation of him fool you. There are a variety of times Friar Laurence has committed sins of dishonesty and deception. The few but many dramatic purposes Friar Laurence has in Romeo and Juliet include: being a mastermindRead MoreRomeo And Juliet Character Analysis1084 Words   |  5 Pagesor maybe even a month. This type of fact about love is presented in Shakespeare’s play, â€Å"Romeo and Juliet†. As the play begins, Lord Capulet has a masked ball to encourage the courtship of Juliet and Paris, and Romeo and his friend, Benvolio attend the ball, which is where Romeo and Juliet first meet and fall in love. After the ball, Romeo goes to the Capulet’s Orchard to visit Juliet and agree to marry the next day. Friar Laurence thinks whether to marry the couple, then agrees to think that it willRead MoreParental Relationships In Romeo And Juliet1329 Words   |  6 PagesSince reading has been aroun d, it has been used to educate. Romeo and Juliet has been around for what seems as long as literature itself, and is still used to teach today.Written in the 1590’s, the tragic story of Romeo and Juliet is about the untimely death of two star crossed lovers, despite their feuding families. Throughout reading, it becomes clear that the attitudes of the Montagues and Capulets, Friar Lawrence and the Nurse fulfilling parental roles, and Juliet’s forced marriage caused theRead MoreFriar Laurence’s Role in The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare627 Words   |  3 Pages William Shakespeare’s play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, tells of two lovers who sacrifice their life for each other throughout their family’s feud. Throughout the play, Shakespeare utilizes the Nurse and Friar Laurence to offer guidance to Romeo and Juliet. The Friar, in particular, is considered â€Å"a holy man† because he is a monk and is particularly thought of for his noble counsel (5.3.269). In The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Friar Laurence’s advice and plans were designed to bring the

Global Warming And Its Effects On Our World - 1578 Words

Luis Garza Nancy Hall WRC 1023 – 0P2 15 September 2014 Another Way To Die In many recent years there has been a great development in fuel technology, more and more money is being invested into finding greener sources of energy. However even if the research is in the way there is a problem that must be addressed first for it is the source of the pollution that is affecting our world. That issue is over dependence and extreme consumption of fossil fuels. First-world countries are partly responsible for hindering third-world development, because countries like the United States’ over dependence on fossil fuels has gone uncontrolled. For the past century many companies have developed methods to utilize fuel in a more efficient way, but with†¦show more content†¦Figure 1 shows that in the past 50 years the total use of petroleum and coal as sources of energy, and CO2 ¬ , have increased 190% from it’s value in 1960, going from 29.04 BTU to Figure 1 The graph shows the consumption of fuels by decade from 1960 – 2 009 in the U.S. Showing the increase in the use of fossil fuels in the last half century. Source U.S. Energy Information Administration 55.03 BTU and when coupled in 2009 they account for 58.2% of the total energy consumption in the United States. Figure 1, however, only shows the data available from the United States, but if in the US the consumption is so high the how will it be in countries like China or India that are more densely populated and as such consume more energy. Considering that the sources for their energy must be very similar if not the same than the sources in the United States, then this creates a very grim picture for the world. With so many countries consuming energy with no apparent control the world keeps getting more and more contaminated and the while effects are minimal in first-world countries, where they can even be neglected, third-world countries are not so lucky. In third-world countries located in Africa, where most of the population is malnourished and impoverished, even the smallest change in climate has a deep effect on their lives; Nicholas Kristof tells of an interview he gave to a scientist, who has spent years researching, in Africa about the effects that