PERSONAL THOUGHTS
Within the criminal justice systems, evidence-based are considered gold standards. It is common to see intervention that what works on paper being carried out effectively on the field in some. In some instances, the realities of the frontline cause several barriers to such interventions. Currently, there are about 7 million people under correctional supervision. Of all these people, about 30% of them are imprisoned .leaving the other 70% under the of the community (control Cullen, Jonson & Mears,2017). Community-based interventions is a court order that allows the offenders to serve his or her sentence in the community. The community interventions attempt to achieve several goals (Bosma, Kunst, Reef, Dirkzwager & Nieuwbeerta,2016 ). Some of these goals include reducing cases of re-offending through supervisions, community integration, behavior change, and easing institutional cost as well as crowding in the institutional facilities, only to mention a few. Prison intervention, on the other hand, focuses on providing the offenders with the most appropriate response that addresses the risk of harm and also reduces the likelihood of re-offending while promoting successful integration of the offender (Bosma & Kunst et al.,2016). This paper will address a personal analysis of prison-based and community interventions.
Community interventions serve as alternatives to prisons. Studies claim that community interventions can ease the crowding in jails and prisons by allowing the offenders to complete their sentence term in the form of other corrections programs (Bosma &Kunst et al. 2016). Community interventions have flexible schedules, thus allowing them to be used in many steps of the criminal justice process. Such programs limit the freedom of the offenders while mandating the detention. Community intervention helps in the process of reentry process after incarceration.
Studies by Henggeler, 2016 indicate that community intervention programs avoiding the exposure of the offenders to prison conditions that may not be safe.People can get help in other ways. For instance, community sentences can help offenders who need medical attention like then elderly or physically disabled who may be better if suited in their residences. Over the years, prisons have been characterized by the victimization of the inmates:particularly the inmates who are mentally ill and those with developmental disabilities. Placing and trading such people may be the most appropriate step to take. According to Bosma & Kunst & 2016, not everyone can do well in an Institutional environment. Such institutions sometimes cause more problems than the expected benefits.
Prison-based interventions play a vital role in the reduction of recidivism. To maximize the success of the prison-based interventions, the programs should follow some fundamental principles outlined in previous researchers. For instance, the programs should be evidence-based. However, most of the prison interventions do not follow the tenets making the interventions less effective. Also, most of the prisons do not have enough performance measures that can conduct regular oversights of these interventions. To maximize the reduction of recidivism, the justice system should take steps in improving these programs: something that will, in turn, lower the number of victims and also result in local and state fiscal benefits (Bosma & Kunst et al. 2016).In an article titled “interventions’, we see that there are several indicators that describe the evidence of an intervention achieving lower rates of recidivism. Some of them are the staff can conduct work on a one-to-one basis concerning the offense. Also, prisoners have an opportunist to practice essential life skills life IT and cooking while preparing themselves for a life outside prison.
New interventions in prisons are of higher standards and are also consistent with evidence-based principles of the rehabilitation of the offenders. We are likely to experience lower rates of recidivism even though there is a need to ensure that the evaluation programs of the prison-based interventions are completed
Over the years, we have had the assumption that offenders exposed to community intervention programs report lower rates of recidivism compared to their counterparts(Cullen, Jonson & Mears,2017 ). Previous researches have not proved whether the assumption holds or not. However, studies by Bosma & Kunst et al.,2016, indicated that the rate of re-offending of offenders who complete community interventions is almost the same as those offenders in prisons. This finding illustrates that community interventions offer no more than prisons. So can we say the community interventions are safer ?. According to Henggeler, 2016, we could define the success of the recidivism rate reduces by at least 15% to the control. This statement is not always the case in many studies, thus revealing that community interventions are not entirely “successful’ at reducing the instances of recidivism. But that does not mean they are worse than the prisons in their attempt to protect society from any possible harm in the future.
Finally, both prison and community interventions focus on reducing the rates of recidivism, but they both have different success rates . Few researchers have compared the prison-based and community programs. Even the existing studies indicate that the cases of re-offending among offenders sentenced in society, the difference between prison-based and community interventions remains minimal. With this in mind, it is only reasonable to choose the plan that is less costly and leave the prisons to the people who pose an actual danger to the community.
References
Bosma, A., Kunst, M., Reef, J., Dirkzwager, A., & Nieuwbeerta, P. (2016). Prison-based Rehabilitation: Predictors of offender treatment participation and treatment completion. Crime & Delinquency, 62(8), 1095-1120.
Cullen, F. T., Jonson, C. L., & Mears, D. P. (2017). Reinventing community corrections. Crime and Justice, 46(1), 27-93.
Henggeler, S. W. (2016). Community-based interventions for juvenile offenders.
HM Inspectorate of Prisons. (2017) .Interventions .Retrieved from https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprisons/our-expectations/prison-expectations/rehabilitation-and-release-planning/interventions/