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Improve Correctional Facilities

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Submitted By patriciasaylor25
Words 1738
Pages 7
Plan to Improve Correctional Facilities
Patricia Saylor
Dexter Levin
Corrections
November 10, 2013

In general, rehabilitation programs have been effective in reducing recidivism among prison convicts since they are mostly focused on treating the criminal causing behavior of prisoners by eliminating completely the factors or circumstances that drive them to commit criminal acts. Criminologists such as Martinson who conducted research on the effectiveness of rehabilitative programs such as educational, community based and transcendental programs noted that rehabilitative programs had a higher efficacy when they were oriented towards providing treatment to prison convicts so as to reduce recidivism. Martinson noted that both the educational and transcendental rehabilitative programs were designed to provide prisoners with life skills that they could use to manage their criminal causing behavior as well as equip them with technical skills that would improve the quality of their lives (Prison conditions, 2013).
Rehabilitative programs that are focused on the principles of effective intervention are able to target the known factors of recidivism thereby necessitating change and also enabling the incorporation of cognitive or behavioral treatments to reinforce the behavior of the criminal offender by eliminating criminal thinking patterns. Principles of effective intervention ensure that rehabilitative programs are able to take into account the various characteristics of offenders which would affect their response to rehabilitative treatments. According to various rehabilitation programs such as vocational and academic education, community based programs; moral recognition therapy and behavioral treatment programs have proved to be effective in reducing recidivism among released convicts. These programs were effective in treating criminal offenders as they mostly

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