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Developing a Positive Prison Culture (Part Two)
By Kim Workman | March 25, 2009
In talking about the impact of imprisonment, newsletter #56 says this:
The prison experience is far removed from the realities of outside life, and this is a central factor as to why reintegration can be so difficult. The prison leaves indelible marks on the inmate - both in terms of personal agonies and frustrations, and with respect to the official blot on their record which will dog them the rest of their lives and severely affect their chances of successfully re-entering the mainstream of social life.
Do you agree with this statement. Do you think we take fully into account, the impact of prison, when offenders are sent there. What sort of person is released? What are we seeking to achieve?
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3 Responses to “Developing a Positive Prison Culture (Part Two)”
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April 15th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Yes, I completely agree with that statement! New Zealand does NOT take fully into account the impact of prison when offenders are sent there, and it from my experience of having a 17 yr old Son in a Youth Prison, society at large does not appear to care what sort of person is released.
Just prior to my Son’s serious offending, he almost succeeded at taking his own life, and if it had not been for a dog who would not let his owner continue with their walk in the bush, he would be dead. He needed, and still needs, one-on-one Therapy with a Qualified Professional (not just a Counsellor) on a regular basis. My Son has been incarcerated for over a year now (firstly in Youth Justice South, and then Youth Prison Unit), and it is only last week that he was finally able to start seeing someone.
And it took a phone call by myself to the Prison Manager to make it happen sooner than it would have otherwise. That is NOT how it should be.
FYI, I now Blog every letter my Son sends me since being sentenced to a Youth Prison Unit, with his permission, which you are more than welcome to read at http://ontheinside.kiwicommunity.co.nz/?cat=1
I personally am determined to do whatever I can to ensure that something is done about the lack of Mental Health Professionals available in Prisons in New Zealand. Not every prisoner needs to be sent to a Forensic Unit, but many prisoners have past issues that need the right kind of therapy to resolve and overcome them.
April 28th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
I do agree with your statement in a theoretical sort of way, not having had the intense experience of imprisonment with the consequences you describe above. Logic says that your quotation is true and my experience of life’s downsides makes me aware that powerfully negative experiences, and I have had a few, can profoundly change us and re-form aspects of our personality and character.
‘We’ struggle I believe to factor in the impact of imprisonment on the incercerated offender. However, as I read on the ‘Rethinking’ website glimpses of what goes on in the Parole Boards I see signs that there is an identification with this side of the prison experience. At their best I think the Boards genuinely anguish on this issue and do appreciate the mutli-levels of punishment that incarceration means. However, until society gives a clearer and, I suggest, more understanding message about the true nature of imprisonment and the various levels of punishment it metes out, little will change.
October 15th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
In my somewhat limited experience incarating some one into the prison system does nothing. I have been involved for some 30 years in the care of “difficult” young men. My experience in this area leads me to believe that until we recognise attachment issues that impact on juvenile offenders we are just going to increase the prison population. The social costs of this are horrendous.