In life we have many choices and many different paths we can follow. We are all brought into this world with different opportunities some more than others. What we chose to do with our choices and opportunities shape our personality and qualities. We each are presented challenges in life and the way we react to these challenges help creates our future scenery. If we select to go down the wrong path we might find ourselves incarcerated and under the control of the government. Society creates stereotypes and opinions on individuals without looking in depth to the root of why some individuals can function in society and others are more challenged in the free world. How do we as a population assist these individuals who take the wrong path and end up incarcerated? People might even wonder why that even matters. The fact of the matter is that the majority of the people incarcerated will return to the streets again and into our communities. We have an obligation as society to help steer incarcerated individuals onto the right path. Art therapy in corrections is one way we can assist in accomplishing productive citizens in our community. Children come into this world with open minds and curiosity. They have the ability to learn a wealth of information and it is the tools we …show more content…
Quantitative studies began in 2003 to look at the effectiveness of art therapy with incarcerated persons (Campbell, 2010). The studies included and inmate behavioral study, the formal elements art therapy scale (FEATS), the Beck depression Inventory, short form (BDI-II), and the adult Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control (ANS) (Campbell, 2010). This study showed support for art therapy and that art therapy may help improve mood, behavior, and socialization while increasing internal locus of control (Campbell, 2010). With these positive results more studies are
We imprison seven-hundred-fifty prisoners per one hundred-thousand citizens, almost five times the earth average. Around one in every thirty-one grown-ups in the United States is in the penitentiary, in prison or on supervised release. District, state, and national disbursements on corrections expenses total to around seventy billion dollars per year and has raised to forty percent more over the past twenty years. http://www.newsweek.com/ The current corrections specialists have started to support that notion. Even though we comprehend that criminals must take accountability for their actions, we also realize that we can no longer just turn out heads at their disappointments. The individuals that derive out of our penitentiaries, prisons, municipal programs and out from beneath our direction are our creation, and we have to take some responsibility. Source Citation (MLA 7th Edition) Hankoff, Leon D. "Current trends in correctional education: theory and practice." International Journal of Offender Therapy & Comparative Criminology Apr. 1985: 91-93. Criminal Justice Collection. Web. 12 June 2016.
The current prison and criminal justice system has not proven to be helpful in rehabilitating offenders and preventing recidivism. To successfully alter this situation it is important to understand what steps and measures are available to assist those who find themselves imprisoned. The techniques used in cognitive behavioral therapy have proven to be effective in treating depression, anxiety and drug addictions among other things. Analyzing the techniques developed in cognitive behavioral theory and applying them to psychotherapy in prison environments can assist in making improvements in the prevention of criminal activity, rates of incarceration and safety and security of the general population. The literature shows that the use of cognitive behavioral therapy has been effective in the treatment of a variety of criminal offenders.
The prison system in the United States was not always like it is today. It took mistakes and changes in order to get it to the point it is at. Some people think that prisons should still be being changed while others feel that they are fine the way they are. It is hard to make an argument for one side or the other if one does not know about the history of prisons as well as the differences between prisons structures and differences in prison management. Knowledge of private prisons is also needed to make this difficult decision.
There are many things that will affect you in prison. I’m going to give you several facts about how it will. My first topic is physical health. At the time of prison release, one half of men and two thirds of women reported having been diagnosed with a chronic physical health condition. Physical health status was assessed by asking respondents to note those conditions that a doctor or nurse had diagnosed them with. Table 3 shows full range of conditions that respondents were asked about their self-reported rates of illness for comparison purpose, these are displayed alongside national prevalence estimates for correctional populations developed by the National Commission on Correctional Health care. Asthma hepatitis infection
“Art therapy is a form of therapy in making of visual images (paintings, drawings, models etc.) in the presences of a qualified art therapist contributes towards externalization of thoughts and feelings which may otherwise remain unexpressed”(Walter & Gilory, 1992).
In today's society, we are facing many changes. Our own family, neighbors, and countrymen are afraid of many dangers which influence their lives. Although many people have fear which resonates in their consciousness and unconsciousness, the United States has a comparatively low crime rate. Despite this low crime rate, America incarcerates it's citizens five times the rate of Canada and seven times that of most European democracies.(Slambrouck, Paul. 24) Our society needs to be changed. We cannot blame the individuals involved in wrongdoing but we can blame our society who raised these criminals. Of course someone who kills another human being needs to be put away in some form; but we need to make changes. We need to help as many maladjusted people as we can. There are some steps which really seem to work. There are many prison inmates who come from broken homes and have low self-esteem. What needs to be done to help these insecure people, who are at war with themselves and society, is to rehabilitate them. The problem is the prison officials do not try to teach the prisoners how to learn from their mistakes.(McGovern, Celeste. 42) What actually happens is that criminals tend to be better thefts, and have the ability to out smart the police. Our politicians need to stress how important vocational, educational, drug-treatment, and religious programs are, in order to improve the attitude and demeanor of these convicted felons. This is the only way to keep ex-con's from jail.(DeLuca, H.R. 38) Another problem with America's prison system is overcrowding. There is a huge amount of young conscienceless offenders who are entering today's prisons. Imagine trying to compact eight gallons of water in a five gallon con...
for youngsters who have a long history of convictions for less serious felonies for which the juvenile court disposition has not been effective” (qtd. in Katel).
Living in a prison for a long time becomes difficult for all inmates especially those who are mentally ill face stress when their environment suddenly becomes bars, harsh lights, and super maximum strict schedules. The inmates are forced to face the strict policies and conditions of custody in order to survive in the prison. These prolonged adaptations to the hardship and frustrations of life inside prison lead to certain psychological changes. Most of this inmates find it difficult to adjust in accordance with the prison rules. They get in trouble for destroying state property
Although it may not seem like a major problem to most people in the United States, prisons are becoming overcrowded, expensive to maintain and have little to no effect on the moral discipline of inmates. The current prison system is extremely inefficient and the purpose of prisons has been completely forgotten. According to Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, the primary purpose of prisons is to punish, to protect, and to rehabilitate. Not only is there an increase in prisoners, but there is a rise in the number of repeat offenders. Alternatives such as counseling, drug rehabilitation, education, job training and victim restitution must be better enforced and organized. People do not understand the severity of the problem mainly because
It isn 't uncommon to see people walking around with tattoos permanently stained on their body. It is also uncommon to know that they usually have a meaning. From Chinese symbols to images devoted to the flying spaghetti monster, people love to keep these tattoos to remind them of a message or a special someone. According to the World Book Advanced Dictionary, a tattoo is "to mark (the skin) with designs or patterns by pricking a line of holes and putting in colors. ' ' And the meaning of an individual 's tattoo can vary depending on where you are. In this essay, I will discuss contrasting elements in prison and in tribal tattoos. This will be done by doing a cross sectional study of their history, meaning and methods. Are prison and tribal tattoos similar or different?
Art therapy began as a natural extension of Freud’s groundbreaking psychoanalytic theories at the turn of the last century. Psychiatrists discovered that visual arts could be used as a tool of assessment, and by the 1940s art was being used not only for assessment, but also in therapeutic applications (Junge, 2010). Two main branches evolved from these early years: art as therapy and art psychotherapy.
Pierson, M., & Wilson, H. (2009). Exploring Art as Therapy. In Using Expressive Arts to Work with Mind, Body, and Emotions: Theory and Practice (pp. 202-222). Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsly Publishers.
Prison within the society in America has sharply veered towards the idea of mass incarceration. The Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) is a criminal research group that reports on the quantity of people in the United States that are in the prison system, and in 2014 “PPI reckons the United States has roughly 2.4m people locked up, with most of those (1.36m) in state prisons” (J.F. 1). This number is cause for concern when compared to a study of recidivism released among thirty states in 2005 by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) According to BJS, “About two-thirds (67.8%) of released prisoners were arrested for a new crime within 3 years, and three quarters (76.6%) were arrested within 5 years” (BJS 1). The concern is that rehabilitation programs in the United States are not effectively working to introduce an inmate into the general population. The reason inmates are typically repeat offenders is because the United States focuses more on punishment than rehabilitation. While rehabilitation methods do exist, they are not the focus within American prison systems, the ones that do exist are more geared toward manual labor and teaching trades. While this an effective means to teach a skill, this style of rehabilitation fails to address the ideas of empathy, accountability, and effective social interaction. The main focus of prisons in the United States is to maintain order in an inherently hostile environment so that inmates may ‘serve their time.’ The focus should be placed on educating inmates instead of strictly punishing those who are incarcerated.
Incarceration has not always been the main form of “punishment” when it comes to doing an injustice to society. In fact, in the early 1600’s common forms of punishments for doing wrong in society included social rejection, corporal punishment, forced labor etc. (“Prison History.”). It had not been until the 18th century where it had been determined that incarceration could actually be a form of punishment correlating with a set amount of time in which an individual had to serve dependent on the severity of his actions. The logic behind incarceration is to restrict a person of his liberty as retribution for the crime he has committed (Prison History.”) Prisons that were created in the 18th century gained their recognition because of their high goals in perfecting society. But, the truth is as people were focusing on perfecting society prisons soon became overcrowded, dirty, and most of all dangerous. By the late 19th century many more people had become aware of the poor prison conditions which had led to a “reformatory” movement. The reformatory movement was put into place as a means of rehabilitation for inmates (“Prison History.”) Prisons would now offer programs to reform inmates into model citizens by offering counseling, education, and opportunities to gain skills needed for working in a civilian world. However, with the growing amount of inmates each year prisons are still becoming overcrowded. Because prisons are so overcrowded there are not enough resources being spent on achieving the rehabilitation of inmates and reintegrating them into society in order for them to survive in the civilian world once released from prison (“Prison History.”)