Rikers Island: The Failure of a “Model” Penitentiary

New York City’s Rikers jail complex is gripped by a crisis of legitimacy. Following a series of investigations, it has been denounced as a major symbol of criminal justice dysfunction, with calls for its closure and replacement with new smaller “state of the art” jails. Yet, when it opened, Rikers was hailed as a “model” facility, at the cutting edge of prison design and prisoner rehabilitation. To elucidate the present situation, we provide a focus on the under-explored history of New York City’s penal institutions.

The impact of policy change on prisoner resettlement and community integration: A case of disproportionate response

The involvement of prisoners on license in the recent London Bridge and Streatham, London attacks have triggered a series of policies aiming to restrict community release. These aim to address not only the point at which prisoners in England and Wales are released, but also the level of engagement prisoners can have with the community before release. They have been introduced with little consultation of the available evidence and, seemingly, with little consideration of those who will be directly impacted as a result of their implementation. This commentary considers how announced changes in policy relating to the use of Release on Temporary Licence (ROTL) with prisoners, represent a response which is not only disproportionate to the scale of the problem but may also negatively impact upon prisoner rehabilitation. It draws upon evidence surrounding the impact of early release and evidence surrounding the practices which work to promote desistance from crime to highlight the flaws in these new policies, but also the importance of maintaining community engagement in the rehabilitation of people with convictions.

Zombies and Prisoner Rehabilitation

This chapter looks at how, in 2007, 1,500 inmates in the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) went “viral” with their online rendition of Michael Jackson’s music video “Thriller.” Representing an exercise program aimed at building teamwork and reducing gang activity through dance, the CPDRC’s “Thriller” circulated as performance-based proof of prisoner rehabilitation. This chapter argues that central to the production’s worldwide popularity are narratives of discipline, colonial choreography, and the alterity of Wenjiel Resane, the cross-dressed leading lady. It situates the dance in relation to the African American original, the actions of the prison administrators, and ideologies of Filipino mimicry. This chapter examines how neocolonial and market-oriented reforms fundamentally influenced the social construction of Filipino Otherness presented in the dance and thus shaped its popularity in unexpected ways.

Work-Related Intervention Programs: Desistance From Criminality and Occupational Integration Among Released Prisoners on Parole

The present research examines the integration into employment of prisoners on parole who had been under the supervision of the Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority during the period 2007-2010. The supervision program included rehabilitation in the community, with the emphasis on employment. The research compares integration in employment and rates of reincarceration for the supervised group with prisoners who had been released from prison after serving their full sentences. The findings indicate that among prisoners who had participated in the supervision program, there is better integration into employment, a higher wage level, and lower rate of reincarceration. Based on these results, it may be tentatively inferred that the supervision program possesses a high potential for reintegrating released prisoners into the community.

Crime prevention and prisoner rehabilitation in Australia: Lessons from Nordic nations

This article considers Australia’s past interest in Nordic nations’ achievements in preventing crime and in rehabilitating persons convicted of crimes. Current crises in Australian prisons, particularly as analysed recently by the Victorian Ombudsman, are then considered. Lessons from Sweden and Norway, in particular, are identified which might practically help now to tackle those problems.

The “Watchful Eye of God”: The Role of Religion in the Rehabilitation and Reentry of Repentant Jewish Prisoners

Can participation in a religious rehabilitation program benefit a released prisoner’s reentry into the community, and if so, how? Which elements of the religious worldview can be translated into tools for promoting desistance? Using a qualitative approach, we conducted 30 interviews with released prisoners from 3 months to 5 years beyond release who participated in a Jewish faith-based rehabilitation program administered by Israel’s Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority. We interviewed participants in the Torah Rehabilitation Program about the role of religion in their lives and in their desistance from crime. We map out the spiritual, behavioral, and psychological tools they feel aided them in facing the challenges of reentry.

BETWEEN REFORM AND REPRESSION: IMPRISONMENT IN WEIMAR GERMANY

This is the first account of the prison in the Weimar Republic (1918–33), set in the context of the evolution of German social policy. In the early years, the Weimar prison was characterized by hunger, overcrowding, and conflict. At this time, leading officials agreed on a new approach to imprisonment, influenced by the demand for the ‘incapacitation of incorrigibles, reformation of reformables’. This principle was championed by the modern school of criminal law, designed to replace traditional policy based on deterrence and uniform retribution. The policy of reform and repression shaped the Weimar prison. Most prison officials supported the indefinite confinement of ‘incorrigibles’. While this did not become law, many prisoners classified as ‘incorrigible’ (increasingly after ‘objective’ examinations) received worse treatment than others, both in prison and after their release. Regarding the ‘reformables’, some institutions introduced measures aimed at prisoner rehabilitation. But such policies were not fully implemented in other prisons, not least because of resistance by local prison officials. During the collapse of the Weimar Republic in the early 1930s, measures aimed at rehabilitation, only just introduced, were cut back again. By contrast, the repression of ‘incorrigibles’ was pursued with even more vigour than before, an important legacy for Nazi penal policy.