Another criminal clicky poll: Rehabilitation

JOEBunny

What are your feelings on rehabilitation of criminals?
[Poll]

juniper19

Recidivism rates are very high.  But is that because criminals can't be rehabilitated or because jails are so awful that they come out worse than when they went in?  With the deck stacked against them.  In NYS, for example, you can get trained to be a barber in jail, but ex-cons can't get a license to practice once they've been released.

My guess is that most can rehabilitated, but we need to make prisons a little less awful and give them more opportunities once they leave.

JOEBunny

juniper19:

Recidivism rates are very high.  But is that because criminals can't be rehabilitated or because jails are so awful that they come out worse than when they went in?  With the deck stacked against them.  In NYS, for example, you can get trained to be a barber in jail, but ex-cons can't get a license to practice once they've been released.

My guess is that most can rehabilitated, but we need to make prisons a little less awful and give them more opportunities once they leave.

Yes, but how do you divide the resources?  Give a little to all, or give a lot to a few?  Then there is the mental illness part of it.  I live in an area with a lot of homeless people, many we "know" and see on a regular basis.  One lived in a neighbors garage for 20 years until he died last year.  They disappear for a month or year at a time, mostly to prison, then are back on the streets.  They cannot be forced to maintain their meds and they cannot be rational without them, so even a good rehab program wouldn't work without mental health compliance.  The mental health numbers for prisoners are terrible.