Correctional counseling is a type of counseling that assists criminal offenders in dealing with specific problems their current personality structure lack, so they can make better decisions in the future.
Correctional Cunselors deal with specific life-adjustment situations, while trying to expand on the underneath good personality tht already exists. In our correctional system, this type of counseling exists, but is it effective? With news flashes of violence daily, and deadlines burred with murders and violent acts constantly, it is easy to say no. The recidivism rates in our country are among the highest in the world, and several underlying problems exist in offender lifestyles and upbringing that will allow them to be treated. When you read a news paper or see the news you often encounter stories of violent acts by criminals with long wrap sheets. They have not been helped simply because the correctional system has not been able to deal with the enormous number of offenders, and therefore cannot give them the individual treament that they would need.
This lack of specific counseling allows the offender to go untreated ,and commit more criminal acts. Next, some believe that if we want to rehabilitate criminals we must do more than just send them to prison. For instance, we could give them a chance to acquire job skills; which will improve the chances that inmates will become productive citizens upon release. The programs must aim to change those who want to change. Those who are taught to produce useful goods and to be productive are likely to develop the self-esteem essential to a normal, integrated personality. This kind of program would provide skills and habits and replace the sense of hopelessness that many inmates have.
Moreover, another technique used to rehabilitate criminals is counseling. There is two types of counseling in general, individual and group counseling. Individual counseling is much more costly than group counseling. The aim of group counseling is to develop positive peer pressure that will influence its members. One idea is that group problem-solving has definite advantages over individual problem-solving.
The idea is that a wider variety of solutions can be derived by drawing from the experience of several people with different backgrounds. Also one individuals problem might have already been solved by another group member and can be suggested. Often if a peer proposes a solution it carries more weight than if the counselor were to suggest it. Further, in sociology, one of the major theories of delinquency is differential association. This means some people learned their ways from undesirable people who they were forced to be in association with and that this association warps their thinking and social attitudes.
Group counseling, group interaction, and other kinds of group activities can provide a corrective, positive experience that might help to offset the earlier delinquent association . However, it is said that group counseling can do little to destroy the power of labeling. The differential-association theory emphasizes that a person is more likely to become a criminal if the people who have the greatest influence upon them are criminals . Most of todays correctional institutions lack the ability and programs to rehabilitate the criminals of America.
One can predict that a prisoner held for two, four, eight or ten years, then released , still with no education or vocational skills will likely return to a life of crime. Often their life in crime will resume in weeks after their release. Although the best prisons and programs in the world will not cure the problem totally, improvements still must be made . Prison inmates, are some of the most maladjusted people in society. Most of the inmates have had too little discipline or too much, come from broken homes, and have no self-esteem. They are very insecure and are at war with themselves as well as with society.
Most inmates did not learn moral values or learn to follow everyday norms. Also, when most lawbreakers are labeled criminals they enter the phase of secondary deviance. They will admit they are criminals or believe it when they enter the phase of secondary deviance. Next, some believe that if we want to rehabilitate criminals we must do more than .
