Literature Review - Detailed Outline

Introduction -

For decades, Americans have been aware of the numerous problems within the United States prison systems. One of most notable issues is the lack of rehabilitation strategies and too much focus on the idea of punishment. Through research efforts, it has been recognized that the lack of rehabilitation for inmates has resulted in a high rate of recidivism. “Remarkably, rehabilitation can transform prisoners into good society members, while a combination of other factors and elements within the criminal justice system can make former offenders engage in criminal behaviors” (Lebbie, 2021).

Citation

Lebbie, Kumba Hannah, "An Examination of the Relationship between Rehabilitation and Recidivism" (2021). Culminating Projects in Criminal Justice. 16.

Body

The Current U.S. Prison System

Despite many researchers and Americans protesting the mistreatment of inmates in the U.S. prison system, substantial changes are still not being made. These problems are widely recognized even by countries outside of the United States, in fact, “the U.S. prison system is seen as being harsher than other countries due to the disrespectful treatment, poor conditions, lack of training, and greater sentence lengths” (Cox, 2023). Each of these notable issues affect an inmate's ability to be rehabilitated and integrated back into society. The utter lack of rehabilitation practices in the U.S. prison system is what leads to the high recidivism rate. Inmates are leaving prison, and they don’t know how to get back to being a functioning member of society and that is where recidivism begins. Some former inmates have said that going back to prison is easier than trying to figure out how to function in society again. One California prisoner observed the “vast majority of us become exactly who we are told we are: violent, irrational, and incapable of conducting ourselves like conscious adults“ (Bregman, 2020).

“The U.S. has been caught up in the idea that mass incarceration and longer sentences will lead to rehabilitation.” (Cox, 2023). Based on the high rate of recidivism, we can tell that neither of these things are helping inmates be successful members of society, yet, this is still the reality in the United States.

Citations:

Rollins, D. (2023). Prisons in Need of Rehabilitation. Criminal Justice Research Review, 25(1), 2-6.

Cox, M. (2023). The U.S. Prison System: Pseudoscience in an Empirical World. LOGOS: A Journal of Undergraduate Research, 16, 9-38.

What Norwegian Prisons are Doing

Norway has become the model around the world for what it looks like to create a prison system that focuses on rehabilitation, work ethic, relationship building, and giving inmates proper resources that will help them integrate back into society. The Norwegian prison system hasn’t always been as successful as it is now. In fact, not too long ago they struggled with high recidivism rates, but after an overhaul of bad practices, they have mastered what it takes to lower the recidivism rate.

“One of the biggest differences between the incarceration systems of Norway and the USA is that Norway does not have large, centralized jails. Instead, Norway utilizes a system of small, community-based correctional facilities that focus on rehabilitation and reintegration into society.” (2022). This allows a more one-on-one approach to helping the inmates prepare to be a successful member of society. The correctional officers are extensively trained in areas that allow them to provide the best possible reintegration skills to inmates, as well as the knowledge to appropriately rehabilitate inmates.

Citations

First Step Alliance. (2024, May 2). Rehabilitation lessons from Norway’s prison system. https://www.firststepalliance.org/post/norway-prison-system-lessons

Abdel-Salam, S., & Myhre Sunde, H. (2018). Enhancing the Role of Correctional Officers in American Prisons: Lessons Learned from Norway. Federal Sentencing Reporter, 31(Issue 1), 67-74.

“Norwegian correctional officers are expected to view prisons as serving a dual purpose—to both control and rehabilitate inmates” (Abdel-Salam, 2018). & “Being a correctional officer in Norway, therefore, requires the ability to balance the challenging task of being both a security-focused prison guard, and a rehabilitating social worker” (Abdel-Salam, 2018).

Making the Change in the U.S.

Abdel-Salam, S., & Myhre Sunde, H. (2018). Enhancing the Role of Correctional Officers in American Prisons: Lessons Learned from Norway. Federal Sentencing Reporter, 31(Issue 1), 67-74.

Norway should be used as a blueprint for successful ways to implement rehabilitation practices and therefore lower recidivism rates. Over recent years, there are some states that have been using some of the Norwegian strategies in their prisons, however, this is still not standard for most of the United States. Many researchers have investigated how the U.S. and Norwegian prison systems differ, and where the United States can easily improve their tactics.

Abdel-Salam, S., & Myhre Sunde, H. have done a deep-dive into the major differences between practices within the United States prison system and the Norwegian prison system. One of the key concepts they discussed is the difference in correctional officer training. The officers in Norway have much more training and education surrounding how to best help inmates, while also ensuring that the prisons are safe. “Correctional officers in the United States play a very limited role with respect to the rehabilitation of the inmates. (Abdel-Salam, 2018)” Required education is something that can be adjusted fairly easily within the U.S.; many Americans have expressed this needed change for a long time.

Conclusion -

Through my research efforts, I found that there isn't enough research on the importance of rehabilitation within the prison system and how implementing these practices would in turn lower the recidivism rate. We have seen this work in other countries but it seems that there is a lack of a “plan of action” on how to implement these changes in U.S. prisons. It’s important that we address the issues in the United States prison system and find ways to improve, quickly. The rate of recidivism continues to be high, and there is little to no chance that it will become lower if there aren’t any changes. Norway was able to significantly lower their recidivism rate, and I think we should be implementing some of their strategies.