Community corrections are considered vital in reducing rehabilitation and recidivism, owing to the current increased rate of crimes committed in the community. The community corrections entail broad utilization of supervision of criminals by the community via approaches that are deemed crucial in conducting such tasks. The approaches may entail the use of available systems of communication as well as other supervisory methods as set by the criminal justice system regulations. The main objective of imposing community corrections on offenders is to prevent a further repetition of a crime after incarceration, which has long been considered important over the years.
Surprisingly, the number of those that repeat prior mistakes and incarcerated for a second time continues to rise everyday, causing a lot of concern to the government and the community at large. Generally, rehabilitation is a process that entails containment of prisoners to modify their behavior through various procedures, not necessarily punishment induction. This may be done by assigning released offenders some community-based activities for performance under supervision depending on the level of the initial offence. Corrections in the community are conducted by the use of all forms of available systems, for instance, Global Positioning Systems and highly electronic forms, probation parole etc (Alarid, et al., 2007). This paper’s objective is to investigate into the community corrections that help in reducing rehabilitation as well as recidivism. Additionally, it is important to study intensively the criminal justice system as well as laws. Moreover, the paper will provide an insight on the community correction practices that are imposed on criminals to help reduce rehabilitation and recidivism.
The Criminal Justice System
The criminal system of justice entails schemes, government structures, and institutions charged with the responsibility to up-hold deterrent and crime mitigation, as well as enhancing social control. The bodies are also given authority to impose penalties on those who are found violating rules and regulations through sanctioning procedures. Protection, in opposition to abuse of prosecution, as well as powers of investigation is made available for those caught committing any form of crime by the Criminal Justice System. The system usually remains operational under a set of rules and regulations that are outlined in regard to the punishable acts as well as the extent to which the acts would be punished. Three main parts do exist in the forenamed system, which greatly constitute the operational procedures. The department that is charged with the responsibility of enforcing the laid down laws is the police.
Secondly, there are departments responsible for imposing corrections to those people in the community that have offended law which include prisons, probation, paroles and jails. Thirdly, there are departments that habour the court system which has the authority to judge an offender rightly according to the weight of committed crimes and hand them over to the department that impose corrections on them. All the above are operational in independence basis; however, the operation is always in accordance to the set down laws by the judicial system of government (Alarid, et al., 2007).
Rehabilitation and recidivism reduction practices
The past years have seen a number of changes occur in the Criminal Justice System. The law and justice imposers have long worked to come up with the best community practices that can help reduce the rate of rehabilitation as well as that of recidivism.
Many theories and research findings have recently supported the fact that imposition of best community correction programs are a solution to rehabilitation as well as that of recidivism. Thus, it is important for the criminal justice system to initiate pre-release programs that are manly programmed according to the level of offences and post-release ones that follow incarceration of a criminal. The programs that are deemed best are those that emphasize on skills development among criminals. Moreover, the government has implemented those programs that utilize appropriate behavioral practices and judgments. It also important to indicate that, recent developments have seen the implementation of programs that monitor the characteristics of an offender before executing judgment on him. This would give a comprehensive report on the status of the offender in terms of finances, educational background, as well as physical fitness. The kind of community correction to be imposed on an offender is therefore based on a collection of the observed characteristics (Roger and John, 1998).
Nevertheless, a number of best community correction practices that have successfully been implemented include the educational system. The expansion of education facilities even in the Criminal Justice Systems was a step towards reduction of recidivism. This ensures that offenders who are found to have involved themselves with criminal acts due to lack of education are incorporated into the system to acquire knowledge and skills. In addition, those evaluated and found to have a high level of ability are incorporated to help a nation develop through their investments. Another practice is based on community- based projects. This ensures that after pre-release from prison, offenders are assigned community duties to perform under supervision for a quantified period, a factor that makes many to avoid a similar mistake in future.
More so, probation and parole are also common practices utilized by the Criminal Justice System to reduce the rate of rehabilitation as well as that of recidivism (McNeil, 2009).
Significance of Community corrections
The main aim of community corrections is usually to reduce or even eradicate rehabilitation as well as recidivism. Recent research has recommended community corrections as an additional forum that would rejuvenate the minds of offenders in order to avoid repeating criminal offences. It is deemed that incarceration though is the most common form of punishment that is imposed by the criminal justice system, is not enough to eradicate the herein discussed challenges. The offenders that break law should be released under certain pre-release programs, and handed over to other post-release programs where community-related assignments are imposed on them to accomplish under supervision. This system would render many criminals to avoid a repetition of the same in their lives and would work towards changing their conduct. Over the years, rehabilitation has been used to modify behaviour but the crime rate increases everyday. Moreover, recidivism has also been used as a long-term solution for the offenders who commit crimes repeatedly but has not been a successful method.
However, today, the criminal justice system has initiated the community-based corrections in order to pave way for change in the extent of criminal offences (McNeil, 2009). However, the imposition of community corrections is a vital step that would enhance security in a societal set up by ensuring that the numbers of offenders reduce every time. This would be so crucial in ensuring a safe and sound neighborhood around the globe, which in turn reduces the rate in which resources are geared towards maintaining security in many areas. More over, the reduction of crime rate would ensure the reduction o abuse management forums that government duly spends time on to enhance public safety. Recidivism reduction would also pave way for the ample rehabilitation processes to be appropriately imposed with an aim of reducing crime rate. Community corrections are important since the community itself would be able to set its own moral standards that would aid in upbringing young children to become morally upright. Furthermore, in communities where education is not highly valued, recidivism often takes a pre-eminent path, but community corrections would deny people room to perform offences and embark on gaining knowledge through the educational system.
Generally, community corrections are meant for ensuring safety and formal security in all areas on human residence (Roger and John, 1998).
Conclusion
Community corrections entail the use of particular government agencies networks with the aim of administering justice. A variety of components is utilized by the judicial system to impose punishments to those who offend the law as well as the recent programs that have been implemented to deal with rehabilitation as well as recidivism. The community corrections help in maintaining safety and peace in the community, owing to the reduction of crimes due to fear of recidivism. Nevertheless, the government is out to impose more practices and programs that will help reduce crime rate, and ensure that people live in a trouble and drug free environment. However, the objective of the paper was achieved in establishing the community corrections and practices to reduce rehabilitation and recidivism.
References
Alarid, L.
et al. (2007). Community-Based Corrections. OH: Cengage Learning publishers. McNeil, W.
(2009). Recidivism reduction; Strategic plan. Florida Department of Corrections.
Retrieved from http://www. dc. state. fl. us/orginfo/FinalRecidivismReductionPlan. pdf. Roger, M. and John, P.
(1998). Rehabilitation, recidivism, and realism: evaluating violence reduction programs in prison. Prison journal.
Cengage Learning books. Retrieved from http://www. accessmylibrary. com/article-1G1-54181902/rehabilitation-recidivism-and-realism. html.
