The discussion by Claudia revolves around the collaborative efforts that prevail between social workers as well as the legal environment. According to Claudia, the reading played an essential role in terms of fostering understanding of the manner in which social should take part in diverse activities. To illustrate this, Claudia offers an illustration of the way in which social workers are involved in training officers in correctional facilities as well as regular police officers in terms of dealing with individuals having mental conditions. Here, I would agree that Claudia has offered an ideal way in which social work can contribute to the legal environment. As such, I support her decision that intervening with the processes of correctional officers and law enforcement officers would provide them with an avenue of dealing with incarcerated individuals who have mental illnesses in an effective manner. Social workers can introduce intervention measures, such as motivational interviewing and escalation approaches, which would ensure that escalated individuals’ needs are addressed effectively. This is especially the case when it comes to those having mental illnesses.
An additional area that has caught my attention in Claudia’s discussion revolves around the idea of the “problem solving court” against the typical legal court that most people understand in the present environment. Claudia notes that various legal interventions lay significant emphasis on punishment whereas problem-solving courts do not. When dealing with cases of individuals having mental illnesses, I agree with the idea of Claudia that a substitute to conventional court systems would be ideal. For example, the problem-solving court would play a critical role in terms of addressed the various forces that drive individuals to result to illegal activities. Incarcerating individuals would not be applicable during the long term because it fails to identify the underlying cause of a problem. In this perspective, addressing the problem, as it is the case with the problem-solving court, would be effective in terms of identifying problematic behavior early and in a practical manner. Such kind of an approach would facilitate in dealing with the underlying causes while making sure that its effects last for the longer term. Just treating symptoms as it is the case with the traditional legal system would not be effective.
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A problem-solving court would play an essential role in terms of hindering reoffending, hence save costs attributed to incarceration. Here, I agree with Claudia, especially based on since a tremendous percent of individuals released from prison go back to prison for recidivism. Maintaining prisons is an expensive endeavor while most prisoners do not reform entirely since the problems that they face are not identified. Nonetheless, in the case of a problem-solving court, which receives the support of social workers, it would be able to identify the problems facing offenders and rectify them to avoid future reoffending. Such an approach would reduce societal, monetary, and personal costs attributed to backlogged cases and court appearances (Rome, 2013) . This would serve as an effective way of assisting the legal system to realize effective reform approaches.
Concerning the discussion by Claudia, therefore, it offers major insights on how to deal with prisoners, especially those with mental illnesses. Her experience as a social worker would guide the legal system in terms of devising effective ways of dealing with prisoners to facilitate in reducing incidences of reoffending in a practical manner and during the longer term. Overall, social work would serve as a major contributor to the effectiveness of legal system, particularly when it comes to addressing the different problems that offenders experience while serving their terms in prison.
Reference
Rome, S. (2013). Social work and law. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, Inc.
