Introduction
Prisons are dedicated to ensuring that offenders are guided through structured programs into a level of that can be allowed back to the society. As part of preparation of offenders to return to their societies and minimize instances of recidivism, prisoners are offered opportunities while under incarceration to deal with health challenges and attain both work and life skills. One of the initiatives of preparing the inmates for accommodation back into their communities is through health and substance abuse treatments among others such as literacy classes, parenting, and wellness education ( Seiter, 2005) . Outlined here below are some of the programs that are available in prisons designed to help the inmates overcome dependence and abuse of drugs prior to re-entry back into their communities.
Programs
Amity In-Prison Therapeutic Community
This program is designed to provide intensive treatment among male prisoners with the problem of substance abuse. It is designed as part of preparing the male inmates to re-enter the community without the problem of abusing drugs. Thus, this intensive treatment is administered in the last 12 months of the term being served. For the program to be administered, the participants volunteer themselves and are required to reside is specific housing unit of the program while undergoing the treatment. In overall, this program has been declared promising and the outcome indicates that those who participate in it stood a lower chance of re-incarceration, unlike the counterparts in controlled group.
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Changing Course
Changing Course is a substance abuse program targeting offenders who have been identified to be having possible disorders related to substance abuse and are imprisoned within localized correctional set up such as jails. The program is structured in for of an interactive journal with emphasis on helping inmates make correlation between criminal activity and substance abuse they are engaged in. the core objective of Changing Course is helping inmates initiate the process of realizing positive changes in their lives through self-directed resource. One unique feature of this program is the provision of a way through which inmates can analyse the costs and benefits related with the various choices made in life and assist them create a plan for behaviour change.
KEY/Crest Substance Abuse Programs
This is a multi-stage and community-based program for treating substance abuse among the offenders who are involved in drugs. Dalaware Department of Correction, DOC has designed the therapeutic community program in three stages which include primary when the person is still under incarceration, secondary during work release and tertiary, which is an aftercare. Each of these stages is designed to correspond to the changes in the correctional status of an offender right from incarceration, work release and eventually supervision within the community. This program is design to last for six months. The first three months are spent at the Crest Center whereby the offenders are taken through rigorous substance abuse treatment and the remaining three on work release.
InnerChange Freedom Initiative (Minnesota)
InnerChange Freedom Initiative is a faith based program based in Minnesota. It is a voluntary re-entry program that uses value-based and educational programming in seeking to prepare the offenders for reintegration back into their important relations such as employment, community, or family. It is a fairly effective program because those inmates who went through it are less likely to be re-incarcerated, rearrested or reconvicted as compared to others.
Lifestyle Change Program
This program is designed to offer psychological intervention among the jailed males by addressing the concept of lifestyle that surrounds gambling, drug abuse and crime. Its core objective is minimizing recidivism by enrolling the participants into lifestyle changes focused on the identification of choices, conditions and well-thought crimes. The program is rated promising because it has shown decreased cases of recidivism among the participants ( National Institute of Justice n.d.) .
References
National Institute of Justice (n.d.). Corrections & Re-entry: Inmate Programs & Treatment . Retrieved from https://www.crimesolutions.gov/TopicDetails.aspx?ID=31
Seiter, R. P. (2005). Corrections: An Introduction . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
