Defeating crime at its beginning – Rehabilitation of Young released prisoners
presented by Avraham Hoffmann at the ICPA 11th annual conference, Barbados, October 2009
In the bible’s story of the wayward and rebellious son[1], we already see the great concern about a young delinquent, whose age increases in an arithmetic sequence while his offences escalate in a geometrical progression. Our contemporary reality confirms this tendency that had been described in our bible thousands of years ago, and it threatens the quality of life of the affluent society, who is helpless in front of the juvenile delinquency.
It is well known (in Israel) that embarking on a criminal career at young age has an impact on felony crime in adulthood. We know that Israel’s organized crime leaders started out in detention as juveniles and even by committing delinquent activities before the age of criminal law liability[2]. Hence, not rehabilitating these youngsters presents a long-term danger. In other words, the rehabilitation of young inmates is meant to save them personally as well as saving the state from the creation of new leaders to the criminal world.
Who are the young prisoners?
Young prisoners who are imprisoned in Israel’s jails are defined as a high risk population to themselves and to their surroundings. They are sentenced to imprisonment once all other alternative treatments have failed. They are characterised by having a criminal, violent and recidivist social functioning; lack of attention and care; insufficient education; low self-esteem; and, often a dysfunctional and non-normative family and surrounding background. Their long way to prison was paved by recurrent failures that promoted their downfall, becoming more and more criminal. Hence, they are trapped in a vicious circle: they are labelled as “problematic” youth and therefore see themselves as such; as a result they maintain criminal patterns of behaviour.
If a young delinquent is sentenced to imprisonment by a human court of law, it is a sign that all other options have been exhausted: including parole officers; relatively open premises for young delinquents, and finally closed institutions. Incarceration represents the last resort. The percentage of young prisoners – aged 14 to 18 – among the prison population is infinitesimal and testifies to the severity of their crimes. In 1997, their majority (54.2%) recidivated and returned to prison within less than 2 years, that is while they are still under 18.
In Israel there are at any given time only about a 150 young prisoners, sentenced to imprisonment from a few months to several years. Therefore, every year about 150 young prisoners are released from prison.
Why do young prisoners need a particular rehabilitation program?
The services that have worked with these youngsters before their incarceration are not adapted to treat them after their release from prison.[3] They lack the appropriate professional tools to deal with their (re)integration. Since these youngsters come back to their community and family with an additional emotional, functioning and social burden that was caused by their incarceration.
Conventional solutions are not suitable for young released prisoners
In Israel, until 1999 the Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority did not rehabilitate young released prisoners. The first step was to accept that a different thing should be done.[4]
In the initial stage of the program we began treating these youngsters only within prison. We had mistakenly thought that outside prison, the myriad of existing agencies that treat youth, such as:
- Professional rehabilitation structures for street gang youngsters.
- Foster families and residential facilities.
- Youth Probation Services.
- Psychological Services for Young people.
would be able to help and solve these young released prisoners’ problems and difficulties.
However, we quickly realised that these programs that had the knowledge and expertise in dealing with problematic youngsters, were not appropriate for prisoners and therefore failed. So we had to create our own program for rehabilitating these young released prisoners outside prison.
What does this program innovate?
The main idea of the new program is preparing individual program for each young prisoner. They are all classified as young prisoners, but in essence they are each extremely different from one another. It is a small number of very tough cases. Any generalization would end up with bad results. The only common trait is their need for a close supervision and follow-up. Hence, there is a crucial need to constantly learn and innovate. What may look better at first, might need to change for further fine tuning.
What did the new program offer?
We had opened our Shoshan program[5], which had especially trained a staff to offer young prisoners an extremely intensive treatment.
This program was designed to fulfill several objectives:
- Help young released prisoners to reintegrate into the normative society, through emotional, social and occupational rehabilitation programs and services;
- Prevent their further involvement in criminal activities;
- Develop systemic program that enables an integrative co-ordination between the different agencies treating the youngsters.
The young inmates join the project according to the parole committee’s decision and rehabilitation program set for them. Each young inmate signs an Individual Treatment Contract defining his obligations and the project’s commitment to him. These personal programs are set to suit the individual needs of each participant.
The project incorporates individual, group and family therapy and community intervention, coordinating and integrating the different levels. The program can be divided into two (2) stages: Preparation in prison and post release treatment.
The Preparation stage starts 3 to 6 months before the release from prison. The program uses the treatment that the youngsters receive in prison as a springboard for preparing them for their release. The team gathers all the necessary information for treating each boy. They meet each boy and present him the principles of the program. The young prisoner participates in a course preparing him for his release from prison, he learns about the rehabilitation options and hence the contact with him, his family and the prison therapist is strengthened. A special emphasis is given to the contact with their family, if there is one.
The Post release stage is the main part of the program, which continues during a period of a maximum of 2 years. The intervention during this stage includes four (4) areas:
The individual level consists of participating in an individual treatment program that includes a personal meeting with a qualified social worker during which he can relate to his difficulties and needs in a supportive therapeutic framework. The youngster has an option to complete his scholar education. He can participate in sport and leisure classes as well as social activities. The boy can acquire a vocation and employment[6]. In order to integrate the young people in employment in a way that is sensitive to their needs and abilities, “friendly”[7] employers are found, to employ these boys and give them special attention.
On the group level the youngsters participate in group therapy for mutual support, learning and coping with the difficulties at every stage of the program. Special workshops suited to the boys needs are offered to help them progress; Workshops such as survival in the Judea Desert and challenging sports; Physical and emotional challenges, in which the youngsters realize they are not almighty and at the same time they have the opportunity to learn to ask for help – hence the bond with the mentor is strengthened.
On the family level the parents will be instructed by the team prior and after their son’s release. The aim of the family intervention is to help the boys that return to their homes and families, to support the families and prepare them for their son’s return. For young people who are not able to return to their families, the project offers them an alternative framework in a residential facility or foster home.
On the Community level we strive at integrating the boys in normative social frameworks such as youth clubs and community centers. The team is in contact with educational and therapeutic bodies in the boys’ communities and mobilise their support and co-operation.
Towards the end of the period, there will be a separation process in which the boys will be prepared for taking responsibility and for independent functioning. Boys in need of a continued treatment will be referred to community welfare workers.
The PRA obtained the community willingness to continue the treatment by backing up and supporting the community services.
From pilot to further development
Until 2006 the pilot phase of the program was operated only in the Tel Aviv region. Since then it has been expanded to serve also the Northern and Southern regions. Today, the Shoshan program serves 90% of the youngsters who need help within the community[8]. Since its inception, the Shoshan program has treated about 1,000 youngsters who were released from prison.
Unfortunately again, we had found out that this program was sufficiently adequate only for some of the youngsters. For them, we were able to contact the parents during the incarceration, and hence create a bond between the youngsters and their parents. For them our pilot program was helpful. With them we could get additional help from the existing community programs and services, accompanied by a youth prisoner rehabilitation worker.
However, some of them did not have parents and for others the return home was a danger (i.e. a mother who prostitutes herself; mentally ill parents). Moreover some of these youngsters were in such a bad situation that the Shoshan program did not work for them.
Upgrade in light of the acquired experience.
The crisis of passage from prison, which represents an extremely authoritative environment with clear exterior boundaries, to the community where the youngster is required to have interior boundaries, is critical and complex. There is a crucial need to soften this transition passageway. After being released from prison these youngsters need a controlled and gradual adjustment period, during which they can develop the basic skills they need to integrate the normative society.
For the youngsters, for which the Shoshan program did not provide a sufficient solution, we developed a more intensive program:
We then initiated a new program we call the “Milestone” (in Hebrew “Evene Derech“), designed for youngsters who need a three (3) month “semi-closed” therapy setting, before they can join the Shoshan program. Although it is not necessarily a residential program, it is a much more committing program.
The objectives of the Milestone program are:
- Softening the passage from prison to the freedom of life in society.
- Maintain and ensure the treatment continuity (from the past).
- Preparing, coaching and helping the youngster to integrate the community through a normative process.
- Preventing the youngster from returning to a criminal life style and recidivating.
- Integrating the youngster in rehabilitation, employment and social programs.
- Good functioning in an employment or educational framework and, a proper and helpful relationship with the family and community will be perceived as success.
The Milestone centre offers a response to the crisis expected during the process of transition from the prison to the life in the community through educational, therapeutic and rehabilitation programs. Milestone works in conjunction with the educational and therapeutic processes the youngsters has had in the past, and with the rehabilitation and employment processes he is going to take in the community and the Shoshan program.
Youngsters that have completed the Milestone process are referred to the Shoshan workers.
Did the program prove itself?
To illustrate the results, here are some data:
In the year 2008, we interviewed and treated in the Shoshan program 146 youngsters. 41 youngsters were found unfit for the rehabilitation program, most of which for lack of motivation to change and participate in a rehabilitation program adapted to their needs.
Looking at those who completed the Shoshan program in 2008 as compared to 2007, we see improvement from 54% to 62.7% and a decrease in those that did not complete the program.
In the Milestone program, we can see that they represent a considerable improvement shown by the increased success rates – 59% in 2008 in comparison to 40% in 2007.
So, data is encouraging. However, we are still looking to improve. We have improved the existing systems, but we haven’t reached a point where we can say we have reached out goal.
We suggest that a comparative study should be conducted, that includes the Israeli experience and other countries suggested by the ICPA. It would be an opportunity for others to learn from us, and for us to learn from them.
Conclusions
“The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge?”[9] – If the teeth of the sons have set on edge, the society must open its eyes and abstain from being forgiving. Closing our eyes in sight of minor juvenile delinquency contributes to its escalation. We must respond firmly and, the quicker the better. Hence we will succeed in preventing greater harm in the future.
The governments that have chosen to overlook the danger embodied in young prisoners and the judicial systems that mitigated their punishments, are required to set up special budgets and enforced regulations for this central issue of dealing with the world of crime.
King David said that “Like arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the sons of one’s youth”[10] – the youth may be as arrows in the hands of the hero, hence being a great contribution to society, but they can also be poisonous arrows. Our duty, as society, is to prevent them from becoming poisonous arrows and help them to become a blessing to society.
[1] Deuteronomy 21:18.
[2] In Israel the age of criminal law liability is 13.
[3] In the past, after their release from prison they came back to society under the supervision of the same service – the Juvenile Probation Service – that was in charge of them before their incarceration, which was an additional reason for the failures of most of the rehabilitation programs for young released prisoners.
[4] In 1998, we sent Mr. Willner to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for a three months training at Professor A. Twerski’s Gateway to Hope centre. As a trained psychologist he had worked before in the IDF (Israeli army) in a special program for young soldiers who would normally be exempted from the army, because they presented high adjustment difficulties to the army system, such as a low psychotechnic profile, low motivation and / or a criminal record.
[5] Shoshan is a Lily in Hebrew. Its letters form the acronyms: “Rehabilitating and Integrating Youth”.
[6] As in all of the Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority’s programs.
[7] “Friendly” employers designate employers that are aware of the boys past and that are willing to employ them among their other employees. They are found by the program coordinators, receive training and are in personal contact with the project operator.
[8] While the cooperation with the other governmental services has been expanded to actually serve all of the youngsters in need of therapy and support.
[9] Yechezkiel 18:2.
[10] Psalms 127:4.