Rehabilitation Program for Young Released Inmates
Presented by Avraham Hoffmann at the UN 10th Congress on the prevention of crime and the treatment of offenders, Vienna, Austria, 2000.
Young prisoners – aged 14 to 18 – who are imprisoned in Israel’s jails are considered to be a population at high risk to themselves and to their surroundings, even relatively to young offenders in other frameworks including the Youth Protection Authority residential facilities. They are sentenced to imprisonment (from a few months to several years) once all other alternative treatments have failed. They are trapped in a vicious circle: they are labelled as problematic youth, violent and criminal and this is the way they see themselves, as a result they maintain criminal patterns of behaviour. These young people can be characterised personally and environmentally: Personally they are characterised by social dysfunctioning, violent and criminal behaviour, tendency to delinquency, personality disorders (including sociopathy), developmental-educational lacunae and low self-esteem arising from repeated failure in normative frameworks. Environmentally they are characterised by poor care, insufficient education, lack of attention and often a multiple problem family background and surroundings. These youngsters are exposed to harsh treatment and violence in their families and immediate surroundings, and find relief or refuge in belonging to a marginal group or criminal gang.
Israel faced a crucial problem in dealing with these young inmates, whose majority (54.2%) recidivate: After their release from prison they came back to the supervision of the Juvenile probation Services – the same service that was in charge of them before their incarceration. This is an additional reason for the failures of most of the rehabilitation programs for young released inmates. Moreover, it is well known that embarking on a criminal career at young age has an impact on felony crime in adulthood. We know that Israel’s crime bosses started out in detention as juveniles. Hence, not rehabilitating these youngsters has 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.
To solve this problem, the Israeli Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority developed in 1999 an innovative integrative systemic treatment program for the rehabilitation of young released inmates in the community. The program started operating in October 1999.
This program was designed to fulfil several objectives: Help young released prisoners to reintegrate into the normative society, through emotional, social and occupational rehabilitation; Prevent their further involvement in criminal activities; Develop systemic treatment that enables an integrative co-ordination between the different agencies treating the youngsters and ensuring continuity of treatment by using an overall systemic approach on the individual, group, family and community levels.
The young inmates join the project on a voluntary basis – this is the Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority policy for all its programs, a policy based on the belief that there is no chance for a successful rehabilitation unless the released inmate chooses to rehabilitate. Each young inmate signs an individual treatment contract defining their obligations in the project and the project’s commitment to them. This personal program is set to suit the individual needs of each participant, and offers intervention on four levels: individual, group, family, community.
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.
Preparation stage:
This stage starts 6 months before the release from prison. The program uses the treatment that the youngsters receive in prison as a springboard for enlisting them and preparing them for release. The project team meets with the prison director and the prison social workers and educators. They gather all the necessary information for treating each boy. The team also meets each boy, present the principles of the program to him. The team gives a course of preparation for the release from prison, presenting the rehabilitation options for young people and reinforcing the contact with them, their families and the prison therapist.
Post release stage:
After the release from prison starts the main part of the program, which continues during a period of approximately 2 years. The four (4) areas of intervention during this stage are individual, group, family and community.
Individual level
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 of completing his scholar education and the possibilities reintegration in sport and leisure classes and social activities. The boys can acquire a profession and employment. Employment being a central part of this program – central as in all the Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority’s programs. In order to integrate the young people in employment in a way that is sensitive to their needs and abilities, friendly employers are found to employ these boys and give them special attention. By “Friendly” employers I mean employers that are aware of the boys past and willing to employ him among his other employees. He receives training and is in personal contact with the project operator. In places where “peer-mentors” have been trained the youths will join a personal mentoring program. “Peer-mentors” are successfully rehabilitated released inmates who have been trained to mentor newly released inmates, and for this program especially trained to mentor youngsters.
Group level
On the group level the young people 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 opened to help them progress. Workshops such as survival, challenge sports, etc.
Family level
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 the boy’s return and to help them cope with the difficulties involved in their return and reintegration in the family. For young people who are not able to return to their families, the project affords them an alternative framework in a residential facility or foster home. The team, in co-operation with community youth workers, will provide guidance for these frameworks.
Community level
On the Community level the trend is to integrate the boys in normative social frameworks such as youth clubs and community centers. The team is in contact with educational and therapeutic bodies (such as youth advancement officers) in the boy’s communities, involve them in the treatment program, and enlist 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 transferred to the care of community welfare workers.
In Israel at present there are about 6,000 inmates of which only 120 young prisoners – almost entirely boys, the number of girls’ involvement is infinitesimal. Of these, each year about 80 prisoners aged 18 or less are released (the other are released from prison as adult inmates, aged over 18, and are not included in this project).
Most of these youngsters have been through all the social therapeutic system in Israel. The Israeli Judges tend to avoid sending young people, aged under 18, to prison as much as possible. The prison being the last resort for those youngsters that the normal services for young delinquents did not manage to reach out. These young people need a different approach. They need a program that will find the ways to reach them out – for example through survival workshops – after which they will be able to relate to their social worker and other professionals. The social workers that treat these youngsters must be accessible at any time.
We can conclude that up to date the adult society has not found sufficient legal solutions for the youngsters’ problems. The objective of this program is to disclose these problems and find the legal, administrative and budgetary solutions. There is a need to develop unconventional ways of approaching these youngsters and bringing them to treatment.