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Impact of Culture on the Effectiveness of Offering Prisoners Job Training Programs

            “You are set free” for a prisoner goes beyond leaving the prison walls. It also includes the reception the incarcerated individual will receive from the outside world and how well they will interact with society (Fazel et al., 2016). Culture plays a key role in shaping societal views and, therefore, a major player in life after jail. This paper seeks to evaluate the impact of culture on the effectiveness of offering job training programs for people leaving incarceration.

            Prison rehabilitation: the sociological, physiological, and psychological effects of animal-assisted interventions article written by Daisy Corleto focuses on the benefits that animal-assisted therapy can accord prisoners. Such benefits range from acquiring new skills to recidivism reduction. This article came at such a time when a debate has been ongoing on the appropriateness of prisons facilitating rehabilitation programs for the inmates. Generally, rehabilitation is important to offer the incarcerated individual true transformation and is also beneficial to society. For the prisoners, rehabilitation helps them acquire fresh skills, deal with their mental issues, and manage violence and anger (Fazel et al., 2016). This, in turn, enables them to learn coping mechanisms to handle their sentences, improve their prison behavior, and re-enter the societies and make successful community engagements on release. Consequently, recidivism rates are reduced considerably as released prisoners are well equipped with social interaction methods that will enable them to fit right into the community. With major rehabilitation types including transitional, therapy/counseling, educational and work programs, animal-assisted interventions rely on activities which benefit the animals, prisoners as well as the society. Its success is pegged on the complex, albeit unique relationship between animals and humans (Corleto, 2018).

            According to Newton et al. (2016), mental, social, and physical wellness are key factors in the effective reception of training for incarcerated persons. For an individual to develop interest and willpower to successfully undertake job training while in jail, they must be convinced that it will benefit their life thereafter. This life after incarceration, on the other hand, is pegged on the societal moral and ethical standards that determine the level of acceptance for a released prisoner. Some societies are more receptive when one is released on good behavior while others view one from negative light so long as they have been to jail. These cultural orientations can facilitate or deter the capacity of job training programs to equip incarcerated criminals with skills they can use after their term. For instance, if society abhors prisoners, then employers may turn down applications from released individuals regardless of their qualifications and increase recidivism rates (Fazel et al., 2016).

            In conclusion, inmate rehabilitation is perceived as a lenient and unnecessary method of dealing with prisoners. However, when it comes to disadvantaged individuals and mental health cases, the programs are beneficial. In most cases, people land in jail due to the life disadvantages that cause them stress and inappropriate actions. For instance, poverty can trigger and influence multiple wrongdoings in a person’s lifetime. Culture, on the other hand, determines the extent to which a prisoner desires to change and get out of jail. Cultural integration determines the individual’s psychological, social and physiological strengths and their willingness to return to society after their release. Consequently, the culture is highly responsible for the effectiveness of job training programs on prisoners.