Treatment Programs in Prison
what are some of the major challenges today in providing effective treatment programs in prison?
Treatment Programs in Prison
Treatment for substance abuse in prisons has become so profound since the number of prisoners keeps increasing by the day. Most of these cases are substance abuse patients who are highly dependent on cocaine, opioids, and marijuana. Despite the effort of the government trying to facilitate treatment to prison inmates, there have been some critical limiting factors that hinder an effective treatment program. Some of these factors are such as budgetary constraints, lack of enough counselors and participants to volunteer, lack of enough space, and frequent movement of inmates, among others.
The budgetary constraint is the first challenge in providing effective treatment. People in charge of the treatment program in prisons come up with a budget (Abuse & Inmates, n.d.) It could be too high because of the number of inmates who require the treatment. Money needed to facilitate the program may not be enough to cater to everyone hence hindering the plan from taking off effectively. Lack of enough counselors is the second challenge. If counselors meant to counsel the inmates who are not available or enough, the program would not run smoothly.
The third challenge is the lack of voluntary participants. For the program to be efficient, enough volunteers who come to help the inmates with their medication, cleanliness, and everything else that they require should be available. The fourth challenge is the lack of enough space to run the program. There should be enough room or area that enables all inmates to be able to attend a session. Enough space also helps the counselors to be able to identify those inmates that are either not interested in the program or have difficulties in going through the treatment.
The fifth challenge is the frequent movements of the inmates. In some prisons, inmates keep shifting from one location to another due to reasons such as the need for proper mental healthcare, prisons being full, some inmates being violent if the incarceration period is over, among other reasons (Franke, Vogel, Eher & Dudeck, 2019). It’s hard for these inmates to flow well with the program because of these interruptions. That also destabilizes the whole treatment program. The sixth challenge is trauma and hopelessness among the inmates. The harsh conditions of prison might traumatize and bring despair to an inmate. It can make them not to concentrate on the program.
The seventh challenge concerns the gender differences. Men and women have different needs. The treatment programs should focus on each gender and its needs and not providing the treatment program in general (Smith, Muelle & Labrecque, 2018). The male should have male counselors who can relate well with their issues, and on the other hand, females should also have female counselors and volunteers. The last challenge is the identity and culture of the inmates. There are those people who don’t have a character and feel the need to join the program, while there are others who feel like they belong to the drug culture gang. These types of people don’t see the necessity of entering a treatment program.
In conclusion, most of these cases are substance abuse patients who are highly dependent on cocaine, opioids, and marijuana. There should be enough room or space that enables all inmates to be able to attend a session. The treatment programs should focus on each gender and its needs and not providing the treatment program in general. The male should have male counselors who can relate well with their issues, and on the other hand, females should also have female counselors and volunteers. The inmates that belong to the drug culture gang don’t see the need to join the prison treatment program.
References
Abuse, S., & Inmates, O. 9 Treatment Issues Specific to Prisons.
Franke, I., Vogel, T., Eher, R., & Dudeck, M. (2019). Prison mental healthcare: recent developments and future challenges. Current opinion in psychiatry, 32(4), 342-347.
Smith, P., Mueller, L. M., & Labrecque, R. M. (2018). Employment and Vocation Programs in Prison. The Oxford Handbook of Prisons and Imprisonment, 454.
