Discuss the concept of reintegration.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will vary. A very small percentage of all convicted offenders have committed crimes that warrant life imprisonment or capital punishment. Most, at some point, will return to the community. Consequently, according to one group of experts, the task of the corrections system includes building or rebuilding solid ties between the offender and the community, integrating or reintegrating the offender into community life-restoring family ties, obtaining employment and an education, securing in the larger sense a place for the offender in the routine functioning of society. Considering that some studies have shown higher recidivism rates for offenders who are subjected to prison culture, a frequent justification of community-based corrections is that they help to reintegrate the offender into society.Reintegration has a strong theoretical basis in rehabilitative theories of punishment. An offender is generally considered to be "rehabilitated" when he or she no longer represents a threat to other members of the community and therefore is believed to be fit to live in that community. Reintegration is a process through which criminal justice officials such as probation and parole officers provide the offender with incentives to follow the rules of society. These incentives can be positive, such as enrolling the offender in a drug treatment program. They can also be negative-in particular, the threat of a return to prison or jail for failure to comply. In all instances, criminal justice professionals must carefully balance the needs of the individual offender against the rights of law-abiding members of the community.