Two of the women indicated that recidivism that is experienced also relate to how the
rehabilitation for maximum offenders is managed. One of the women Anita indicates that in her experience there is a high number of offenders who come back to the correctional centre after release compared to those who do not come back. She attributes this to lack of commitment by DCS in motivating and encouraging women maximum offenders to study. Anita also feels that people who do not come back to prison are usually the ones who start their rehabilitation process quite early. Studying while incarcerated is seen as the most important aspect as it provides hope for finding work and being able to support one’s family when released. People who are
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build from the correctional system and it’s believed to also help them to survive outside. From her experience Anita feels that most of the people released by the parole board from the
correctional centre would still be people that have been engaging in destructive behaviours and possibly not rehabilitated when they go out of the correctional centre:
….So they are saying go and reoffend if they say no you can’t study here you can’t do this you can’t have this they are saying go and do it again and come back here….that the system plays a part in recidivism in people reoffending…People that do come back that do often come back to prison I would say 90% so its astronomically a huge number of people or vast majority of people that are coming to prison more than those who are not coming back to prison because those who are not coming to prison they are very less….But when you check people that didn’t not come back to prison there are those who get who did get rehabilitation at an early stage they studied they went outside they started to work because they know that they have got families to support you know, they’ve got future they’ve got purpose….People that are studying those who are really rehabilitated are very less than people that are not rehabilitated …….most of the people that go home when I look at them I don’t see them being rehabilitated you find the person still doing wrong things….I'm going home tomorrow and you look at the person “really now….as you are?You are given a date to say that the parole board has really given you a date to say that you are going home?” (Anita)
Even though women who are illiterate are offered skills development courses, Aruna feels that the biggest challenge in terms of rehabilitation is reintegration into society. Her view is that the lack of integration into society contributes to recidivism. There is a suggestion from her that the rehabilitation programmes in the correctional centre should follow through at a higher level in order to assist and guide the inmates with using the skills outside the correctional centre. She suggests that this should be possibly done through linking up with NGOs that encourage women to utilise such skills when back in society:
so in terms of here when I talk about courses some most of these ladies are illiterate so yes there are skills courses that are available there are lots of skills from the beading to the…but the problem …….there is no reintegration into society that is why people reoffend… people need to…. be shown the how to if someone does a beading course there is no higher level there is no channel and the thing is DCS is not done with an inmate you not done with an offender you not done with them until it does not mean if people leave this correctional
facility and go on parole DCS is done with them no….I’m sure there’s other organisations out there that can help the person to say that says that okay fine you found that you love and enjoy this and this is how you can earn a living with this and sort of guide the person there is no reintegration at all you know (Aruna)
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The attendance of courses for getting certificates towards the release time is believed to be one of the contributing factors to recidivism. This is seen as a challenge because it is believed to be linked to the practice of women classified as maximum security offenders generally not
beginning their rehabilitation early enough in their sentences. As a result, they spend the first few years of their sentence engaging in destructive behaviours with no focus on rehabilitation. They are only seen to engage in rehabilitation when they are closer to release, a practice that is deemed to be quite hurried, with the objective of collecting certificates for the parole board without real change in terms of the behaviour of the offender, as reflected in the excerpt below:
…and now when you are about to go you are just doing it when they say come and do it you also want to do it because now it’s just a way of going home you understand like it just gives you a leeway of going home you find that you are not really rehabilitated because you are doing it eh for the mere fact that you want to go home…not that you are doing it because you want it is not for yourself anymore it’s not something that you are doing it because you want to empower yourself…you are doing it for the sake for the sake of uh going…it’s like a passport…. To go the parole board and go home that’s it and then you find that when you go outside it causes things like……recidivism or reoffending….because you were not
rehabilitated in the first place when you go outside you are not equipped, you are not educated you are not..you are not empowered… (Anita)