This result, as reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer, is not a new phenomena, and as long as rehabilitation programs continued to be designed and managed by individuals, regardless of their intent or professionalism, who are not reformed criminals with graduate education, spiritual grounding, and organizational training, (see the Lampstand program model and the reference to deep knowledge leadership) failure rather than success will continue to be the benchmark.
The American criminal world has become too complex and resonates so much more deeply within the interiority of criminals than it ever has in the past, that attempting to pull people out of it without having deep experiential knowledge, as well as standing, within it, does not appear to be possible; which is why approximately 70% of prisoners currently being released from prisons nationally, are returning to prison.
Though we do not know the specific reasons this program is failing—others of similar structure in the area are doing better—the general reasons that traditional rehabilitation programs fail are obvious to most criminals, and often result from the narrative in which the old adage of “adding insult to injury” plays a central role.
An excerpt.
“Hamilton County's intensive probation program is so ineffective that the convicts in it are more likely to commit crimes than others convicted of similar crimes who never receive supervision, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
"That poor showing comes despite the fact the county gets the most state money of any county in the state and spends more per probationer than other urban counties.
"The Hamilton County Program's success rate of 29 percent is the worst in the state, according to the prisons department.
"Prison officials threaten to yank the $1.7 million they give the Hamilton County Common Pleas Court for the program which is designed to keep people out of prison.
"If Hamilton County, as with all other counties, doesn't reach a certain level of quality, DRC can no longer fund their ineffective programs," said Linda Janes, deputy director of the prisons' Division of Parole and Community Services. "We have to make sure, as good stewards of tax dollars, that the money is well spent and we obviously cannot continue to put money into programs that do not have any effect - or worse yet, cause more people to wind up in prison."
Lampstand Foundation website, http://www.lampstandfoundation.org/
"The sinner is at the very heart of Christianity. Nobody is so competent as the sinner in matters of Christianity. Nobody, except the saint." Charles Peguy (1873-1914)
About
- David H. Lukenbill
- I am a California native, married, we have one daughter and live close to the American River with two cats and all the wild critters we can feed. I am a management consultant to nonprofit organizations and have an Associates of Arts degree in Administration of Justice from Sacramento City College, a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Behavior from the University of San Francisco and a Master of Public Administration degree, also from the University of San Francisco.