Working Behind Bars: Employed Prisoners' Perception of Professional Training and Employment in Prison
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.6000/1929-4409.2018.07.01Keywords:
Rehabilitation, employment programs, pains of imprisonment, employment in prisonAbstract
The research is aimed at examining the perceptions and attitudes of prisoners employed in enterprises in prison vis-à-vis employment and deriving conclusions regarding the impact of employment on the lives of prisoners in prison and its contribution to advancing their rehabilitation. Doing time is generally a painful experience, both physically and mentally, and often adversely influences prisoners’ life after release. Programs and activities have been developed in prisons in many countries, including Israel, to mitigate these impacts and at the same time reduce recidivism following release. A key such program is employment in enterprises within the prison walls, including training of prisoners in a variety of professions. In the framework of the present qualitative research 20 prisoners employed in enterprises in Israeli prisons were interviewed, and these aired their perceptions regarding employment and its effects. Three main themes and 18 sub-themes defining the attitudes of the prisoners to the issue emerged from the interviews. The first two themes are: employment provides benefits and alleviates the pains of imprisonment; and employment helps prisoners’ rehabilitation. The third theme emerging from the statements of an isolated number of prisoners is: employment is an act of exploitation on the part of the Prison Service and serves no useful purpose. The overall conclusion of the study is that employment in enterprises in prison is generally perceived by the prisoners as positive and contributory, in terms of both reducing the damage caused by imprisonment and raising the likelihood of the prisoner being rehabilitated through employment following his release.
References
Agnew, R. (1986). Work and delinquency among juveniles attending school. Journal of Crime & Justice, 9, 19-41. https://doi.org/10.1080/0735648X.1986.9721321 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0735648X.1986.9721321
Akers, R. L. (1998). Deviant behavior: A social learning approach. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Amir, M., Diamant, A., & Kranot, P. (2012). Employment for Released Prisoners. Jerusalem: The Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority (in Hebrew).
Amir, M., Horowitz, M., & Sagiv, B. (2005). Rehabilitation of the Released Prisoner in the Community. Jerusalem: The Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority (in Hebrew).
Anderson, D., & Schumacker, B. (1991). Release Characteristics and parole Success. Offender Rehabilitation, 17, 133 – 145. https://doi.org/10.1300/J076v17n01_10 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1300/J076v17n01_10
Aos, S., Miller, M., & Drake, E. (2006). Evidence-based public policy options to reduce future prison construction, criminal justice costs, and crime rates. Federal Sentencing Reporter, 19 (4), 275-290. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/fsr.2007.19.4.275
Arneklev, B.J., Grasmick, H.G., & Bursik, R.J. (1999). Evaluating the dimensionality. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 15(3), 307-331. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007528515341 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007528515341
Avdi, S., & Sudipto, R. (2012). A psychosocial measure of the factual autonomy and job satisfaction among prison employees. Criminal Justice Studies, 25(3), 251-264. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/1478601X.2012.705533
Ben Zvi, C., & Carmeli, T. (2013). Violence Imprisoned: Relationship Between the Density in Criminal Prisons in Israel and the Level of Physical Violence. Glimpse into Prison – Offences and Punishments in Israel, 15, 28-44 (in Hebrew).
Ben Zvi, C., & Volk, D. (2011). Back to Prison – Recidivism of Released Criminal Prisoners in 2004 in Israel. Glimpse into Prison –Offences and Punishments in Israel, 14, 10-28 (in Hebrew).
Bernard, H.R. (2010). Analyzing qualitative data: Systematic approach. London: Sage
Bialer, G., & Bar Sinai, N. (2003). Released Prisoners from Ma'asiyahu 1996-1997: Situation Report from Community Committees and Care. Glimpse into Prison – Offences and Punishments in Israel, 11, 42-57 (in Hebrew).
Bialer, G., & Peled, R. (2011). Supervision and Employment – Contribution of Supervision and Employment to the Rehabilitation of Released Prisoners in Israel. Glimpse into Prison – Offences and Punishments in Israel, 14, 113-131 (in Hebrew).
Bierens, H. J., & Carvalho, J. R. (2011). Job search, conditional treatment and recidivism: The employment services for ex-offenders program reconsidered. The BE Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 11(1), 1-38. https://doi.org/10.2202/1935-1682.2361 DOI: https://doi.org/10.2202/1935-1682.2361
Bond, F.W., & Flaxman, P.E. (2006). The ability of psychological flexibility and job control to predict learning, job performance, and mental health. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 26(2), 113-130. https://doi.org/10.1300/J075v26n01_05 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1300/J075v26n01_05
Bouffard, J. A., MacKenzie, D. L., & Hickman, L. J. (2000). Effectiveness of vocational education and employment programs for adult offenders: A methodology based analysis of the literature. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 31, 1-41. https://doi.org/10.1300/J076v31n01_01 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1300/J076v31n01_01
Clemmer, D. (1958). The Prison Community. New York (NY), Holt Rinehart and Winston.
Cloward, R.A., & Ohlin, L.E. (1960). Delinquency and opportunity. New York: The Free Press.
Cornish, D.B., & Clarke, R.W. (Eds.). (2014). The reasoning criminal: Rational choice perspectives on offending. New Brunswick: Springer.
Crewe, B. (2011). Depth, weight, tightness: Revisiting the pains of imprisonment. Punishment and Society, 13(5), 509–529. https://doi.org/10.1177/1462474511422172 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1462474511422172
Cullen, F. T., & Travis, L. F. (1984). Work as an avenue of prison reform. New England Journal on Civil and Criminal Confinement, 10, 45–64.
Davidsko, E., & Volk, D. (2011). Prisoner Employment as a Rehabili-tation Tool. Ramla: Prison Service Research Unit (in Hebrew).
DeLisi, M., & Vaughn, M. (2008). The Gottfredson–Hirschi critiques revisited reconciling self-control theory, criminal careers, and career criminals. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 52(5). 520-537. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X07308553 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X07308553
DeVeaux, M. (2013). The trauma of the incarceration experience. Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, 48(1), 257-277.
Duwe, G. (2015). The Benefits of Keeping Idle Hands Busy An Outcome Evaluation of a Prisoner Reentry Employment Program. Crime & Delinquency, 61(4), 559-586. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128711421653 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128711421653
Efodi, R. (2014). Prisoner Parole by the Parole Committee: Rehabilitation, Punishment and Supervision Aspects. Doctoral Thesis, Jerusalem, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (in Hebrew).
Efodi, R., & Dahan, A. (2015). The Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority: Summary Report for 2013-2014. Jerusalem: The Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority (in Hebrew).
Fabrice, G. (2010). Working in prison: Time as experienced by inmate workers. Revue Francaise de Sociologie, supplement. English selection, 51, 41-68. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3917/rfs.515.0041
Farrington, D.P. (1995). The development of offending and antisocial behavior from childhood: Key findings from the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 36(6), 929-964. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1995.tb01342.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1995.tb01342.x
Felson, M. (2013). Routine activity approach, in R. Wortley & L. Mazero (Eds.). Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis ( pp. 70-77) . New York: Routledge.
Fletcher, D. R. (2011). The development of working prisons: Transforming inmates from the lumpen proletariat to the contingent workplace? British Journal of Community Justice, 9, 111-124.
Freeman, R. B. (1996). Why do so many young American men commit crimes and what might we do about it? Journal of Economic Perspectives, 10, 25-42. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.10.1.25 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.10.1.25
Fried, N., Timor, A., Ronal, N., & Borochovsky, I. (2010). The Vipassana Program: Evaluation as a Rehabilitation-Implementation Model in Israeli Prisons. Glimpse into Prison – Offences and Punishments in Israel – Offences and Punishments in Israel, 13, 65-76 (in Hebrew).
Freund, M. (1991). Economic Deprivation and Criminality in Israel. Criminal Proceedings, B, 287-308 (in Hebrew).
Gershuny, J. (2003). Changing times: Work and leisure in postindustrial society. New York: Oxford University Press.
Gillis, C.A., & Nafekh, M. (2005). The impact of community-based employment on offender reintegration. Forum on Corrections Research, 16(2), 10-14.
Godderis, R. (2006). Dining in: The symbolic power of food in prison. The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 45(3), 55-267. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2311.2006.00420.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2311.2006.00420.x
Goffman, E. (1961). Asylums: Essays on the social situation of mental patients and other inmates. New York (NY), Anchor Books.
Goldberg, A. (2013). Addiction, Adaptation to Imprisonment and Awareness Among Prisoners in Israel, Glilot: Research Centre, National Security College (in Hebrew).
Gottfredson, M. A., & Hirschi, T. (1990). A general theory of crime. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781503621794
Guest, G., Bunce, A., & Johnson, L. (2006). How many interviews are enough? An experiment with data saturation and variability. Field Methods, 18(1), 59-82. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822X05279903 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822X05279903
Haney, C. (2001). The psychological impact of incarceration: Indications of post-prison adjustment. Santa Cruz: University of California.
Hirschi, T. (1969). Causes of Delinquency. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Hunter, G., & Boyce, I. (2009). Preparing for employment: Prisoners' experience of participating in a prison training program. The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, 48, 117-131. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2311.2008.00551.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2311.2008.00551.x
Hurry, J., Brazier, L., Parker, M., & Wilson, A. (2006). Rapid Evidence Assessment of Interventions that Promote. London: UCL, Department for Education and Skills.
Kashi, N., Avraham, A., & Oscar, S. (2006). Employment of Prisoners in the Prison Service. Glimpse into Prison – Offences and Punishments in Israel, 10, 25-29 (in Hebrew).
Kashi, N., Kaplansky, A., & Liran, N. (2015). Prison Service Industries: Rehabilitative Social Industry in the Present and with a View to the Future. Glimpse into Prison – Offences and Punishments in Israel, 17, 166-175 (in Hebrew).
Lattimore, P., Witte, A., & Baker, J. (1990). Experimental assessment of the effect of vocational training on youthful property offenders. Evaluation Review, 14, 133-155. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193841X9001400201 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0193841X9001400201
Laub, J., & Sampson, R. (2001). Understanding Desistance from Crime. In M., Tonry & N., Morris (Eds.). Crime and Justice (pp. 1-70). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.1086/652208 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/652208
Lewis, W. D. (2009). From Newgate to Dannemora: The rise of the penitentiary in New York. Cornell University Press.
Lochner, L. (2006). Education, Work, and Crime: A Human Capital Approach. International Economic Review, 45(3), 811-843. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0020-6598.2004.00288.x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0020-6598.2004.00288.x
Maguire, K. E., Flanagan, T. G., & Thornberry, T. P. (1988). Prison labor and recidivism. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 4, 3-18. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01066881 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01066881
Milman-Sivan, M. (2013). Forbidden Work: Between the Private and the Public, a Decade of Supreme Court. Law Reviews, 36, 317-362 (in Hebrew).
Padfield, N. (2002). Beyond the tariff: Human rights and the release of life sentence prisoners. Cullompton: Willan.
Padfield, N. (2009). The future of parole. Archbold News 9 (November), 6-9.
Peled Laskov, R., & Bialer, G. (2013). Life after lock: Contribution of friendly employers and supervision to rehabilitation of freed prisoners. International Journal of Arts and Sciences, 5, 105-125.
Pierson, A., Price, K., & Coleman, S. (2014).Prison Labor. Politics, Bureaucracy, and Justice, 4 (1), 12- 23.
Rhodes, J. (2008). Ex-offenders, social ties and the routes into employment. Internet Journal of Criminology, 1. Retrieved from: www.internetjournalofcriminology.com
Richmond, K. M. (2014). Why work while incarcerated? Inmate perceptions on prison industries employment. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 53, 231-252. https://doi.org/10.1080/10509674.2014.902005 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10509674.2014.902005
Ritchie, J., & Lewis, J. (2003). Qualitative research practice: A guide for social science students and researchers. London: Sage
Sampson, J. R., & Laub, J. H. (1993). Crime in the making: Pathways and Turning points through life. Boston: Harvard University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128793039003010
Seiter, R. P., & Kadela, K. R. (2003). Prisoner reentry: What works, what doesn't, and what is promising. Crime and Delinquency, 49, 360-388. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128703049003002 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128703049003002
Shkedi, A. (2003). Words Attempting to Touch – Qualitative Research: Theory and Practice. Tel Aviv: Ramot (in Hebrew).
Shoham, A., Yehoshua, S., Efodi, R., & Diamant, A. (2011). Between the Supervisors and the Supervised – Electronic Supervision Enterprise Among Released Prisoners in the Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority. Glimpse into Prison –Offences and Punishments in Israel, 14, 86-112 (in Hebrew).
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research:Grounded theory procedures and techniques. London: Sage
Stringer, A., Kennedy, L., Durrington, D. (1999). Prison and debt: The findings of the Prison and Debt Project. West End Old: The Service.
Sykes, G. (1970). The Pains of Imprisonment. In N. Johnston, L. Savitz and M.E. Wolfgang (Eds.), The Sociology of Punishment and Correction. NY: Wiley
Sykes, G. (1958). The society of captives. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Timor, A. (2011). Converting Prisons in Israel to Closed Rehabilitative Institutions. Glimpse into Prison – Offences and Punishments in Israel, 14, 72-86 (in Hebrew).
Timor, A. (2014). Sitting and Waiting: Factors Delaying Prisoner Parole. Glimpse into Prison –Offences and Punishments in Israel, 16, 26-46 (in Hebrew).
Timor, A., & Shoham, A. (2014). Attitudes Towards the Return of Released Prisoners to the Community. Israeli Criminology, 3, 81-118 (in Hebrew).
Toch, H. (1992). Mosaic of despair: Human breakdowns in prison. Washington: American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10136-000 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/10136-000
Travis, J., & Visher, C. (2005). Prisoner Reentry and Crime in America. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813580 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813580
Tripodi, S.J., Kim, J.S., & Bender, K. (2010). Is employment associated with reduced recidivism? The complex relationship between employment and crime. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 54(5), 706-720. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X09342980 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X09342980
Uggen, C., & Wakefield, S. (2008). What have we learned from longitudinal studies of work and crime?. In The long view of crime: A synthesis of longitudinal research (pp. 191-219). Springer New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-71165-2_6 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-71165-2_6
Vaki, I., Kamini, R., & Rabin, I. (2014). The Prison Sentence – Aims, Trends and Rules. The State Prosecutor, 53(1), 1-41 (in Hebrew).
Verbruggen, J., Blokland, A. A., & Van Der Geest, V. R. (2012). Effects of employment and unemployment on serious offending in a high-risk sample of men and women from ages 18 to 32 in the Netherlands. British journal of Criminology, 52(5), 845-869. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azs023 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azs023
Visher, C.A., Winterfield, L., & Coggeshall, M. B. (2005). Ex-offender employment programs and recidivism: A meta-analysis.Journal of Experimental Criminology, 1, 295-315. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-005-8127-x DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11292-005-8127-x
Ward, T., & Maruna, S. (2007). Rehabilitation. New York: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203962176
Wilkinson, R., & Pickett, K. (2010). The Sprit Level: Why equality is better for everyone. London: Penguin Books.
Wilson, D.B., Gallagher, C.A., & MacKenzie, D.L. (2000). A meta-Analysis of correction based education, vocation, and work programs for adult offenders. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 37, 347-366. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022427800037004001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022427800037004001
Wooldredge, J. (1998). Inmate lifestyles and opportunities for victimization. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 35, 480-502. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022427898035004006 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022427898035004006
Zamble, E., & Porporino, F.J. (2013). Coping behavior and adaptation in prison inmates. New York: Springer.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2018 International Journal of Criminology and Sociology
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Policy for Journals/Articles with Open Access
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post links to their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work
Policy for Journals / Manuscript with Paid Access
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Publisher retain copyright .
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post links to their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work .
