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TEDx Talks
Title: The surprising reason our correctional system doesn't work | Brandon W. Mathews | TEDxMileHigh
Published: 2017-09-13
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmvrBGmu9k4
and here to talk to you about force I have to admit absolutely positively one hundred percent I favor a divorce what else is there to do when the marriage is dysfunctional ineffective creating poor outcomes for everyone involved I say nothing get it over with in divorce already now the type of divorce are talking about is probably a bit different than what you're thinking what I'm referring
to is the divorce within our correctional in prison system over the last twelve years I've worked in various parts of the criminal justice world but most of that focused on corrections the correctional system includes the agencies that oversee in areas prisons halfway houses and community supervision programs now there are generally two types of people who get into corrections work those who want to enforce rules and
laws and those who want help with rehabilitation I started my career as a correctional officer but the first group of people I made sure inmates were following the rules and not doing anything dangerous while they were in prison eventually I moved in the crash investigations why was looking deeper it's a rule of law violations for things like assaults and by staff for things like excessive use
of force but I grew frustrated because no matter what I did never really felt like things were getting better so I moved into community corrections the second group of people unlike prison community corrections tends to be more focused on rehabilitating offenders but even there it didn't feel like what I was doing was changing behavior making a lasting positive impact I was fed up so about six
years ago Poseidon's gonna figure out why or system wasn't working started researching but instead of focusing on things like how to prevent crime I took a look at how we manage corrections from the system's per I studied the cultures leadership styles in social identities of corrections and how those within the system for you the roles and responsibilities and then it became clear the underlying reason our
system doesn't work today is because the practice is a punishment our two interconnected with our goal of rehabilitation now I suspect that most of you haven't been to prison before so let me explain a bit how it works after receiving a sentence by the court you enter the crux insist and we spent a lot of time interviewing and assessing you when you get there to determine
whether you go to a high or low security prison and that is key inmates are signed to prisons based upon how much we anticipate the going to misbehave while they're there and what that means unfortunately is that part assigned to prisons based upon their specific needs for rehabilitation and treatment so if it's addiction I got you in trouble in the first place cross your fingers and
hope that your prison has addictions counseling and therapy because it might not and then you're stuck there at this prison for however long without access to the right treatment this points to a fundamental problem with our present philosophy in the United States punishment is the foundation of your prison experience and the priority throughout rehabilitation is an afterthought it is only lightly sprinkled like seasoning on a
stake on top of a system core purpose is to punish and that is why I'm proposing a divorce a divorce that would once and for all separate the practices of punishment from rehabilitation creating two separate tracks one for those requiring retribution and one for those requiring recovery before they reenter society you may have heard of the revolving door the justice system when people talk about it
what they're referring to is the ninety five percent of offenders who will be released from prison after serving their sentences and the sixty seven percent who will return back to prison for new crime within three years a cycle known as recidivism what if I told you that sixty seven percent of your investments would go belly up within three years or that sixty seven percent of your
medical procedures will need to be redone within three years you probably find a new financial adviser a doctor because there's no way you would put up with these results but when it comes to the correctional system we do which is why we need a divorced to track correctional system one for punishment and one for rehabilitation let's talk about track one punishment there's a population of offenders
in this world who are high risk who demonstrate patterns of criminal behavior who engage in serious misconduct and who have histories of violence and a system of punishment incapacitation is wholly appropriate that doesn't mean just locking them up and throw away the key for these violent and dangerous offenders it is appropriate to incarcerate with access to just basic programs in a strict prison environment let's talk
about our penal philosophy in the United States our system of punishment can be traced back to the penal philosophy of the mid seventeen hundreds BC in the code of Hammurabi during his reign he enforced his now infamous two hundred eighty two co laws a couple of which you might be familiar with if a man put out the eye of another man his I shall be put
out how about if a man knock out the teeth of his equal his teeth shall be knocked out somewhat like an eye for an eye tooth for tooth that sort of later in the Old Testament at its core this is a very retributive ideal that shape the way corrections would later be established in the United States let's fast forward to pre American revolution times were there
we see recognitions legacy ingrained in the fabric of the United States through things like public whippings humiliations mutilations and in some instances even castration back then crime was viewed as a sin against god in response to those violations were often swift and brutal when we get to the early nineteenth century the system shifted to reduce physical violence while maintaining a strict punishment structure the first penitentiaries
in the U. S. were based upon the religious idea that solitary confinement for silence in hard labor as well as penitence reform offenders and make them change their behavior it wasn't even until the eighteen seventies the rehabilitation entered our prisons at that time the correctional system look to the medical community and how they were using individualized treatment as a means to cure patients if we treat
patients on a one to one basis to cure illness what could we do something with criminals and cure their criminality so prisons began using rehabilitative techniques but psychotherapy and counseling treating criminal behavior like a sickness which led to the establishment of the nation's first reformatory you know Myra New York and that is why some of you might be saying to yourselves exactly we do provide rehabilitation
in the system now why do we need to separate tracks to that I call shenanigans because remember our correctional systems were born of punishment forged through punishment and remain fundamentally rooted in ideals that are directly connected to punishment and as such rehabilitation has never truly been attempted separate and apart from punishment how is it we expect any rehabilitative efforts to be successful when punishment was and
still lose the core of the system look it would be like taking a taco and Jamie did in between a couple pieces of bread and then calling it a sandwich technically that's the elements of the sandwich but at its core it's still delicious taco I came face to face with this tension a few years ago all toward a treatment program in a local prison the program
had uniform correctional staff members to maintain security in control but also clinical specialist to guide to facilitate rehabilitation behavior change as I was walking around I came across a couple of inmates engage in a non violent disagreement what a goal of this program was to teach inmates how to better manage this type of conflict so they could have the skills before they exited the facility I
want to the clinician approach them and walked into this alternative way to have this disagreement they tried it the disagreement was fixed everyone went on about their day I just seen behavior change practice in action but then I noticed there was a uniform correctional staff member higher ranking watching being the organizational scientists I had to ask her what she thought she said these inmates are given
too much leeway they are not held accountable enough she told me they are inmates not patients translation they're not getting enough punishment I wonder how would this disagreement between these two inmates have been handled by this staff member had that clinician not gotten there first and that again is why we need a divorced to track correctional system one track for punishment and one for rehabilitation I've
mentioned a punishment so let's talk about track to rehabilitation fifty three percent of offenders are considered non violent incarcerated for things like theft drug possession and property crimes this group would follow the rehabilitation track it is important understand that sentencing would mark the end of punishment and the decisions made after the point of sentencing would be directly and narrowly focused on these individuals re entering our
communities prepared excess in our current correctional system decisions about entry into community programs or for release from prison to Perot or often shaded by how much time has been served time served use punishment at its roots in this new structure criteria would be based not on how much punishment has been doled out but whether the appropriate treatment has been delivered and drivers of criminal behavior like
addiction reduced this rehabilitation track would consist of treatment based facilities were deep therapeutic approaches can be used without the contamination of retribution and staffed by people specifically focused on treatment social work and behavioral health specialists whose attitudes skills and beliefs are lined with things like behavior change and who are committed tomorrow in the appropriate conduct to help offenders reenter our communities although this is a radical
paradigm shift in the U. S. this type of rehabilitation is happening we just have to look to Norway and their philosophical approach as an example now I understand the valid criticisms of compared the US to Norway we differ in size demographics and history so let's focus on their prison philosophy Norway's correctional philosophy specifically focused on rehabilitation with the end goal that all inmates will reenter society
have been reduced their risk to re offend and has allowed them to achieve an astonishingly low twenty percent recidivism rate compared to our the seven former prison governor in Norway are Nelson similar to a word here in the U. S. said if we have created a holiday camp here for criminals so what we should reduce the risk of re offending because if we don't what is
the purpose of punishment except for leaning toward the primitive side of humanity he's right now this type of change certainly what happened overnight and we're not going to be the next Norway tomorrow but a divorce to track correctional system punishment and rehabilitation is a step in the right direction ultimately such a radical change and our correctional system will be difficult but not impossible it begins by
questioning or beliefs about what corrections it's supposed to be by initiating conversations in our communities with like minded people but also with skeptics as well as civic and community leaders and those responsible for shaping and design in our correctional systems structural change requires collective action so I call on you to join me in envisioning a radically different correctional system work each tracks purpose is specific an
independent of the other were practitioners can flourish because they are aligned track that they choose to work in and were you as members of the community have your expectations Matt when it comes to punishment and rehabilitation and we're finally in this divorced to track correctional system we will have drastically slowed the ever revolving door and made our communities safer for all of us thank you
