Billy Bragging it

I am sitting in bed having just returned from rushing Franklin street. Not wanting to turn politics into a kind of sport, I was never much for chanting slogans but as I stood in the center of a mob of young people filling the intersection singing the star spangled banner and chanting "yes we did" I have never been so proud of my country. As we all hugged and danced and cheered I felt overwhelmed with the power of young energy and hope.
In no state did we matter as much as in North Carolina. Obama won by only .4% which comes out to a 13,000 people difference (that is thousands less than the population of my school!). The only age group that voted more for Obama than McCain was the 18 to 29 year olds. I can proudly say that I voted and my vote mattered.
I have no illusions that Obama is going to correct every problem that our nation faces. That he will be able to right the wrongs that have happened within our boarders and around the world. Young people have finally showed that we have a very real effect on elections and this means we will have more of a voice on issues. We must use this power to hold our new president accountable. He will succeed in meeting some of our expectations and fail at meeting others but we cannot be disheartened. We must continue with passion to make sure that the next four years are all they can be.
I suppose this relates to rehabilitation because it is just one of the many issues that we must hold our new president, Barack Obama, accountable for making positive changes to. But really what this post is about isn't my blog issue, it is about my complete happiness to be an American. I have always loved the country I live in, it is my home, and the home of those I love, but tonight I could finally be proud of something beyond intangible ideals.

Just for the heck of it

Here are some of my favorite movie criminals, tell me some of yours!












Raising Arizona:
Good ol' stealing babies out of love.


Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid:
"If he'd just pay me what he's spending to make me stop robbing him, I'd stop robbing him"












Thelma & Louise:
I think the picture speaks for itself.

Clearing some things up

After reviewing some of my old comments I have gotten the feeling that I have not been completely clear.

Up until the post of violent juveniles, the rehabilitation programs I have talked about have been for non-violent crimes. I still believe that rehabilitation programs should be put in place for those incarcerated for violent crimes, but these programs should be different.

Rehabilitation programs will not take the place of a prison sentence. Most programs are done while the prisoner is in prison, some continue once they have been released, and there are a few that I have scanned over that are completely separate from prison and are based on community support. Those few programs would certainly only be reprimanded to those who have committed certain crimes. In my opinion, prison can have extremely negative effects on a person. If they were convicted of drug possession, for example, going to prison only exposes them to more criminals, more drug addicts, more bad influences.

I have also had many comments about rehabilitation programs not being appropriate because they will not be a deterrence to crime. In my opinion, knowing that you will be taking classes, working, and going to drug rehab while in prison is no less a deterrent than just simply going to prison. It also seems clear that since the US recidivism rate is as high as 63%, we can assume that our current punishment based system is not much of a deterrence - even those who have already been to prison are not deterred from returning. Even the most extreme forms of punishment, life in prison and the death penalty, have been debated as to whether they are effective deterrents to crime.

I hope that this has cleared things up a bit . . . or at least answered some of the comments I have received.

My Journey Through This Magical Land we Call the Blogosphere

When deciding what issue I wanted to blog about I realized I needed to feel passionate about it or I would never be able to really get into the project. I chose punishment vs. rehabilitation because I knew exactly how I felt on the issue. Now looking back, I fear that may have hindered my ability to remain unbiased. Although I tried to give unbiased information when it came to the links I provided and to show both opinions through the quotes I gave, it was always clear how I stood on the issue. I think it is important to know and say what you believe, but it should never polarize your readers. I hope this never occurred in my blog.
Although I entered the blogosphere with a clear idea of how I felt on the issue, as I became more informed on the topic and read more comments from my readers I began finding inconsistencies within my own opinion. I never stopped believing that rehabilitation should be the main purpose of the criminal justice system, but I did find myself stumped when asked about the effectiveness of rehabilitation for white collar crimes such as fraud. Issues were brought to my attention that I had not yet considered such as victim rights which seem to be pushed aside when you are dealing with an issue like rehabilitation for criminals. I found myself reading about crimes (such as the Austrian father who kidnapped and rapped his daughter for 24 years keeping her locked underneath their house) that seemed so unforgivable that my gut instinct was that they should rot in prison and not be given the chance to reform. Yet these feelings went against the basic premise of my argument for rehabilitation. I wanted to write that rehabilitation should be for most but not all, yet to say that seemed like trying to weasel my way out of holding a strong opinion and it also opened up a whole other can of worms about what qualifies you as someone who deserves rehabilitation. As I dug deeper into the issue, the harder it became to hold strong to my confident earlier opinion.
Another struggle I faced was balancing the information I gave in my blog while keeping it entertaining and interesting. Most evidence regarding rehabilitation is found in examples of successful programs, yet you can only do so many blogs that explain different programs before that gets old. To add some variety I included posts about celebrities, posts with quotes, and other somewhat off topic posts. Although I think this kept readers more interested, it limited the amount of on-point information they received on my issue.
Sadly, one of the hardest obstacle I came across was keeping to the deadlines of each blog post. I have always been a procrastinator and working last minute is when I work best. Because of this, the flexibility of the blog project became both a blessing and a burden. The assigned postings rarely came on time yet I do not feel this hindered my blogs ability to make its point.
Overall, my experience creating this blog was extremely positive. I have become very interested in the opinions of my readers and their comments have truly helped me better understand my own topic. Reading other blogs has allowed me to read views I would never have thought about. I also read views that although I disagree with I was able to further strengthen my own opinion by knowing them. Although my deeper knowledge of the issue of rehabilitation vs. punishment in the criminal justice system has also deepened my confusion around it, I feel that my overall understanding of its complexity has greatly increased.
It is not enough to have an opinion, you must also know why you hold it.

Superstars

As I have been exploring the blogosphere I have come across a few particularly interesting and well-established blogs that I thought I should let my readers know about.

1. Jumping the Fence is a blog dealing with the issue of illegal immigration in the United States. I am most impressed by the creative ways in which it makes its argument - with videos, pictures, facts, even fashion! It remains interesting and fun without loosing the information.

2. War on Drugs provides information about a wide range of topics that are linked to the War on Drugs in the United States. It will allow you to have an extremely well-rounded and comprehensive view on the issue.

3. What About Afghanistan? is a blog that really opened my eyes. I was completely in the dark about the whole situation even though it is such an important matter in the election and in the views of our presidential candidates concerning the Iraq War. If you are just as ignorant of the issue as I was I suggest you check this site out.

4. Plug-In 2 Energy 4 Tomorrow is clearly written by someone who feels strongly about his or her issue. It gives information that can really be helpful in everyday life to the readers and empowers readers to take control of their environmental impact.

Rehabilitation of Violent Juvenile Criminals

As I promised, during this blog I am going to talk about rehabilitation for violent criminals, in this case juvenile criminals.

The Violent Juvenile Offender (JVO) program was begun in 1980 by the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. It was in response to the inadequacies of the present ways that the justice system deals with repeatedly violent juveniles. The JVO was based on well-established criminology theories about the root causes of violent youth. It was designed to "strengthen the bonds that linked youths to 'prosocial' institutions - their families, the workplace, the school, and 'straight' peers." The JVO approached these objectives through an individualized and intensive approach.
The program included 3 phases: 1. pre-release training inside the institution
2. aftercare in a transitional living situation outside of prison
3. reentry into self-sustaining life in the community
The youth were helped through each of these phases by skilled case managers.

This program was attempted in Boston, Detroit, Memphis, and Newark. Boston and Detroit were the most successful due to the consistency of their implementation while Newark hardly got off the ground. Boston and Detroit had extremely successful results. They greatly reduced the rate of recidivism in their chronically violent youth population. Even those who did commit another crime took longer to re-offend.

These results were mainly attributed to the tangible opportunities that the case managers opened up for these youth such as job placements with subsidized salaries. The managers approached each case individually and holistically looked at their situation and place in the community.

Some critics have accused the juvenile justice system of being too focused on rehabilitation due to its claim that they are based on rehabilitation principles. Yet when closer examined, you see that those who makes these claims often have weak rehabilitation implementation and short-lived programs. Of course resulting in ineffective results.

Without true rehabilitation, these youth are being robbed of a normal and healthy adulthood. The rest of their life depends on how the justice system choses to deal with them today. We must choose carefully.

What Else is Out There?

For those of my readers who feel especially excited about the subject and not quite fulfilled by the information I have given, here are some other sites that you can visit:

The blog "War on Drugs" is a good site to visit to get a broader understanding of the criminal justice system today. The War on Drugs accounts for a large percentage of those imprisoned today and they are some of the most in need of rehabilitation and would probably be some of the most responsive as well.

The Associated Content has a very informative article on Rehabilitation vs. Punishment and also has links to other related topics. It also gives high lights to the articles, allows for blogger comments, and is easily organized and understood. The author has a more rehabilitation focus.

The International Debate Education Association (IDEA) has an interesting page on Rehabilitation vs. Retribution. It gives background information on the issue, gives multiple pro and con arguments, it summarizes motions of the House, and provides links to other useful books and links. I very much recommend this site. The site is unbiased due to the presence of information from both sides of the argument.

Another debate focused site is Debatepedia. It gives similar information as the IDEA but gives more pro and con arguments. It is a little more clearly organized but seems somewhat unfinished. Once again, this site is unbiased for the same reasons as IDEA.

This police forum might not be particularly informative but I do think it is thought provoking. It is a site where police officers answered a few questions on their opinion on rehabilitation and its effectiveness. Most of the comments are focused on punishment.

Rehabilitation vs. Punishment - Judge for Yourself is an extremely interesting blog. A site was created to allow the public to decide what they think is the most suitable sentence for virtual offenders. Judge for Yourself shows the results of what the public thought based on different characteristics such as age, gender, etc. Check it out.

To get some basic background information on the United States criminal justice system it would be wise to visit U.S Department of Justice website. It gives statistics about prisons, prisoners,and the justice system today so you are able to make an unbiased decision on how effective you feel it is based on the facts.

This may seem futile but the Encyclopedia Britannica's discussion of punishment and the theories and objections of it is very enlightening. Another helpful Britannica article is the one focused on the prisons - their development, use, and alternatives. Britannica is a good site for an unbiased response to the issue.

ProCon.org is a site that provides the reader with information on politicians views on specific issues, including rehabilitation vs. punishment. Not only does it give the stance of current presidential candidates but also those who have dropped out of the race. Its information is based on quotes and campaign sites.