Canadian prisons have always been lacking the needs of offenders and programs to help them. Till now they have the same problem; however, they have been improving and meeting the needs of the offender’s population in a slow manner. Many incidents have occurred during prison time as well as after inmates have been released from prisons. Due to that Canadian corrections have slowly taken more time into their programs and treatments to help the inmates rehabilitate themselves and be able to get back into society in a better state than what they had arrived in. Overtime there have been many facilities available in order to help inmates with certain behavior issues and severe issues. In this paper I will be covering the different types of inmates and how each of them is treated with different programs. Incarceration rate has slowly been going down and there have been more treatment programs to help the offenders rather than just punishing them. Once again, in this paper, I will thoroughly explain how this is done with different types of offenders including; Women in gangs, impaired offenders, offenders who have been diagnosed with HCV (hepatitis C or AIDS), and sexual offenders. Not everyone will be getting treatments or put into programs in prison. Majority of the people are the ones who have a higher risk of danger when being put back into society; however, to prevent this, programs have been available in Canadian prisons. As you read on in this paper you will find out the different programs and how they treat the different offenders in prisons. Main purpose of this paper is to show and establish the different kinds of programs that Canadian prisons have available and what they do in order to help the inmates get in a better state. This is to allow them back into the society with a fresh start and start over again with the mistakes they have committed. The most popular way to help the inmates is to allow them to be released on probation or parole. This it is letting the offender accept the fact that they have committed an offense and to give them a chance to make things right and not mess up again. The point of this paper is to show and explain how certain things are done to help the inmates/offenders and what Canadian government is thinking which is helping them within the prisons instead of just incarceration.

There have been a number of women gang members who are put into correctional institutions and don’t exactly know how to get out of the troubles they got themselves in. They are placed into the corrections as high risks and needs and later evaluated of their behaviors. However, the facilities do not intend to examine the differences between gang members and non-gang members because the law enforcement never paid enough attention to women in gangs (Scott, T., & Ruddell, R. (2011). Canadian Female Gang Inmates: Risk, Needs, and the Potential for Prison Rehabilitation. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation. 50(6). 305-326. Doi: 10.1080/10509674.2011.583717). As they thought there was a lower percentage, in actuality women gang members are just as high as any other gang or gang related issue. Due to this not many programs or treatments were available for them. However, in this study they do examine the difference between female gang-members and women offenders in order to identify what the differences are and how they can specify the risks and needs of female gang-members (Scott, T., & Ruddell, R. (2011). Canadian Female Gang Inmates: Risk, Needs, and the Potential for Prison Rehabilitation. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation. 50(6). 305-326. Doi: 10.1080/10509674.2011.583717).

Ways that they analyze this is by first bringing in the offenders and going through a process called “the offender intake assessment” and what this does is to determine whether it was a gang-affiliated offense or not, and whether the women are involved in a gang (Scott, T., & Ruddell, R. (2011). Canadian Female Gang Inmates: Risk, Needs, and the Potential for Prison Rehabilitation. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation. 50(6). 305-326. Doi: 10.1080/10509674.2011.583717), once it is established whether the inmate was gang-involved then the matter gets taken further into extensive investigation and research more on the participation in the gang (Scott, T., & Ruddell, R. (2011). Canadian Female Gang Inmates: Risk, Needs, and the Potential for Prison Rehabilitation. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation. 50(6). 305-326. Doi: 10.1080/10509674.2011.583717). What was suggested was to put these inmates in rehabilitative interventions to reduce recidivism (Scott, T., & Ruddell, R. (2011). Canadian Female Gang Inmates: Risk, Needs, and the Potential for Prison Rehabilitation. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation. 50(6). 305-326. Doi: 10.1080/10509674.2011.583717), average sentence for these women was about 3.4 years in prison so due to the amount of time what was done was to put them into these rehabilitative programs to help them get out of the gang-affiliated lifestyle and be able to change themselves in a better way, so when they get back into the community they would not be obliged to take part in gang-related issues again. However, because of the short sentence it makes it harder to finish the rehab since it takes a couple of months. The point of the program is to teach the offenders to not be gang-affiliated in the first place. They should understand and realize it sooner than later, before putting them selves in a position in which it is difficult to get out of. This can also help prevent others from joining any gangs. Knowing that these kinds of programs are available to help these offenders show that Canadian prisons are meeting the needs of their offender populations even though it may not be too much. Major Key and role is to acknowledge the different types of gang affiliation and involvement that take place and to base interventions on that and the assessments that have been taken on them (Scott, T., & Ruddell, R. (2011). Canadian Female Gang Inmates: Risk, Needs, and the Potential for Prison Rehabilitation. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation. 50(6). 305-326. Doi: 10.1080/10509674.2011.583717). In order to have a successful program/treatment you need to properly understand the situation and problem and be able to fix it with the right treatments. Based on Canadian prisons they slowly have been meeting the needs.

From what you have read about women and female gangs they have their own programs to help prevent others in joining gangs or gang-related issues that could conflict with their personal life thus leading into prison time. In terms of Canadian prisons meeting the needs, they do in a way, which is by providing information on gangs, and relating it to the different types of women who are affiliated and to help them get out of the trouble they put themselves in the first place. It’s also to help prevent other women from getting involved. Sex offenders usually have a reason behind their intentions or behavioral issues that link to their actions. Programs have been available in prisons to allow assessment and knowledge as to why the offense had taken into play in the first place. Its purpose is to prevent further sexual offense being repeated by the same offender. These programs and treatments are there to help resolve the issue so that the offender can change himself or herself in a better way. The way offenders are treated with this offense is by evaluating their offense and treating them according to the treatment that they are needed and involving a motivation to change in them (Gary O’Reilly, Alan Carr, Paul Murphy, and Anthony Cotter. 2010. A Controlled Evaluation of a Prison-Based Sexual Offender Intervention Program, 22:95. Doi: 10.1177/1079063209358107). The purpose of this program is to see whether the offender has changed his behavior and to compare convicted sexual offense from before and after the intervention (Gary O’Reilly, Alan Carr, Paul Murphy, and Anthony Cotter. 2010. A Controlled Evaluation of a Prison-Based Sexual Offender Intervention Program, 22:95. Doi: 10.1177/1079063209358107). The goal with this program is to lower the rates of recidivism and to help the offenders. The intervention program is not always reliable because the offender must have the motivation to change himself and to stay committed to not offend again. Otherwise, without self-control, there is no point in the program itself. Point of intervention is to allow the offender himself realize what he has done, overcome his own problem, and to help re-establish himself. Also why incarceration isn’t as frequently used with sex offenders, because it doesn’t help them in any way but make them worse and increases recidivism. It is also important in this program to involve the offenders personal friends, family, etc… to allow the offender to realize that re-offending wouldn’t be a likely thing to do and makes them more intrigued to the program rather than being alone and un-motivated (Gary O’Reilly, Alan Carr, Paul Murphy, Anthony Cotter. 2010. A Controlled Evaluation of a Prison-Based Sexual Offender Intervention Program, 22:95. Doi: 10.1177/1079063209358107). The basis of this program is to help the offender understand the wrong he has committed, to be able to fixate the problem and prevent re-offending. However, with this program you are not forced into being part of the intervention. It is for those who are looking to change themselves and want to be a better person getting back into the community. These invitations get sent to them and they can either accept or refuse the invitation (Gary O’Reilly, Alan Carr, Paul Murphy, and Anthony Cotter. 2010. A Controlled Evaluation of a Prison-Based Sexual Offender Intervention Program, 22:95. Doi: 10.1177/1079063209358107). The only applicants that are available for this treatment program are those who have a behavioral issue and there’s a likely chance or re-offending which then requires a treatment.

The goal of this treatment program is to allow the offender to be able to acknowledge the wrong that they had committed and to prevent re-offending and get back into the community/society in a better state. However, not all applicants are able to get in, those who have consented to the program get first priority rather than those who need it but haven’t mitigated their decision (Gary O’Reilly, Alan Carr, Paul Murphy, and Anthony Cotter. 2010. A Controlled Evaluation of a Prison-Based Sexual Offender Intervention Program, 22:95. Doi: 10.1177/1079063209358107). Canadian prisons have been getting better with their offenders and the population. Their main objective is to get the offenders out of prison, which is done only by allowing treatment programs and interventions to help the offenders with their problems. This also is a way to help the victim get closure and unanswered questions are answered which also strengthens the victim-offender relationship allowing them both to move on with their lives and preventing from further offenses.

The issue that arises with Canadian prisons is the fact that they mainly focus on recidivism, incarceration and punishing the offender rather than trying to help them get in a better state by putting them back into the community as soon as possible. Due to this sometimes it may seem like Canadian prisons aren’t meeting the needs of the offenders because they don’t have enough programs to educate the inmates or to help with their problems and try to resolve the issue. Nevertheless, many prisons have started to build programs and are slowly getting better with their rehabilitative programs. The point is to get the offenders back into the society and to prevent re-offending, not to put them back then bring back into prison. After considering this fact, it can be proven that the Canadian prisons and offender programming’s are helping the inmates however offender population is still high. Which also means that not every offender is getting the treatment they need to become better. There are not too many programs that are available and if there are not every offender is likely to get in, which in no way is helping the offenders. In some cases there have been issues about neurocognitive-impaired offenders being in prisons and not getting the proper treatment they need. There have been offenders with mental or psychopathic disorder that have committed an offense and now must serve a sentence in a prison. These programs are available to properly treat them while serving sentence and to help the offender in understanding the wrong they have done. Majority of the impaired offenders are psychopaths, which also put them in the category of being in high risk and rate of repeat offenses. In order to prevent this there are certain programs but then again they aren’t dealt with as seriously as should. Hence why in some cases Canadian prisons do not meet the needs of the offender population because there isn’t much they can do when it comes down to mental issues or psychological. Canadian prisons have a good way of incarcerating offenders but when it comes down to helping them to get back in the community, they don’t intend to do a very good job. With youths who have impaired disorders judges usually hear their cases more carefully in terms of seriousness in the offenses and decide how the sentences will take place with them “in youth cases, judges were also more likely to pay close attention to – and refer to- expert testimony with respect to the impairment” (Verdun-Jones, S.N. & Butler. A. (2013). Sentencing Neurocognitively Impaired Offenders in Canada. Canadian Journal of Criminology & Criminal Justice. 55(4), 495-512. Doi: 10.3138/cjccj.2012.ES02). As stated in the article “Written judgments made explicit reference to the principles of rehabilitation and reintegration in youth criminal cases” (Verdun-Jones, S.N. & Butler. A. (2013). Sentencing Neurocognitively Impaired Offenders in Canada. Canadian Journal of Criminology & Criminal Justice. 55(4), 495-512. Doi: 10.3138/cjccj.2012.ES02), with youth criminal cases while deciding how the offender will get sentenced, they involve rehabilitation programs to help with the mental behaviors of the offenders. This was available for youth offenders however, not so much with adult offenders “it appears that, at the time of the studies, there was a lack of assessment and diagnostic procedures for adult offenders” (Verdun-Jones, S.N. & Butler. A. (2013). Sentencing Neurocognitively Impaired Offenders in Canada. Canadian Journal of Criminology & Criminal Justice. 55(4), 495-512. Doi: 10.3138/cjccj.2012.ES02). Yet again with psychopaths they believed that “psychopathy was considered and aggravating factor that was not amenable to treatment” (Verdun-Jones, S.N. & Butler. A. (2013). Sentencing Neurocognitively Impaired Offenders in Canada. Canadian Journal of Criminology & Criminal Justice. 55(4), 495-512. Doi: 10.3138/cjccj.2012.ES02).

After reading this, it shows that the Canadian prisons were not and may not be able to offer proper treatment for neurocognitive impaired offenders or programs that could help in their behavior or mental capability. If so, then why are they put in prisons in the first place if there are no programs available to help with their conditions? They most likely aren’t fit to be in the prisons. According to this research, Canadian prisons do not meet the needs of offender populations.
The same goes with offenders who are HCV positive and have been sentenced to prison. They go through a treatment to find out whether or not they can be contagious or not or harmful to any other inmates and if so how to prevent this. “Treatment was recorded as successful when the patient showed a sustained virological response” (Farley, J., Vasdev, S,. Fischer, B., Haydon, E., Rehm, J., & Farley, T. A. (2005) Feasibility and Outcome of HCV Treatment in a Canadian Federal Prison Population. American Journal of Public Health, 95(10). 1737-1739. Doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2004.056150).

To conclude this paper, Canadian prisons have evolved throughout time with their programs that have been available within the prisons to help the offenders and their needs. Yet, they still haven’t quite passed the test. Canadian prisons still lack a number of treatments that could be available for a wide range of different inmates; however, they do not take ownership towards it and strictly focus on incarceration. This is what makes Canadian prisons bad because they mainly rely on just punishing the offender rather than intervening or providing programs that would help the offender with rehabilitation or whatever their needs may require. Strictly incarcerating offenders/inmates won’t help them to get back into the society and once they do they most likely will repeat their offense and get back into prison, so what is the point of a prison then? If it doesn’t help evolve the offender. Many people look at prisons as a way to “punish” for what they have done, or using restitution as a form of getting back to the offender. In reality they need to be supported through their sentence and believe that they can do better rather than secluding them and allowing them to think of themselves as horrible persons. This is a wrong most Canadian prisons are doing. It’s about time they make some changes in their system, their facilities and provide more care and treatment programs in order to notice a difference with the community and offenders stepping back in the community. Not every offender has a chance to build themselves again through programs and treatments. This is what Canadian prisons are lacking; therefore, not meeting the needs entirely of the offender populations.