The approximate 10,000 admissions to prison and the drug rehabilitation center each year impact a similar number of families, comprising the parents, spouses, siblings and children of the offenders. Half the population of these families will experience the same family member’s admission into prison within 5 years of his release. Likewise, after his release from his second term in prison, the risk of his returning to prison is almost 50% within 5 years. As a long term repeat offender, his risk of reoffending is almost 60% after 5 years post release. This recurring situation can result in the family member spending a large part of his life going through the prison’s revolving doors and its continual impact on the rest of the family.
About 80% of the prison inmate population are repeat offenders.
Incarceration of a parent has a significantly negative impact on the children. If the family member is a parent, his offspring has 3.9 times the risk of becoming a youth offender than youths whose parents have no exposure to criminality. More prone to reoffending, the offspring can easily cross over the threshold of 16 years of age to become an adult offender and be subject to the high rates of repeat offending of this group.
When the offspring becomes a parent, the same pattern of offending can repeat in his children, giving rise to intergenerational offending that plagues the family for many generations.
One child who becomes an offender is a risk factor for the other children in the family.
Parental incarceration frequency correlates to risk of offending for the offspring. Offspring of parents with one contact with the criminal justice system are 2.17 times at risk of offending and if contact is more than once, the risk rises to 3.4 times.
Drug offenders constitute around 70% of the total inmate population. Reoffending rates are highest for drug offenders than non-drug offenders. Offspring of parents with drug offences are 5.16 times at risk of offending, which is twice that of non-drug offences.
When no custodial sentences are imposed on the parents, the risk that their offspring offends falls to 2.18 times. Clearly incarceration carries significant negative impacts. However it is but one of the risk factors.
Youths experiencing high levels of poor parenting run similar risks of offending as those from families with high levels of criminality and substance abuse. Prevalent amongst them are exposure to marital conflict and parental separation. Their risk of reoffending is high too. Parental presence and guidance cannot be overemphasized.
OUR STORY
What is common is not necessarily true. The proliferation of archaic concepts about crime and offending promotes and sustains the ignorance. Criminal offenders are the most marginalised group in society. Even stray animals are treated better.
The (mis)information instructs rehabilitation processes which has done little good towards its goal. In Singapore, almost half of prison release cohorts return to prison by the 5th year. Every year.
Where customer reviews are closest to a truthful representation of client satisfaction, rehabilitation services stand out uniquely. Recipients of the services have no means to offer honest feedback. Criminal offenders just don't have the bargaining power to counter what is dished out to them, due to the absolute authority of the opposing party. Rehabilitation is under the jurisdiction of the prison services, even if some are external third parties.
Doing anything less than agreeable risks being watched closer, as they have demonstrated increased possibility of returning to the behaviour that had gotten them in trouble with the criminal justice system and would get them into the same situation once again. How then can they feel safe in opening up to the prison officers, rehabilitation 'counsellors' and such? Can they expect the well-meaning care and support to be offered to them? Hardly.
Therefore regardless of the quality of the services, offenders will give the impression of having turned over a new leaf, only to reoffend once outside of the purview of the criminal justice system or when the next opportunity arises, which could be at the tail end of their sentence.
The outcome is tragic. Not only do they get arrested, they end up with a longer sentence as a repeat offender and made to shoulder the blame for the failure of the rehabilitation. Once again, they are condemned.
Hardly anyone questions if rehabilitation is indeed rehabilitative. It's taken for granted that it must be.
tter than more.
MatterX Of Our Heart
Chronicles the impacts of the criminal justice system and society's challenges faced by navigating by a family where the father goes through the revolving door of the prison and the impacts upon the