Rehabilitation, criminal

Penology is the science and practice of prison management and criminal rehabilitation. Penologists study the ethics and effectiveness of various strategies for punishing crime, including incarceration and rehabilitation. The science of penology is especially relevant in the United States, a nation with less than 5 percent of the world s people but nearly 25 percent of its prisoners. More than 2 million individuals, or about 1 percent of the country s total population, is incarcerated. 

In the reviews cited in this chapter there is often some breakdown of findings into those relating to heroin use, criminality, HIV-risk behaviours, social rehabilitation and nonopiate abuse. We have noted that crime was one of the earliest indicators in methadone treatment, while the wider range of outcomes is formalized in drug misuse rating instruments such as the Opiate Treatment Index (Darke et al. 1992a). The main areas in which methadone treatment has been found to be of substantial benefit are indicated in Table 1.3. 

Another nod toward rehabilitation was the Drug Abuse Control Amendments of 1968, which provided that a drug offender who remained clean for a year could have the offense removed from the criminal record. 

Outcome studies of methadone maintenance treatment have reported favorable results. High rates of patient retention, reduced criminality, and improved social rehabilitation are reported. Despite its proved effectiveness, it remains a controversial approach among substance abuse treatment providers, public officials, policy makers, the medical profession, and the public at large. Nevertheless, almost every nation with a significant narcotic addiction problem has established a methadone maintenance treatment program. 

Other uses that have been reported are Rehabilitation of criminals, treatment of sexual disorders, and treatment of mentally retarded or schizophrenic children. LSD has also proven itself successful treating psychotic adults, character disorders, sociopathic personality disorders and treatment of alcoholism. 

To pass a new law with harsher penalties, it was necessary to demonstrate that marijuana, if not the cause of insanity, criminality, and addiction, was nevertheless dangerous. As before, a congressional committee heard testimony. First a doctor who ran a government narcotics rehabilitation clinic in Kentucky testified that the medical community knew that marijuana was not an addictive drug and that it did not produce insanity, criminality, or death. The next witness, Commissioner Anslinger, reversed his earlier position, the... 

Correction Treatment of criminal offenders through a system of imprisonment, rehabilitation,... 

Rehabilitation Act of restoring a criminal offender to fulfill a useful role in society. 

So far as criminal offences committed away from the place of work are concerned, the ACAS Code of Practice makes it clear that these should not constitute automatic reasons for dismissal, but should be considered in the light of whether the offence in question makes the employee unsuitable for his or her type of work or unacceptable to other employees. If an employee secures employment by not disclosing a previous criminal conviction his dismissal on that ground is often fair provided he is not permitted to withhold such conviction under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. 

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