The New Orange – Not Working Well

There are major differences between the convict of yesterday and the inmate of today. Dressed in the new orange these new type of offenders are not a fraction of the kind of convict prisoners were in the days of past when a man would work for a day’s pay and no handouts. It is with high certainty that there were cookie cutter convicts back then as they all had their own personalities and their own characteristics but back then, even crooks had honor.

Today’s prisoners are apples and oranges compared to the past and come with multiple personalities, characteristics, habits and mandates that makes treatment most complicated and diverse as some hang onto their own culture to show them the ways to live in their own distinct politically and socially impacted world and backgrounds even if it is in conflict with their current placement or prison setting. It is likely that the old orange had these same issues but kept them under control and dealt with them in their own ways instead of being a burden to those around them. Each had their own self pride and esteem to take care of business the way we call ‘old school’ and that was up personal and close yet confidential and private.

First of is to denote the differences in the penology theories there is a significant difference between old style rehabilitation and the new version of rehabilitation.  The old way every prisoner underwent into cookie cutter programs and whether they needed it or not, it was determined to be beneficial for them to be educated and worn out at the end of the day for working a job that was manual labor and considered hard labor even on chain gangs. Here there were no cultural divides or territories.  Everybody worked and pulled their weight.

Prison wardens had three easy choices, educate them, work them or let them sit idle and do nothing. Most wardens made sure that the prisoner engaged in at least two out of three with idleness being the least option in the book. A weary or worn out prisoner is a well behaved individual and keeps the peace much easier than those that do nothing all day thinking about how they can disrupt their world.

Today’s rehabilitative programs offer so many different programs that the list is too extensive to list. The fact is if they weren’t court ordered most of them were optional in nature thus often not offered or available. This includes substance abuse programs and other treatment programs that gives them a chance to quit an addiction or manage their anger more constructively and stay out of trouble in the future. Programs are selected like one was in college and if it’s one thing a prison isn’t is a campus or college driven environment.

The old system focused on self-esteem and character traits that counted and provided a person with good moral guidance and ethics to change their ways. The new system ignores the inner self and focuses on rethinking and retraining behavioral issues rather than morality of their character. The new style is holistic in nature and departs from the old style of faulty thinking and worthiness.

Contrary to the new whole person concepts taught, there is a distinct conflict between the two teaching styles for the new orange prisoners are given options in their sentences that were never offered before and allows them to balk at the project to stay busy and learn something.

Many are lazy and take no initiative to attend school or classes for self-improvement unless made to do so by court order or mandatory rules of classification and treatment plans. Rehabilitation only works if the person is receptive to the concept and work to change. Changing behaviors and not the person is a difficult approach. When I compare the two styles it is my opinion that the old style was more practical and more applicable than the new approach of trying to change the persons.

Everyone knows sociopaths can’t be treated and remain to be one of the most rapidly growing populations which are unpredictable and volatile while housed inside our jails and prisons. Thus these type of individuals require a stern hand and structured behavioral modification approach that builds incentive for good thinking and takes away incentives for bad thinking patterns.

The other rapidly growing population are the mentally ill and treatment programs for them are severely limited as well. Since psychotropic medication is very expensive and mental health providers are scarce and untrained in the prison setting, there are many challenges facing this group of new orange that are under the influence of a psychotic breakdown or mental illness diagnosis.

The old types of programs are no longer accepted because they do not cause the person participating to believe they are faulty but rather their behavior is faulty. It is the way of the new that has stifled the practices of the old. The new orange does nothing in the way of making people attend programs or school.

There are too many loopholes that keeps this from being enforced.  Participation is the only way rehabilitation has a chance at working so I believe the changes are not good and unnecessary and under the new rules, participation is rarely mandatory like in the old days. It is up to the prison administrators to ensure the new orange carries out their own self-improvement programs and attend treatment that would benefit them greatly.

The sad part is that today’s administration is just as lazy and weak as the new orange regime. They have no empathy of the setting and take no ownership in how well it is being run and administered. They rely on others less skilled or trained to their dirty work and are fast to point blame when things go wrong and quick to take the credit when something goes right.

They think they are an army of one and do nothing to help or support the correctional counselor or officers in their jobs and stand by to criticize them readily and never once ready to praise them when they do their jobs like they are supposed to and without any fanfare.

Many are college graduates that have never worked inside a prison before applying for the management positions. They are good at counting beans but lack the skill to manage people. They have no loyalty to the workforce and communicate in terms that are difficult to understand as they are often given without preparation or explanation of goals or objectives desired with a mission statement or strategy provided.

 

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