Tara Sattar
Usually, the most dangerous criminals are often entangled in their own sadistic thoughts. But a study suggests that with the right amount of effort and practice, the criminal minds can e changed and made calmer. They can be turned into a good citizen. The prison system, according to the offenders, does not let them do that.
The prison has a system of counseling but it is not the one that the offenders rely on.
Cognitive treatment is being developed through various methods and is being given to the offenders in places like juvenile and adult detention centers, jails and prisons. This therapy has proved to be effective in treating various levels of mental illness.
Around the years 1950s and 60s, psychiatrist Aaron Beck discovered that these criminals have a thought process of their own; which means they suffer from their own depression. Albert Ellis, right about at the same time, found out that many of them possess some irrational beliefs.
In cognitive treatment, they teach the patient how to solve social problems, how to confront an issue and how to control anger. Numerous methods of cognitive treatments have now become crucial in US and Europe. The principle underlying this treatment is that the basic problem is in the way the criminals think. And in order to make the treatment effective, the patients need to change the way they think.
It has been discovered by the researchers that the cognitive treatment reduce recidivism and as a result more people can get back to normal life. That means saving taxpayer money on incarceration, which costs $31,286 per inmate per year on average. It also means safer communities, more intact families and more people back in the workplace.
But the researchers have made it clear that the cognitive treatment is not a method to let the criminals out early. It is a process to change their line of thinking and give them a better life.
Incarceration is a process where the criminals are allowed to speak their mind and as a result they answer in resentment and defiance. But when the offenders know that the sole purpose is to punish, the criminal thoughts from their minds are not extinguished, rather they are reinforced.
Criminal offense do not always have t o be punitive. Sometimes, they can be handled through counseling. In this treatment, offenders are given a chance to become a better person.
Through the method that they call “supportive authority”, they give the offender to change himself and also have his own say.
Three voices in one message:
• They are determined to enforce the laws.
• The offer to genuinely change and take part in the society.
• Respecting the capacity to make own decisions and choices.