Confronting the Disabling Effects of Imprisonment: Toward Prehabilitation

Harm is embedded in every aspect of the prison: from its inception as an institution of punishment and correction to the deprivations of prison and post-prison life. Recognizing that penal harms militate against prisons' rehabilitative aim and capacity, this article applies a therapeutic justic...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Johns, Diana (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2018
In: Social justice
Year: 2018, Volume: 45, Issue: 1, Pages: 27-55
Online Access: Volltext (Publisher)
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Keywords:
Mental health of prisoners
Prisoners' health
Recidivism
Social conditions of ex-convicts
Poor communities
Deinstitutionalization of prisoners
Imprisonment
Disadvantaged environment
Description
Summary:Harm is embedded in every aspect of the prison: from its inception as an institution of punishment and correction to the deprivations of prison and post-prison life. Recognizing that penal harms militate against prisons' rehabilitative aim and capacity, this article applies a therapeutic justice lens to argue for prehabilitation as a means of strengthening communities, protecting against criminogenic conditions and the disabling effects of imprisonment, and ultimately reducing the reliance on imprisonment as a supposed crime-reduction strategy. This article explores two conceptualizations of the prison: in terms of violence and of health. These different conceptualizations illustrate the various ways in which penal harms may be understood as disabling, and they locate the prison on a continuum of which violence and health are intertwined components.
ISSN:2327-641X