Abstract: Psychology applied to the legal arena is known as Forensic Psychology.

Forensic
Psychology has a huge contribution in the rehabilitation process. It has a whole different sub-
branch known as correctional psychology dealing with rehabilitation of prisoners. The major
tasks involve assessing the risk prisoner might impose to the society or fellow people and then,
finding a treatment to cure that tendency reoffend i.e. to minimise recidivism. After release
from the prison, in majority of cases, it’s not easy for an offender to adjust in the society. Not
only offender imposes a threat over society but also society imposes a threat over offender. A
prisoner is often looked down by the society, stigma of being a criminal is attached to the
prisoner image. During rehabilitation, a psychologist also helps to overcome this societal
pressure and anxiety. This essay tries to highlight such assistance provided by forensic
psychologists to the offender, challenges faced by psychologists to accomplish and
recommendations that could be implemented by psychologists for an effective achievement of
the goal i.e., rehabilitation.
Role of Forensic Psychology in Prison Rehabilitation
“It is clear, however, that a penal system cannot be operated in such a manner that it impedes
the ability of inmates to attempt their own rehabilitation, or simply to avoid physical, mental,
or social deterioration.”1
Although rehabilitation is not a constitutional right, Criminal Administration and Justice
System always has a want of techniques that could help in providing corrective measures to
minimise recidivism and prevent reoffending. Many countries, especially, US, Canada and
Europe have engaged forensic psychologists for devising such techniques.2 Forensic
Psychologist’s major work is to assess the offenders and provide treatment.3 By assessing
prisoners to develop mental health requirements, stress management group and prison
programs amongst the individuals and groups. They also assist at correctional facilities in job
profiling by devising screening procedures for selection of correctional officers.
Bartol and Bartol divided forensic psychology into five sub-categories4, one of them is
correctional psychology which exclusively deals with treatment and rehabilitation of prisoners.
A correctional psychologist has to reduce an offender’s likelihood to recidivism and identify
and fulfil their psychological needs.5 Correctional psychology provides its services to two
domains, one being adult offenders and others are juvenile delinquents.
Juvenile delinquents need more care and patience than adult offenders. Mostly, adult offenders
are aware of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ behaviour, but juveniles are made to differentiate between
both kinds of behaviour. Unlike adults, mostly juveniles are unaware of the consequences of
their actions. Therefore, juvenile justice system itself has a rehabilitative alignment. They have
presence of psychologist who analyse their behaviour and make preliminary report evaluating
their emotional, cognitive and mental status. Based upon that report, juvenile is subjected to
treatment. A psychologist has to look upon the child and provide the emotional care through

1
J.W. PALMER, Constitutional Rights of Prisoners 9th edn. (Anderson Publishing 1999) at 221.
2
Wormith & Lung, Legal and Psychological Development of Corrections in Canada (2007).
3
Irving B. Weiner & Randy K. Otto, ed. The Handboook of Forensic Psychology ( New Jersey Wiley 2014).
4
Bartol & Bartol, Introduction to Forensic Psychology: Research and Application 3rd edn. (Sage Publication) at
7.
5
http://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/24164/1/Unit-4.pdf
therapies and counselling sessions help him in improving the delinquency behaviour along with
assistance to readjust in society.
Various programmes like drug treatment, suicide prevention, psychological evaluation, mental
health support etc. is adopted by psychologists for prisoners in such a way that would have a
long-term effect. For example, refraining offenders from substance misuse could be controlled
while they are in prison, but psychologists aim at a wider recovery which abstains them from
re-offending, with the hope of ex-offenders developing meaningful and productive lives in time
to come.6
Along with treatment programmes, there are many therapies like person-centred therapy,
cognitive therapy, behaviour therapy, group and milieu therapy, transactional analysis, reality
therapy, and responsibility therapy etc. which are offered to prisoners to reduce recidivism.
Behaviour and Cognitive therapy are two major therapies which have gained prominence due
to their effectiveness.
In behaviour therapy, an offender is rewarded for his “good behaviour” while punished for
“unacceptable behaviour”. The main aim of this therapy was to encourage inmates to change
themselves by opting for good decisions to enjoy benefits. The only flaw with this therapy was
that offenders sometimes find it difficult to generalize situations to the real world. Cognitive
therapy which appears to have the most promise in a variety of treatment contexts, focuses
upon changing the thinking of an offender which is the origin of recidivism behaviour. Based
upon social learning theory, this therapy fosters offenders to analyse their thinking and helps
them in finding the fault in their judgement which led them to commit an offence. After
creating self-awareness, offenders are skilled with decision making ability so that they can
replace their earlier behaviour. Psychologists who use this trick also help offenders to achieve
their goals and happiness in their lives.
Within offenders, there are special cases which require different dealing. For example, HIV
positive offender would face more difficulty in readjusting in the society than the normal
offenders. Similarly, a girl suffering from schizophrenia will require more attention and other
therapies from her psychologist to behave normally than a normal female offender. Substance-
abusing offenders, violent offenders, Criminal Psychopaths, Sex offender and female offenders
are some other special offenders who need more attention and sensitivity while dealing with
their cases.
Psychologists try to overcome substance abuse this with therapeutic Community (TC),
therapeutic relationship is built with the offender making him aware of his responsibilities and
baiting these responsibilities to replace his drug-abuse behaviour. For dealing with violent
offenders, psychologists either teach them self-relaxation skills or adopt cognitive therapy by
challenging their origin of anger. Some individuals who also have biological factors behind
their violent behaviour, are prescribed antipsychotic medications.
Ensuring minimisation of recidivism from criminal psychopaths is one of the most difficult
tasks for psychologists. Psychopaths can deceive by showing false signs of improvement and
change personality. To overcome this, psychologist call psychopaths frequently for sessions

6
Jennifer Brown, Y. Shell & Terri Cole Forensic Psychology: Theory, Research, Policy and Practice (Sage
Publication 2015) at 275.
and record their movement and responses to better understand their improvement. Sexual
offences have seen a great rise in the recent years. Risk assessment instruments and release
prevention (RP) treatment has been able to help to some extent in reducing recidivism in the
offenders. RP is for those who want to change themselves, they are taught how to anticipate
and cope with their sexual urge.
There are common factors that works against the rehabilitation programs and hinders in
achievement of the goal i.e. to help prisoners get back to their life with new insights.

The very first barrier is the confidentiality. Forensic psychologists cannot guarantee absolute
confidentiality especially in criminal justice system. Due to these limits, the offender may
perceive the psychologist as an agent of the administration and hesitate in disclosing anything
about him. As a result, it becomes difficult for the psychologist to gain faith of the offender.
Apart from offenders, even correctional officers restrain from visiting psychologists because
they fear that supervisors will learn of this and lose confidence in their ability to do their job. 7

Every inmate has a right to refuse the treatment, but some institutions operates on the principle
that psychological treatment can be coerced. In that case, it becomes very difficult for the
psychologists to treat a person who is not willing to participate.

Environment around the offender also plays a critical role during the rehabilitation process.
Where the offender is living, what he does the entire day, with whom he is surrounded all have
a specific role to play in the final output of the treatment. But in prisons, the conditions are not
so friendly. The list of negative features ranges from overcrowding, violence from other
prisoners and staff members to isolation from families and friends. All these factors have a
negative impact n the prisoner. To manage the treatment with these negatives around is another
obstacle on the way of the psychologists.

The conflict between the administration and the prisoners also negatively affects the people
working and living in the prison. A well-known truth that nobody speaks of is “us against them”
mentality that easily describes the conflict between prisoners and staff. For a prisoner, a
psychologist is also a part of the staff due to which therapist-patient relationship is hampered.

Another problem is the enormous caseload on the shoulders of the psychologists. The estimated
average psychologist to inmate ratio is 1:750 in US.8 Due to such high rate of cases, either the
psychologists burn out and leave the job or they compromise with the quality of treatment they
provide.

An unknown fact is the presence of “prison code” that is not written anywhere but is a self-
certified set of rules drafted by the inmates for themselves. The golden rules of prison code
say, first, do not build any friendly relation or collaborate with a person who works in the
prison. Second, never go to a correctional psychologist because there is no better way to be
labelled as mentally ill. Third, never trust any psychologist as they may disclose your
information that might delay your release. Every inmate strictly follows these rules as a result
it hampers healthy therapeutic relationship.

7
Jennifer Brown, Yvonne Shell & Terri Cole,ed. Forensic Psychology: theory, research, policy and practice (
SAGE Publications) at 283.
8
L. Boothby & Clements, A National Survey of Correctional Psychologist (2000).
Rehabilitation programs that are designed according to the offence that one has committed
works well, but it can be more effective if psychologists start treating each and every offender
differently. No two rapists or two child sex offenders are same. 9 Every offenders’ behavior is
different from the other even if they have committed the same offence, they can have different
origin of their offending behavior, different mindset. One kind of treatment might be effective
for some prisoners but not for others. Thus, though they have committed the same offence, but
they require different level of treatments.

Just like no two offenders are same, similarly, no two therapists are same. Every therapist has
his own personality, attitude, belief, experience10 and also his capability of treating the prisoner
under him. All of these when combined has a great impact on the outcome of the treatment.
Thus, equal attention should be paid on the therapists and they must be handpicked wisely.

Rehabilitation programs should not only emphasize on treating the negative side of the offender
but should also encourage, motivate and support the positive qualities in them. Treatment
providers should do so in the spirit of working with offenders and not on them.11 Treatment is
not something we do to someone, rather it is something we do alongside someone.12

As a part of the rehabilitation programs mentorship sessions must be scheduled. Offenders will
comply with the treatment more efficiently when they will know about the success stories of
others. It will enhance their belief upon the rehabilitation programs and will have a positive
effect on the output of the treatment.

Conclusion
Over the last two decades, there has been growth in the participation of forensic psychologist
in the rehabilitation of prisoners. Not only prisoners are treated to achieve short them goals but
are rehabilitated in such a way that they abstain from repeating any such mistakes all over
again. Psychologists are successful in achieving this goal, but a lot more has to be done to
overcome all the hurdles on their way and bring out the best from the prisoner. All the
rehabilitation programs are more inclined towards the foreign context primarily US, Canada
and UK while nothing much has been done in the area of correctional psychology if we come
to India. The reasons can be higher rate of suicide in prisons, recidivism, low number of
qualified psychologist and much more. If we go in depth, correctional psychology has their
presence in the rehabilitation of juvenile delinquents but not much has been done in adult
settings. Our criminal justice system has a protective approach towards the juveniles but a
punitive approach towards adults. As a result, all our policies are drafted in a way that is more
inclined towards the rehabilitation of juveniles and punishing the adults. This mindset has to
be changed and equal attention must be paid on juveniles and adults when it comes to
rehabilitation.

9
Jennifer Brown, Yvonne Shell & Terri Cole,ed. Forensic Psychology: theory, research, policy and practice (
SAGE Publications) at 283.
10
Jennifer Brown, Yvonne Shell & Terri Cole,ed. Forensic Psychology: theory, research, policy and practice (
SAGE Publications) at 283.
11
McCulloch,2005: McNeill,2006
12
Jennifer Brown, Yvonne Shell & Terri Cole,ed. Forensic Psychology: theory, research, policy and practice (
SAGE Publications) at 283.