The community of prisons in Jordan
The concept of upgrading penal institutions and its newly world spread philosophy has extended to Jordan; the Public Security Directorate, which is the body to which penal institutions are related, have decided to replace titles in old laws to others conforming to the concept of reform which has developed into a universal term for fighting crime.
The question revolves around the possibility of overcoming these enthusiastic changes in reality to reach a more civilized concept on which the methodology of punishment and the philosophy of reform is based, which, due to its effect, prisons have transformed into reform and rehabilitation centers.
It has been clarified, in a field study of the prisons' condition in the Kingdom, that there are still problems and obvious gaps in the body of reform institutions which has distanced them from performing their awaited and required role. These are accumulative problems from the past and may need an appropriate time to be solved and overcome, management of these newly formed institutions have had difficulties finding sufficiently qualified individuals to achieve these modern approaches and rise to the level of modern reform concepts, this is caused by lack of education and a weakness in culture that lead to difficulty in applying the basic principles of reform and rehabilitation such as isolation and classification according to gender, age and level of social danger. Moreover, the reform institution still suffers from not fulfilling its reform duty in the aspect of aftercare. Despite this, the institution has been able to achieve several accomplishments in providing health care, social services, enabling inmates to engage in a number of social and cultural activities as well as completing their academic education, these centers also conduct specialized scientific studies and regular programs that serve the concept of reforming and rehabilitating inmates.
The importance of this research, motives and purposes on the long term:
First: the prison is a place of reform and education which aims at correcting behaviors of prisoners through freedom-deprivation penalties, which would restore him his good sense to return to the path of righteousness, correct mistakes and rehabilitate him to be a good member in society.
This could not happen except through studying the conditions of the prisoner, the reasons that threw him in the web of crime, the circumstances in which he resided prior to committing his crime, his health and psychological state, afterwards should be restoring his self confidence, caring for his family which provided him with stability and a sincere atmosphere to review mistakes and reverse them, then return to the path of reason to become a good member in a society filled with interdependence and compassion.
The importance of this research comes from studying this place and coexisting with the behavioral patterns for people between its walls.
Second: prison is a small community; in addition to being a place of punishment, correction or reform, it is a place where prisoners correlate with its circumstances, culture and traditions like any other community.
This research has attempted to study this relationship and find the causes of the gap among them, and then clarifying the methods of treatment.
Third: crime is a one time instance; a criminal first and foremost is human. The first aim of the research is to study this human from within and try to understand and know him in order to save him from the grip of crime to the awakening of life where good, righteousness and happiness reside. This approach came after conducting several social and psychological studies for the behavior of a criminal prior to imprisonment, through it and after he is released. The purpose is to guarantee a clean human and a clean society filled with security and stability.
Fourth: the purpose of this research on the long term is also trying to develop penal institutions into correctional institutions as society anticipates; this was included in the government's future plans which is to establish correctional and rehabilitation institutions that aim at correcting behaviors, training individuals and preparing them to be productive and not dependent on society, raising culture and awareness of individuals to distance them from causes of crime, realization of hidden causes for crime starting with unemployment, higher rates of divorce and juvenile delinquency; this is to avoid these from taking place and building a future suitable for human "as our most prized possession".
The problem of the research: "topic of the study":
What is the importance of a prison study? Does it differ than other social studies on prisons and prisoners?
The importance of a "prison" study stems from our belief that it is an essential part of a society we live between its walls which is surrounded by flaws and loopholes, the problem of this study is acknowledging the relationship between social circumstances within this correctional institution and the prisoner residing within it in dependent and independent variables.
Social circumstances include:
Officials' treatment with inmates.
Services provided for inmates inside the Center.
Means of fulfilling financial and other needs of inmates.
Laws and regulations applied on inmates within and outside the Center.
Social circumstances of inmates outside the Center related to (family, friends, economic status... etc).
As for the aspects social circumstances reflect on the behavior of an inmate, they can be summarized by the following:
The way an inmate deals with the Center's rules and regulations and his sense of belonging.
The way and inmate deals with other inmates and his social attachment to them.
The way an inmate deals with officials and the management of the Center.
The effect of social circumstances on the mentality of an inmate and the limit to which he might repeat his crime in the future.
The independent variables are summarized by:
Social condition: level of education, career and age as the most important aspects that can be observed in an inmate's character.
These independent variables connect to other dependent variables for purposes of correcting different effects of mental, social, economic and educational aspects on the mentality of an inmate and the possibility of repeating crime or the reason it was committed.
The researcher also defined the axes of dependent variables which are: the axis of measuring social trends of an inmate such as his attitude towards respecting laws and his relationship with other inmates, officials, and his loyalty to the prison community in which he lives.
The second axis depends on measuring the degree to which the prisoner contributes to developing the community he lives in, and the extent to which he preserves rules and regulations directed towards him. The third axis of the dependent variables depend on the level of the prisoner's evaluation for different aspects of life inside prison starting with circumstances created to correct and reform him, the social and educational services provided, followed by measuring his opinion in the efficiency of the prison in carrying the role of reform and the level of respect and justice he receives from officials, these can be summarized by the following:
Studying the prisoner's mentality in commitment to prison regulations and respect of other inmates.
The relationship between the prisoner and the warden, and the treatment a prisoner receives inside the prison.
The degree of the prisoner's loyalty to the prison community and his passion for sharing work and cleaning, this measures the level of loyalty and the possibility to change his behavior as if the "prison community is another community".
There is also an attempt for a brief constructive study that stems from lived sightings inside the prison community as to its special laws and the relationship between inmates and common regulations.
This study calls for (which is the axis of the research problem) all relevant people from researchers and officials to work on prisons and detaining centers to become more committed to humane and scientific principles in their management, programs and treatment of detainees.
If there was a problem –to be studied here- relating to thousands of prisoners, detainees and convicted people, from our perspective, there is a more crucial problem which not only related to these mentioned, but to the society as a whole, especially when a prisons turns into a factory for production of crime and criminals, their training and inventing innovative arts- simulation and imitation- within the walls.
Why is this study different from other studies?
Other studies have not focused on viewing prison – as a small community- involving different relationships that exist in other communities.
Henceforth, we can notice that the prison, which is the issue of our research, is a small community, consists of a group of inmates and it is not merely a place or an institution for punishment or correction; it also consists of conflicted interests which must be satisfied, therefore prison is an independent world where a prisoner spends a whole lifetime in which the mental, financial and entertainment requirements for living must be provided. This is why there is, within the prison, a complete economic system and special empowering systems as well as special trends for social relationship.
The researcher will also study the relationship between social circumstances and the way it is affected by social circumstances within prison and among prisoners.
The research theories:
This research sees that whenever the social circumstances- with its previous variables- are positive within the correctional institution; the prisoner's behavior takes a positive direction as well.
In addition to other topics:
the kind of punishment and the method used in executing it inside the prison, and the behavior of wardens and their treatment towards prisoners, all form motives to commit, repeat or limit crime concerning prisoners after their release or even violating prison regulation while inside.
The prison is a society with its personal culture that affects the behavior of prisoners as well as influencing it, just as any other society, this is what observations confirm where new terms have been noticed, news dealings and methods unfamiliar by normal society and only seen in a prison community.
ABDALLAH AL NASSER
