Chan Vachiradath, PhD.
Recidivism or reoffending rates are one of the key indicators to measure accomplishment in social reintegration of released prisoners. Although such statistics cannot completely indicate the effectiveness, they are, however, widely used as an assessment tool in many prisons, including Chantaburi Provincial Prison (CPP). At CPP, the recidivism rates are measured to investigate the success in reintegrating inmates into society, under the project called ‘Chan Model’ which is an innovation in the treatment of female prisoners in a sense that it has never been previously carried out in any prisons before. After exploring the reoffending rates of former female prisoners under ‘Chan Model’, it is found that the project result is clearly positive as the rates have declined. In this article, the implementation of Chan Model at CPP is discussed and the factors leading to such achievement are clearly identified.
Socialization Process
While CPP is dominated by male prisoners (2,200 persons), there is also a medium size group of female prisoners (295 persons), who are both convicted and unsentenced, and serving less than 25-year sentence. Regarding the prison staff, 57 and 13 officers are male and female respectively. The latter are responsible for implementing the Bangkok Rules, especially when CPP was selected by the Department of Corrections to be one of model prisons in following the Rules. Besides, this prison also highlights the concept of returning female prisoners to society as a decent and productive citizen after release.
As previously mentioned, one disadvantage of CPP is the fact that 295 female prisoners are detained in the male-oriented facility. It is undeniable that behind the prison walls men prisoners can enjoy spending time in many large areas, i.e. prison school, infirmary, vocational training workshop, gymnasium, sport field and learning building, the women prisoners, on the contrary, are living in the limited and small zone by lack of accessing such similar services and rehabilitation programs. To properly deal with this issue, the prison has adapted and improved the treatment of female prisoners to comply with the Bangkok Rules, in particular to reintegrate them into society by the specific socialization process under ‘Chan Model’.
The socialization process for female prisoners at CPP begins with the normal steps in correctional work: admission, classification, rehabilitation, pre-release and after-care programs. Nevertheless, the significant difference is the increasing role of community participating in, starting from the first to the final stages. The outside people can become the members of prison classification committee and involve in the rehabilitation programs by providing prisoners with jobs and employment inside the prison. Furthermore, private sector can support the vocational training of prisoners at ‘Chan Land Project’ and other mental development schemes, such as Creating Inspiration and Changing Lives by SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) Programs, etc.
Interestingly, the pre-release program is considered as the core of ‘Chan Model’. Apart from going through the pre-release process, the ‘Chan Land Project’ was innovated to fill in the existing gap. At the beginning when a prisoner is sent to CPP, she shall be provided with the classification, rehabilitation and pre-release programs, and one year before the completion of sentence term, the re-classification will be taken to emphasize the intensive pre-release. This includes the selection for eligible and qualified inmates to be vocationally trained at Chan Land Project, a place where prisoners can work on serving the customers in community. At the same time, mental development and self-preparation programs, in particular the employment and mental strength will be provided continuously. After release, the community and network can offer assistance by either finding or offering them jobs.
Finally, when reintegrating them back into society, there will be a care support from the community, private companies, government and local administrative agencies to help them. At Chantaburi Province, people in society and community want to live in a safe and peaceful dwelling. Hence, they are willing to support the released prisoners especially by creating employment in the area.
Special Characteristics of ‘Chan Model’
The approach to reduce recidivism rates of CPP is different from other prisons and so unique that it is called ‘Chan Model’ due to these following special characteristics:
- The social reintegration process increases the participation of all parties, both public and private sectors, as well as the local community in the rehabilitation and treatment of female prisoners from the first step to the end under the slogan ‘House of Chan, House of Heart, for Chantaburi People to Create the Safe Society’. Numerous resources in Chantaburi Province are effectively mobilized: financial resources from the provincial budget; tools and materials from private sector; knowledge from Rambhai Barni Rajabhat University; and further assistance from private companies to vocationally train prisoners and offer employment after release. This greater cooperation comes from the concept of ‘Sending Good People Home’ which focuses on the responsibility of all people in the community to take care of released prisoners who will return to live in the community eventually. They shall be rehabilitated and given the second chance to live by themselves. By doing all these, the former prisoners will not reoffend and shall in turn make Chantaburi society truly safe and peaceful.
- The establishment of ‘Ruean Chan Land’ for providing prisoners with vocational training has several main objectives: opening the prison to the public and encountering the prison overcrowding problem. Ruean Chan Land is a place next to CPP where prisoners can apply vocational training knowledge in the real scenarios by coming to work in the morning and returning to the prison in the late afternoon. Considered as a tourist attraction, Ruean Chan Land offers services to customers by all well-trained inmates who can learn to adapt themselves to the outside world before being released, as well as to be equipped with skills and knowledge to be applied to earn a living. Additionally, the private enterprises can discover skilled prisoners and register for giving them a job after release at the Center for Assistance to Reintegration and Employment (C.A.R.E) of Chantaburi Provincial Prison. This type of full process has never been done in any prisons before.
At Ruean Chan Land project, there are 7 stations as follows: - It could be said that the Chan Model is driven by the central focus on prisoners and the prisoner classification is indeed the key tool. To put it simply, the selection of prisoners for receiving training at Chan Land Project or participating in the pre-release programs must rely on the re-classification process to make an effective screening. In other words, all female inmates who are about to be released from CPP must have their ‘life goals’ and a clear pathway in that the prison will help them to achieve. For example, the women prisoners who are assigned to make coffee at Chan Land Project must be well selected, especially those who intend to pursue this career in the future. Under this project, they do not only work for selling coffee for CPP but they will be also provided with a series of know-how, such as a way to find a proper location and open their coffee shop. Further, in case of prisoners training at Chan Kitchen they will be equipped with various skills: cooking, running service, and conducting business. These experiences are beneficial for them to do start-up or even work in a restaurant. For prisoners learning foot massage, they will be further provided with Chinese language and advice on the location for work. On top of that, prisoners who might have family or financial problems, they shall be classified to undergo proper individual treatment programs.
- There is an evidence-based evaluation on ‘Chan Model’, in particular by using recidivism rates as the key measurement. Together with this, several qualitative indicators are also developed: employment of inmates after going back to their families; and career that can use skills and knowledge gained inside prison, and so on. Such evaluation is quite new in Thai prisons.
Evidence-based Evaluation
The evidence-based evaluation, which has been applied to assess the success of Chan Model on slowing down the recidivism rates of former women prisoners, consists of two levels as follows:
- The overall evaluation on recidivism statistics
In this case, the recidivism rates of female prisoners released from CPP within the past 3 years were analyzed. There were 3 follow-up periods: one year, two years and three years. According to the figures, as shown in Table 1, after launching Chan Model in October 2017, the recidivism rates have been decreased.
Table 1: Recidivism Rates
- The evaluation on individual prisoners
Among 136 female prisoners released from CPP within a year, they had their returning pathways to society as follows:
(a) Do not reoffend: 133 persons
1) Returning to family and resuming previous career (89 persons)
2) Returning to family and being employed with new job (19 persons)
3) Returning to family and working as a freelance,
a merchant, a foot massager, etc. (11 persons)
4) Having broken family and being employed with new job (4 persons)
5) Having broken family and unemployed (10 persons)
(b) Reoffend: 3 persons (=2.2%)
To update the evaluation, the CPP will continue doing further study on the statistics of the next two and three years.
Observations on evaluation
1. The reasons why released prisoners could return to their families and resume the previous jobs are that, firstly, their family bonds are very close and strong. Secondly, before being sentenced to prison, they had a decent career to make a living. This group of prisoners tended to commit crimes because of uncontrollable anger problem, especially when they got into a fight, and in some cases they were very materialistic. Once receiving the treatment programs behind bars, they could be rehabilitated by changing the new mindset. As a consequence, they can now have a normal life with their family and employment after release without reoffending.
2. As for prisoners changing jobs and starting their new lives, most of them were those uneducated and unskilled in working. When they had confronted economic problems, they tended to commit drug-related offences. For this reason, the pre-release programs at CPP shall provide them with an opportunity to be vocationally trained, both employment skills and know-how to do business. This group of prisoners can have their new lives in society without going back to the previous environment before going to prison.
3. Family is the decisive factor in reintegrating inmates into Chantaburi people. As Chantaburi Province is agriculture-oriented, members of families, therefore, are all close and tight. It is very essential for prison to involve in the activities with families of prisoners behind bars. However, if they have not had their own family yet or have broken family, they shall be provided with different training, particularly focusing on the way to live by themselves, or in some cases, to start a family if they are interested in.
Final Note
Chantaburi Provincial Prison is successful in decreasing the recidivism rates of released female prisoners and in reintegrating them into society efficiently. With the support of community in Chantaburi Province, both private and public sectors, the prison seriously focuses on the long term pre-release program by establishing Chan Land Project to be a place for providing inmates with vocational training. The female prisoners are well classified to participate in the training programs that they plan to pursue career after release. By doing these, the private enterprises can acknowledge and accept the prisoners’ skills and abilities, as well as to offer jobs once they are out of prison. According to the evaluation, it is found that the recidivism rates of female prisoners released from CPP have declined. Such achievement can be regarded as the outcome of the new pattern of social reintegration, called ‘Chan Model’.
