Impact of Penal Voluntary Service (PVS), Essay Example

Impact of Penal Voluntary Service (PVS) Organizations on Criminalized Individuals and their Communities

The PVS organizations impact criminalized individuals and their communities in different ways. These impacts are sometimes positive or negative. The positive effects include providing education, rehabilitation services, and other supportive services these individuals need (Abrams et al. 2016:3). On the other hand, the negative impacts include the stigmatization of these individuals, especially those from the black community, who are segregated and stigmatized for their color and association with criminal activities even though they are ex-offenders. Therefore, this case will identify and discuss the helpful and harmful impacts of the PVS organizations on criminalized individuals and their communities.

The PVS organizations have various positive impacts on criminalized individuals and their communities. First, I think that criminalized individuals can find a sense of personal and cognitive change through the help of these organizations (Abrams et al. 2016). This inclination results from their focus on changing the community’s perspective. Therefore, the ex-offenders can rectify their mistakes and show society that they are changed people through the programs. The programs help prepare them to interact with the community easily. Moreover, ex-offenders can reintegrate with the community through various activities (Prior 2020). Thus, the PVS organizations facilitate ex-offenders with better personal growth and recognition.

The community can find a sense of purpose. By working with PVS organizations, some community members feel a sense of purpose and satisfaction. For instance, Hilda said that she found joy because the program was beneficial to the criminalized individuals (Abrams et al. 2016). Therefore, the PVS organizations can help the community give back, especially the members who have been incarcerated before. Additionally, the interaction of the PVS organizations with the criminalized individuals may help build bridges (Abrams et al. 2016). In particular, ex-offenders can find their self-identity and explore personal choices (Tomczak and Thompson 2017). This is mainly because the prison system completely shuts down the prisoners from the world. Thus, they can desist from crime and easily cope with the post-release transition. Therefore, PVS organizations help ex-offenders successfully undergo this process of transition.

The criminalized individuals can secure employment. The PVS organizations ensure that they prepare ex-offenders for work. This is through the provision of certificates that act as evidence of corrective behavior (Miller 2014). More so, the PVS organizations provide the ex-convicts with temporary employment meant to help them sustain themselves, especially providing them with housing facilities. These organizations help them prepare and set their future goals, thus giving them hope for a better future. For instance, Trevor, an ex-convict, narrated that he entered the prison without educational qualification but could acquire (Abrams et al. 2016). This was through the various available courses that were present. Therefore, the PVS provides quality education to the offenders to ensure they have practical skills once they are out.

The prisoners can express themselves authentically. This inclination is because the prisoners easily trust the PVS organization’s staff and can open up to them (Tomczak and Albertson 2016). The prisoners are sure that the staff does not have any hidden agenda to criminalize them. As a result, the prisoners can benefit from the range of activities offered by these organizations. More so, the prisoners can improve their communication skills and their power of expression within and outside of their project areas (Tomczak and Albertson 2016). Even so, these organizations motivate the prisoners to complete their sentences to return to their communities. Besides, the community benefits since they will not have to endure the trauma of living with ex-offenders with no sense of purpose or identity because they can easily harm the family members and the residents. Hence, the community and the criminalized individuals can reap the various benefits of these organizations.

There is increased confidence among the criminal offenders. The ex-offenders’ creative work enables them to develop their confidence (Vox Liminis 2020). Through participation in various projects such as songwriting, they can write down their emotions. Moreover, working together in groups and sharing artwork helps the convicts develop confidence. For instance, the In Tune project persistently works with families that have a parent in prison, enabling them to spend quality time together as a family (Vox Liminis 2020). Therefore, these programs are crucial in re-developing the lost confidence among ex-offenders, mainly due to the harsh prison system.

However, despite the positive impacts, there are various negative impacts of the PVS organizations. According to Abrams et al. (2016), the transfer of rehabilitative services from the state to the nonprofit sector has proven problematic. The PVS organizations seek to make the ex-offenders employable rather than teach them how to procure jobs (Abrams et al. 2016). This is because the organizations focus more on personal development instead of helping the ex-offenders address the problem of structural barriers to employment. After completing the program, the community faces the burden of assisting ex-offenders in procuring jobs, which often seems problematic. Therefore, the PVS organization should concentrate on the personal development that makes the ex-offenders employable and focus on helping them procure jobs. This will then be helpful to the criminalized individuals and the community at large.

The PVS organizations offer temporary jobs only. This is a harmful impact on the criminalized offenders because they end up jobless after the expiry of the transitional job. As a result, they end up jeopardizing their eligibility for various social services, which require a stabilized income (Miller 2014). Thus, the ex-offenders end up with many certificates that cannot help secure jobs in the competitive job market. The PVS organizations do not care about this because they receive their funding as long as they have evidence of transformative certificates (Miller 2014). Therefore, the ex-offenders face the problem of unemployment, which is burdensome to the family members and the community. Hence, the PVS organization should improve its education system to help ex-offenders procure permanent jobs.

The PVS organizations are stricter and coercive. Some of the rehabilitation centers do not offer personal development to help ex-offenders. They are used to punish offenders instead of providing care and control (Quirouette 2021). The racial minorities were given fewer benefits for a brief period. As a result, I think the ex-offenders were affected by the actions of the PVS organizations, who were expected to help them grow instead of racially discriminating against them. More so, racial discrimination led to economic and political deterioration (Tomczak and Thompson 2017). However, rehabilitative centers continuously receive funding regardless of their acts. The centers were replaced by prison reentry programs; thus, deviating from the main focus, which was moral regeneration, to the practice of practical skills to shift the offender’s criminal thinking. Therefore, PVS organizations can have a detrimental impact on black communities.

References

Abrams, Laura S, Hughes Emma, Inderbitzin Michelle, and Meek Rosie. (Eds.). 2016. The Voluntary Sector in Prisons: Encouraging Personal and Institutional Change. Springer. https://www.springer.com/series/14596

Miller, Reuben J. 2014. “Devolving the Carceral State: Race, Prisoner Reentry, and the Micro-Politics of Urban Poverty Management.” Punishment & Society 16(3):305-335. https://www.10.1177/1462474514527487

Prior, Francis B. 2020. “Security Culture: Surveillance and Responsibilization in a Prisoner Reentry Organization.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 49(3):390-413. https://www.10.1177/0891241620908651

Quirouette, Marianne. 2021. “The Struggle is Real”: Punitive Assessment in Community Services.” Punishment & Society. https://www.10.1177/1462474521990436

Tomczak, Phillipa J., and Albertson Katherine E. 2016. “Prisoner Relationships with Voluntary Sector Practitioners.” The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice 55(1-2):57-72. https://www.10.1111.hojo.12164

Tomczak, Phillipa and Thompson David. 2019. “Inclusionary Control? Theorizing the Effects of Penal Voluntary Organizations’ Work.” Theoretical Criminology 23(1):4-24. https://www.10.1177/1362480617733724

Vox Liminis. 2020. “Voices from the Threshold: The Difference We Make.” https://www.voxliminis.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/The-Difference-We-Make-2018-19.pdf