"Radical therapy" for 8% of prison population, Sex Criminals

[pete2]

Ireland's worst sex criminals are to receive radical therapy designed to turn them into regular members of society...

Sex offenders are the 8% of the prison population.. It's the Irish Prison Service's (IPS) responsibility to both house and attempt to rehabilitate prisoners. Arbour Hill is home to 91% of incarcerated male sex offenders. The prison has just rolled out its new rehabilitation programme for this sizeable minority of inmates. It's long overdue.

The new therapy replaces the antiquated sex-offender programme, in place since 1994, which provided intensive therapy to just eight inmates each year and was unpopular with prisoners as it lasted 10 months. It was also only suitable for sex offenders who were at a high risk of re-offending. The new programme is based on a Canadian system, which Irish prison officials travelled to the Rockwood Foundation in Kingston, Canada, to learn about.

The philosophy behind the programme is that everyone can change and that such change is best facilitated by treating people with respect. It distinguishes people's actions from themselves as individuals and emphasises their strengths as well as targeting their weaknesses. "The programme is called 'Building Better Lives' and helps build confidence in people to get their lives back on track without shame," explains Dr Esther Lonergan, senior clinical psychologist with the prison service.

"It's based largely on group therapy and the emphasis is on the men supporting each other...

Arbour In The Storm

Can sex criminals be rehabilitated?

[Finbarr From The Fort]

Medical castration is a better option for serial rapists and child abuser's.

[Dios]

Can sex criminals be rehabilitated?

What's a sex criminal? Is it the leering Fr Smith, the rapist/murderer waiting by the railway lines, the teenage boy who gets caught with his his underage girlfriend, that oddball with the phone camera trying to take pictures up girls' skirts? All of these could well be stamped with the term "sex criminal", but the punishments and relative chances of rehabilitation cover as broad a spectrum as simply saying "criminals".

[Andrew49]

Wayne Dumond was convicted in 1984 of raping a teenaged girl who was a distant cousin of Bill Clinton, then governor of Arkansas. While out on bail and awaiting trial, Dumond claimed men in black ski masks broke into his home and forcibly castrated him. The authorities claimed Dumond cut off his own testicles in an attempt to curry favor with the jury. He was sentenced to life in prison, and his testicles ended up in a jar on the desk of a controversial Arkansas sheriff.

The "Pros and Cons" of Castrating Rapists