change (or have a good chance). Inmates, when taught to be productive, are "likely to develop the self-esteem essential to a normal, integrated personality" (Szumski 21). These kinds of programs would provide essential skills, development of healthy habits, and "replace the sense of hopelessness" (Szumski 21) that many inmates have. Most of America's correctional institutions lack programs of criminal rehabilitation. One can predict that a prisoner, after many years of incarceration without being educated, will have many more disadvantages upon their release back into society.One of the major sociological theories of delinquency is differential association (Doob 169). The idea is that some people have learned their ways from undesirable people who they were forced to associate with and that this association warps their thinking and social attitudes. Differential association theory emphasizes that a person is more likely to become a criminal if the people who have the greatest influence upon them are criminals (Doob 169). In addition, sending a deviant person, who has been associated with criminal influences, to prison would just make the problem worse (Fox 61). "Group counseling, group interaction, and other kinds of group activities can provide a corrective, positive experience that might help to offset the earlier delinquent association" (Bennett 25). One technique used to rehabilitate criminals is counseling. In general, there are two types of counseling, individual and group counseling. The aim of group counseling is to develop positive peer pressure that will influence its members. According to Lawrence Bennett, group problem solving has definite advantages over individual problem solving. One advantage is that a variety of solutions can be derived from the experiences of several people from different backgrounds. For instance, a group member might have already solved a problem that another member is experiencing and ...
