Assess the importance of building positive relationships for offenders

It is important to build a positive relationship between prisoners and those who they come in contact with both while in custody and on release. For example is a prisoner does not have positive support or role models in the community they come from it can means that when they return to that environment they will more likely reoffend again but if the prisoner can build a positive relationships this will lead to opportunities work or constructive study and the chances of reoffending are greatly reduced. It can be very hard for prisoner to have relationships outside the prison as they might have alienated family and friends also they might find it difficult to reintegrate into society as there is a social stigma attached to those who have served a custodial sentence and by being taken into custody jobs, family and housing might be lost.

This can leave a negative impact on prisoners that is why is good to allow prisoners to maintain relationship with family and friends this is why prisoners are entitled to visits which are taken place in a supervised which sometimes if stressful for both prisoner and visitor. Children are allowed to visit and it is encouraged to create relationship between prisoner and children these include having open days and encouraging offenders to tape bedtime stories for kids or write stories and letters to send to them. It is important to have prohibition officers both for rehabilitation both while in custody and on release they help with the prisoner to address there problem of reoffending and help with prisoner reintegration into society on release. People can also volunteer to help prisoners both during custody and on release. There are schemes like toe by toe and storybook dads which relay on volunteers and the Samaritans who are active in prison, supporting prisoners and training listeners.

There a lot of different type of people in prison and they all have different religious beliefs that is why prison have multi-faith chaplaincy department which are made up of paid staff and volunteers ensuring that all prisoners of faith groups can be supported. Chaplains from a wide range of faith tradition work with the prison service including Hindu, Muslim, Jewish e.g. one of the key roles of the chaplaincy is to meet every prisoner after reception into custody and talk to them about family links emotional and spiritual needs and the prisoner’s personal wellbeing. For prisoners who have communication or relationship problems with in the custodial environment. There are many techniques the prison uses to solve this problem like mentoring, buddy scheme, toe by toe and support for literacy.

The prison also has listeners who have been trained by the Samaritans are a vital support to other prisoners who feel depressed and vulnerable or who are missing there family. There are also prison officer schemes, this is to ensure that when prisoners first arrive that a personal officer for the prisoner to turn to for advice and help. This plays a big role in youth offender’s institution and personal officers are a go to if the prisoner has any questions, complains or in general need advice. The personal officer also helps with developing and managing prisoner’s sentence plan, helping the offenders to make the best use of their time in prison and preparing them for a law-abiding life on release.

All prisoners have their offending behaviour addresses and depending on the offence that the prisoner has been committed for there will be a plan set out to help the individuals offending behaviour like attending offending behaviour programs and receiving education and training to enable them to start to prepare for life on release. There are many education programs to be offered as provision to address offending behaviour. One of the basic educational programs is literacy and numeracy and there are also courses that are available to be done by prisoners for subjects like shopping, nutrition and cooking etc. There are also NVQ which are available for more practical subjects like catering, sports management, environmental management, pluming and brick lying. Prisoners may also be offered to study for GCSEs, A levels and degrees by distance learning, computer based learning or formal education classes. Enhanced Thinking Skills (ETS)

This program addresses thinking and behaviour that are accosted with offending. This program includes thinks like impulse control, flexible thinking, social perspective taking, moral reasoning, inter-personal skills and problem solving. Over the past 12 years more than 40,000 offenders have completed this course. Controlling Anger and Learning to Manage It (CALM)

An emotional management programme designed for those whose offending behaviour is precipitated by intense emotions. The goals are to assist offenders understand the factors that trigger their anger and aggression and learn skills to manage their emotions. Sex Offenders Treatment Programmes (STOP)

This program is intended for sexual offenders this specific program is designed according to the needs of the individual offenders and the level of risk they pose to society.

Choices, Action, Relationships and Emotions (CARE)
This program is for female prisoners whose offending is related to difficulties with emotion regulation. The course aims to help participants identify and label emotions and develop skills for managing emotion. In addition, the course aims to foster a positive self-identity that will enable participants to live the kind of life they would like to on release.

Offending behaviour programs helps the prisoners and the prison environment in a lot of different way for example controlling, anger and learning to manage it (CALM) helps in many ways like teaching prisoner to control their emotions and help them understand what causes them to go out of control and if a situation occurs where they think that they might go out of control they how to handle it. There are also educational programs that helps the individuals in many way for example the prisoners have a chance to learn is literacy and numeracy and other things like GCSEs, A levels and NVQ which will help then get jog once they are released back into society and this is very crucial as it will help them back into society better and live life as a law abiding citizen and it also helps the prison service as they have less of a chance to reoffend again which means less work for the prison service and more worker in the working world.

There are other programs that help offending behaviour like ETS, STOP and CARE these all helps prisoners in different way and are suited to the individual and the reason that they are in prison also they help their behaviour and there are example of these programs helping real people for example over 40,000 offenders have completed the enhanced thinking skills program over the past 12 years. Good relation also helps the prisoners in a lot of ways as it give the prisoners a more support once they are released back into society if there is a good relationships between prisoners and prison staff because prisoners will find it easier to form relationships out of prison and this will make the fitting into society easy also there rehabilitation officers will help them not to reoffend and solve problems that prisoners face. Good relationship and offending behaviour programs are very crucial as they help turn prisoner’s lives around for example Frank Harris 53-year-old Londoner says he was in and out of prisons for more than 30 years before he found his “way out” through education and wants other people involved in crime to see it is not too late for them either and this tell you that people need the help of these programs to change their lives.