Society puts labels on everyone and we all do it sometimes in our life, though we cannot admit it. Once criminals are released from their rehabilitation processes they enter back into mainstream society and hope to secure a job, but this is not the circumstance for some people. The saying “Once a criminal always a criminal” is a common misconception which Christian Perrin, a criminal psychologist who works in the University of Liverpool in Singapore, brought out, “ Though we do not individually put labels but society itself does, with the impact of social media”.
Everyone has a fascination for crime in one way or another but the media does especially, as it is a well known place for many of the things people want to find out about. The media portrays criminals by their wrong doing only, and focus just on the things they have “horrendously” done. It puts ex-inmates in 360 degree covered label allowing them not to be able to enter into mainstream society once they leave.
In my opinion, I think that all offenders should have a second chance at re-entering society and being able to do the normal things that we all humans do. The crimes they commit in the first place may be a mistake, but doing that once more and going through the process is mental and physical torture. This means that society does not accept them to fix their wrong doing and ignores the only chance they get to relive.
I think that the main influencer of this topic is the media , tv and movies, they show them as scary and unforgiving people who cannot achieve more than crime. The media shines a rain cloud over everyone who has committed a crime and eventually leading to the population being affected. Recidivism which means if the criminals re-offend is at 30% this shows that 104.7 million people which is the total amount of people being incarcerated in the first place ( Study by World Prison Brief) and which 31 million are re-entering those prisons. This to me shows the majority is leaving and returning to mainstream society.
I believe with Christian Perrin that prisoners deserve a second chance and that we should implement in the world a similar strategy to they way schools do by erasing school records and allowing them to have a second chance. This allows them to improve quality of life and potentially having a education after the years spent in prison. Quality of life globally would improve and would affect the countries GDP. We should be un-labelling these people and allowing them to forget their past and let them attempt what they have left of their lives to the fullest. The more we surround ourselves with social media the more easily malleable our minds get which allows us to be feed the fact that “Once a criminal always a criminal”.
A study by the Straits Times concluded that 30% of inmates in Singapore only have education levels of primary school or even less. SCORE; Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprises has been helping ex-inmates secure a job and let alone a good job once they leave prison. They help build upon existing careers and organise courses to further extend the knowledge of the ex-inmates. I believe in this process because discrimination does not exist and the help is there 24/7 and it is up to the ex-inmate to change their life around or not.