During the 6-weeks, I attended Expun, Penal Enforcement Law in Transition: Human Rights, Rehabilitation, and Social Responsibility hosted by the University of Bergen at the University of Oslo. During this conference, academics presented topics within penal punishment throughout many different nations and fields. One of the topics that stuck with me was on the application of the four dimensions of rehabilitation to state systems, as a mechanism to fully integrate former inmates to society and recidivism prevention. One of the questions that I constantly had to engage with during my six weeks is needed to achieve reintegration, and what actions can society (at all levels) take to achieve this. This is a question that while individuals are working to solve, may never be solved during my lifetime as they are so many variables to answer this. As a professor said, answering the question is "like a jelly, you wish to nail to a wall". However, while many gave great components to the solution, I was particularly fascinated by the four dimensions of rehabilitation- where Fergus McNeil argues that psychological rehabilitation has been on the forefront of rehabilitative programs for offenders in Criminal Justice systems and proven to be inadequate in preventing recidivism. As a solution, McNeil argues that systems should work towards expanding their rehabilitation programs to target personal, social, legal, and moral restorative practices. However many systems have been limited in scope focusing on only one aspect of recidivism prevention. During my time, I have considered this model, when brainstorming methods that local organizations can take to use holistic approaches to rehabilitation and reintegration.
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