Prisons as Schools: Inmates’ Participation in Vocational and Academic Programs in Chinese Prisons

Abstract

Although the idea of criminal rehabilitation in China has a long history, research on offender rehabilitation in contemporary China is limited. Although Chinese scholars generally agree that rehabilitation through correctional education helps inmates with social reintegration and reduces recidivism, few have examined factors associated with prisoners’ participation in such programs. Building on relevant theory and studies in Western societies, this study examines how Chinese prisoners’ participation in vocational and academic programs is associated with a range of push and pull factors. Our research questions are addressed with binary and multinomial logistic regressions based on a unique prisoner data set collected in Zhejiang, China. Results show that some factors found to affect inmate participation in the West failed to demonstrate significant relationships with participation among Chinese prisoners. Furthermore, factors most significantly associated with participation appear to be incarceration related, such as prison visits, prison phone calls, and sentence lengths. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our results.

Barriers to inmate program participation in a private southern US prison

“…Much of this research has examined barriers to program participation outside of the United States (e.g., Brosens et al, 2019a;Westrheim & Manger, 2014;Zhao et al, 2019;cf. Meyer et al, 2014).…”

Rethinking Incarcerated Women's Leisure as Subjected to Coercive and Normative Prison Missions

“…The above types are not mutually exclusive: for instance dance is physical and artistic, whereas yoga is physical, artistic, and spiritual (see Frigon and Jenny, 2009;Frigon, 2010Frigon, , 2014Frigon, , 2019Jenny and Frigon, 2012;Bilderbeck et al, 2014;Auty et al, 2017;Bartels et al, 2019;Middleton et al, 2019;Rousseau et al, 2019). Programs include parenting, philosophy, nutrition, and high school courses; work and vocational training; clinical or therapeutic programs focused on intoxication or addictions (Morash et al, 1994;Batchelder and Pippert, 2002;Pollack, 2009Pollack, , 2016Williams and Walker, 2009;Firth et al, 2015;McCall, 2016;Coulombe, 2017;Crittenden and Koons-Witt, 2017;Duwe, 2017;Zhao et al, 2019). Animal programs such as canine training or zootherapy are also included here (Strimple, 2003;Smith, 2019;Wesely, 2019).…”

Psychiatric disorders and comorbidity in a Spanish sample of prisoners at the end of their sentence: Prevalence rates and associations with criminal history

“…Employment has proven to be one of the most effective means for promoting the reintegration of offenders as it provides individuals with a legitimate source of income, a structured routine, certain status, and the opportunity to associate with law-abiding peers ( Bahr et al, 2010 ; Peled-Laskov et al, 2019 ). Therefore, rehabilitation programs focused on professional training and developing the necessary skills for workplace settings are highly popular in the Western world and have been associated with multiple benefits, including higher self-esteem, better jobs opportunities upon release, and lower recidivism rates ( Peled-Laskov et al, 2019 ; Zhao et al, 2019 ).…”