Will be presented by Virtual Presentation
on Mid of November 2014
on Mid of November 2014
Special Diamond Found from Prison
Ahmad Zaidi
Joharia [1], Mohd Izam
Ghazalib, Tamby Subhan Mohd Meerahc, Alis Putehd , Taufiq Hail
Ghilane,
a University Utara Malaysia, School
of Education UUM, Kedah 06010, Malaysia
b University Utara Malaysia,
School of Education UUM, Kedah 06010, Malaysia
c Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia,Faculty
of Education, Bangi 43600, Malaysia
d University Utara Malaysia, School of
Education UUM, Kedah 06010, Malaysia
e University Utara Malaysia, Collage of Art
& Science UUM, Kedah 06010, Malaysia
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to
answer the question of whether a prisoner's behavior change through appropriate
environment while in jail and out of jail. Research questions are: 1) How does
a prisoner in jail can change his behavior towards positive behavior? 2) What
causes his behavior in prison to change? 3) How can we conduct an ex-convict
out of prison to change behavior towards the positive direction? 4) What are
the reasons for the behavior of prisoners outside the prison to turn into a
positive direction? This study is a qualitative study in a retrospective case
study. Data was collected through observation and interviews. The study was
conducted on a prisoner who is illiterate and had no guidance from his family
since his childhood. This prisoner was imprisoned and sentenced to death
because he was arrested on drug distribution offense. Once after being in
prison for a month, another prisoner jailed with him. He, the later, was a
religious teacher who also imposed the mandatory death penalty for punching
student to death. The religious teacher asked the prisoner and his colleagues
in the prison room to study religion and religious practices such as prayers,
chanting and praying fervently. After a year of studying in earnest, the
prisoner became religious and righteous person and then he was released for the
hearing of an appeal that made the allegations lack of evidence. The findings of this
study is that a prisoner can change his behavior to a positive behavior, both
in prison and outside prison, if he finds the cultivated environment.
Recommendations from this study are to work out suitable environments, especially in the spiritual
sense to educate prisoners.
Keywords: Prisoner; jail; drug trafficking.
1. Introduction
A prison is an institution in which individuals are forcibly confined and denied
a variety of freedoms under the authority of the government as a form
of punishment (Doughlas Harper,
2013). Rehabilitation aims to make reform of the characteristics of the
prisoners and render them a good figure when returning to their community.
However, now it aims to prevent these prisoners, when released, from re-entering
the crime field and return to their former state of being offenders to
themselves or the community. There are many techniques used for preventing the return to crime and
go-straight that includes educational and vocational training, psychological rehabilitation,
dealing with various problems the offender may experience in life.
Drug-addicted prisoners can also receive treatment for their condition in some
prisons.
The laws relating to illicit or entertainment drugs
are strict and the penalty for breaking them is severe. For example, Malaysia
strictly enforces its drug laws and Malaysian legislation (sale of Drugs Act
1952 revised 1989) provides for a mandatory death penalty for convicted drug
traffickers. Under Malaysia anti-drug laws, any person found in possession of
at least 15 grams of heroin, 200 grams of cannabis is presumed, unless the
contrary is proven by the accused, to be trafficking in the drug. The prisoners
must stay in accordance with regulations of the country, and the rehabilitation
activities remains until the prisoner’s release. The Malaysian prison is
the responsibility of the Ministry of Internal Security and Malaysian Prisons
Department serving the community by holding those sentenced by the court (Malaysian
Official Prison Porter 2014). The goal of prison, in addition to
punishment, is to effectively creates a positive behavior to reduce violence,
victimization, and recidivism. Its mission to safeguard the security and safety
amongst people and, at the same time, provides appropriate rehabilitation and
reform programs for the inmates.
Incarceration can be a wake-up call for people who commit crime. It can be a
time for introspection and evaluation of one’s life—a time to reflect on the
past, present, and future. As a result, prison rehabilitation programs often
seek to provide skills in self evaluation and self development in order to help
prisoners in their quest for greater self-knowledge, better behavior and future
direction. Moreover, it is crucial to know the factors that triggers the
development of the criminal deviation into crime to better understand the
reasons of desistance from crime (Haggård, Gumpert, & Grann, 2001).
Consequently, this paper is exploring the real reasons for development of
criminal behavior and the rationale behind the desistance and prevention of
relapse of ex-offenders.
2. Methodology
Desistance of crime is the major concern of
many social organizations, government security and reformation authorities, and
academicians. Some researchers state that social factors are playing a
significant role along with subjective factors to desist crime and go straight
in attitude, as stated by LeBel, Burnett, Maruna, and Bushway (2008). On the
other hand, the environment is also playing a supportive and influential effect
to abandon crimes especially with those who has strong willpower and have their
own resolve, as stated by (Laub & Sampson, 2003). It is the aim of this
exploratory study to investigate the factors that made this ex-prisoner drug
trafficker to desist this career and the reasons behind his desistance of this
crime and going straight.
In this study, the sample is of an
ex-prisoner of an older population of age 60, but committed offend when he was
at the age between 20 and 26. He was incarcerated in prison for a period of two
years and then was released for not having enough evidences against him. He is
now at the age of 60 years old and he is a productive person in the community,
supporting himself, his family, and having his own business. This participant is
married, was also married when he started drug trafficking, and is working in
his own restaurant with his son and wife at the time of the interview.
This interview conducted using
semi-structured method during a home visit with open-ended questions to further
probe deeper into the issue and find out the real causes and rational behind
his crime and desistance from crime. He was asked about his subjective
experiences with this living situation, the (anticipated) time in which he was
inside prison, when he was in prison, and after he was freed from prison. The
time for the interview was approximately for 105 minutes, at a space yard of a
mosque (Muslim warship place). He was encouraged to talk about subjective
experiences and was probed when important specific topics arose. All the
interview was conducted in Malay and serves as a valuable supplement to bring
new insights. This qualitative method is particularly suitable to study topics
that are multidimensional, dynamic, contextual, and subjective, relatively
novel and where issues relating to identity, the self and sense making are
important (Smith, 2004).
There were three interviewers, (the main
interviewer, the translator, and interviewer assistant to record conversation
using audio device connected to laptop), that conducted this interview. At the
onset, the participant was informed that this interview is for the purpose of
academic research, voluntarily, and can be stopped or paused at his
convenience. He also was told to ask for any clarification at any time during
the interview. In addition, the interviewees asked for his consent to allow
audio recording and the final audio script to be presented to him before final
publishing of this study. The translation and lingual corrections were made to
preserve the readability and contents of the context.
2.1. The Present Study
By using qualitative methodology, the
overall purpose of the present study was to gain a greater in sight and
understanding of what changes of the behaviors to Hasan before he entered
prison, in prison, and after free from prison. We have three specific research
aims. Firstly, to explore and obtain more in depth descriptions of prisoners’
experiences with the actual or anticipated moment before prison, in prison, and
after free from prison. Secondly, to explore the reasons behind the
respondents’ behaviors change inside the prison; and finally the circumstance
surrounding the prevention of recidivism and helped the re-entry and
integrating inside the community.
2.2. Participants
There are three participants who took part
in this study with a Given pseudonyms of
Hasan, Zaki, and Nasar. They lived in a country in Northern Malaysia.
Firstly, Hasan is a prime participant because this study focuses on Hasan’s
significant behavior changes. Secondly, Nasar is the chief of the village. Finally,
Zaki is a friend of Hasan and his neighbor who is a close friend to him. All
the participants are male and Malay. The information concerning these participants
are listed in following table.
Table 1 participants.
Name
|
Age
|
Job
|
Qualification
|
Hasan, ex-prisoner
|
60 years
|
Self-employed
|
Illiterate
|
Zaki, friend
|
55 years
|
Trader
|
Secondary School
|
Nasar
|
58 years
|
Chief of the village
|
Secondary School
|
2.3. Procedure
Initially, a verbatim transcripts of the
semi-structured interview of an old ex-convicted prisoner were analyzed using a
step-by-step (systematic approach) as described in detail in Smith and Osborn
(2003). First, the interview transcript was repeatedly read to familiarize with
the story. Comments were denoted of what was said during the interview and some
initial interpretation were denoted too. These initial notes were analyzed to
find the nascent themes and formalize the main and sub-themes. At this stage,
it is crucial that these themes reflect the view of what the respondent meant
in the context. After that, these themes are arranged in a list to find
relevance among them. This arrangement of themes required repeated procedure were
the researcher constantly returns to the transcript to check whether the
participant’s phrases support the researcher’s interpretation. This approach
resulted in a final list of themes. It is worth noting that the researcher has
to involve to make sense of verbal accounts being analyzed (Smith, Jarman,
& Osborn, 1999). Researchers should acknowledge their previous assumptions
or understandings to understand and be unbiased to the phenomena under
investigation, which is referred as bracketing (Smith et al., 2009) to obtain
the trustworthiness of the research process. Moreover, to enhance trustworthiness
of the findings, the technique of analyst triangulation was used by three
different researchers (Patton, 1999). The first researcher, who analysed the
transcripts, is a male and associate professor in education. The second
researcher is male and associate professor in education. The third researcher
is male and professor in education. He
was not directly involved in the analyses of the transcripts using the systematic
approach, but contributed to the comprehension of the emerging themes.The fourth
researcher is male and senior lecturer in education. The fifth researcher is
doctored student in education.
Comparing the findings of two or more researchers
who independently analyse the interview data provides an important check on
selective perception and blind interpretative bias (Patton, 1999). (i.e., the
participants mother tongue); the interview translated to English afterwards.
3. Literature review
3.1. Environment Effect
Haney (2001) presented his view on prisonization
and explained that human has the natural and
normal adaptability to different conditions such as prisoner’s life that has
different living conditions, standards, and environment he/she was accustomed
to it. This is supported by human development theories that emphasize that
human is affected by the surroundings and environment around to create
different attitudes either to adapt self against the challenges faced, or
adapted self to defend that challenge. From this, we can say that life in
prison should help the prisoner to recover from injuries of the spiritually or
mentally and this environment should support that goal to heal and enhance the
psychological adaptation inside the prison.
In a study conducted by Singer (2012) the
researcher gave details of the different challenges faced by the prisoner and
gave detailed explanation, description, and adaptions phases of the prisoner
behind the bars of prison. The researcher characterized life in prison as it is
somehow unknown to anyone that was not imprisoned or has known someone to be.
It is a different atmosphere and environment that one can imagine. The prisoner
is kept inside an isolated and closed place for guilt that he/she commit
against the community, family, law, even himself/herself. This creates a
feeling inside the prisoner that he/she are relegated and treated as a lower
social class figure. Inmates face this harmful feeling and shameful sense of
humiliation as they face the community when they return to it. They are, in
prison, watched, supervised and under control of the authorities. They have no
choice except to obey and adhere to the rules and regulation of what they
should do or should not. They are almost like machine that lost its self-control
and should follow instructions inside jail or incarceration. Thus, a new
behavior is created to deal with themselves, from one hand, and to the
authority in jail from the other hand, Singer (2012).Their personal traits and
behavior is either hold back to adapt themselves to this new situation inside
jail, or show new behavior because of surrounding implications. The researcher
concluded that these changes are normal to human nature as the challenges of
life course create new behavior to adapt to the new environment. In addition,
the psychological adaptations inside prison is a way to maintain mind, spirit
and body of the prisoner.
The environment has control over our
attitudes and actions/reactions that we take in everyday errands and matters.
Take for example, if the violence is spread out in an area, sense of
retaliation and revenge is probably reveals amongst this community. Another
example would be of importance, especially in the modern life of today, when
there is a great gap between the community population. That is to say, two
categories do exist the poor and the wealthy people, which creates the hate
between these two categories, the sense of having more money in a short time
amongst poor, the deviation towards drug abuse to forget or to live in
imaginary rich life, and the sense of humiliation amongst the marginalized
categories of the society. This would drive us to say that environment is one
factor of the deviation of offenders or the relapse of ex-prisoners after being
discharged. Supporting this view is stated by the Basic Behavioural Science
Task Force (1996), “social, cultural, and environmental forces shape who we are
and how well we function in the everyday world.”
3.2. Self-efficacy, Agency, and Willpower Effects
Many scholars and academic researchers
emphasized the importance of one’s willpower or agency as a key element in
changing the intention of criminals to go-straight and to quit offending
actions. This area is thought to be a wealthy and noteworthy to further be
investigated and explored in the way towards desistance from crime (Weaver,
2009; Sampson & Laub, 2005; Bottoms, Shapland, Costello, Holmes, &
Muir, 2004). The psychologists, academicians, and researchers in this area have
investigated the effects of self-efficacy and willpower of individuals and
found that inmates can turn to be effective figures if they had the proper
treatment and rehabilitation programs to change their beliefs to become
productive figures, give guidance, and aftercare when re-entering the society.
Supporting this view O’Connell, Enev, Martin, & Inciardi (2007) pointed out
that when the offender has the intention and want to change to become good
figure inside the community and take further steps towards changing. This sense
of agency would lead the offender’s ability to change with different mechanism.
In principle, the change has to become form oneself to make oneself continue to
behave as he believes not as transient notion or delusion that crosses the
thoughts and renders to its final of obliviousness. Furthermore, it is expected
that when the offender is released and returns to his/her community, the old
fellows would probably persuade him/her to return to the career or persuasion
to relapse into criminal environment.
3.3. Family and Social Bonds Support
The inmate in prison faces lots of
transactional feelings and psychological effects especially when they realize
the new different surroundings, regulations, people, and lack of freedom to do
what they used to outside prison. These changes, almost in all cases, have
negative impact on the inmates that provoke new attitudes and intrapersonal and
interpersonal adaptations mechanisms. Therefore, the reform systems and
rehabilitation programs inside prisons come to an importance of presence at
this critical period of inmate’s life. In addition, the family and friends
support is very important to render the inmate better facing these sudden
changes and traumatic assault. This can be made by different means as regular
visits, mails, and telephone calls. Notably, the social support, in many
studies conducted, found to be a
reliable and valuable source to overcome sever effects of trauma psychological
assaults and reducing its negative effects as noted by authors (Cohen &
Wills, 1985; Sarason, & Pierce, 1990; Cullen, 1994; Biggam & Powers,
1997). In addition, Listwan, Cullen, & Latessa (2006) noted the importance
of family roles in preventing relapse of the ex-prisoners in research and
pinpoint the importance of the close bonds of family to maintain
the continual contact with inmates while in jail.
Most people can
become conscious of their own thoughts and behaviors after influenced by other
people’s thoughts and behaviors and then make positive changes to themselves. A
person's thoughts are often the result of experience, and behavior is often
influenced and prompted by these thoughts. Beliefs, attitudes, and values
affect the way people think and how they view problems. These beliefs can
distort the way a person views reality, interacts with other people, and
experiences everyday life, (Landenberger 2005). Therefore, the social and
family bonds reside on the foremost of importance to formalize the way the
person thinks and builds his beliefs and thought that eventually will be
reflected on his behavior.
Social
support is divided into two categories and can be expressive or instrumental.
The first is described as showing sympathy, sharing emotions, releasing
negative feelings, and promoting self-worth and trust of oneself (Listwan, Colvin, Hanley, & Flannery,
2010). The second type is identified as giving advice or guidance to the
inmate or even offering materialized things. This kind of social support, of
both types, strengthen the relationship between inmate and the supporter
resulting in the reduction of negative feelings of depression, despair, and
loneliness and create a sense of
security inside the inmate, (Cohen & Wills, 1985). On the contrary, the
cessation of family contact or relatives may provoke negative results on the
inmate and cause them to suffer a lot resulting in deterioration of mental and
psychological health being. The family and social bond were given a thorough
importance in research and that made this study focus on this factor during the
interview phase.
3.4. Religion Doctrine Effect
Religion considered a significant element
in guiding, controlling, and tuning the behavior of individuals in societies as
pointed out by (McCullough and Willoughby, 2009). It is a driver in leading or
controlling the behavior of people in every aspect of their life and as an influencer
of their decisions on health issues, business issues, social issues, or even in
their tax payment, (Topalli,
Brezina, & Bernhardt, 2012).
It is believed in a wide scale that
religion is an effective means to reduce crime and to raise the self-conscience
that eventually prevent or at least eliminates the crime in societies, as
indicated by (Topalli, Brezina, & Bernhardt, 2012). In addition, religion
has a strong deterrent effect on personal decisions to commit crimes or offend
others in any means as the communities’ values, traditions, customs, or rules
are influenced by it (Gedicks and Hendrix, 1987, Fowler, 1985). Religion
inculcate inside its followers the idea and sentiment of punishment in the
hereafter, if they deviate from its path and follow their own opinions (Kosmin
and Lachman, 1994; Raven, 1999) and that creates a sense of self-mentor and an
isolated boundary to commit sins or crimes. The human being is apt to
deviation. However, if there is a sense of death or sever danger arises, the person
is most likely aware of the consequences of his wrongdoing in the hereafter as
indicated by many researchers (Osarchuk and Tatz, 1973; Ochsmann, 1984).
Furthermore, religion has a strong influence to persuade, urge, and even
control the human being nature, intentions, decisions, and his behavior; thus
is a key influencer to prevent crime inside societies by restricting the
offensive feelings of human beings. Topalli, Brezina, & Bernhardt (2012)
stated, “Much of that literature focuses on the ability of religion to
constrain or control offending by strengthening the bonds between would-be
criminals and society, with the assumption that such bonds increase a person’s
loyalty to and acceptance of mainstream values (Akers, 2010).” These
aforementioned reasons makes, in our view, religion a strong influencer to
enforce and enhance the goodness attitude of oneself that eventually persuades
ex-criminals to repent and resume normal life when re-entering the society
again. It also a control of individuals to keep a ways from offending acts
before drifting into criminal groups that eventually lead to be member of them.
4. Findings and Discussion
The interview was divided into three
periods of the prisoner’s life course, namely: 1) Period before incarceration;
2) Period in prison’ and 3) Period after incarceration. The study took this
measure to probe deeper into prisoner’s life and find out the environment and
all the surroundings of his life to enable finding out and exploring the real
reasons and factors that led to crime. This approach is followed to get insight
of the underlying factors that led to turn into crime and to probe what helped
in prevention of relapse after released from prison. In the foremost, the
investigation take into account the major change in prison that made a sudden
change and shift into realizing the guilt that had been committed. In addition,
the diamond that found in prison that render the offender purse in hoping that
he would be released and become a good figure.
4.1. Period before Incarceration
This period consists the prisoner’s
life-course in childhood and adolescent. The size of the family was relatively
small that consists of parents, one sister, and the brother (the ex-convict).
He was living in a small village, in a small house with his parents and sister.
His parents were illiterate but the relationship between them was almost good.
The family was poor, that led the parents work as paddy farmers on others’
land. The parents leave early in the morning, leaving their children in the house
where there was not enough care for them, then return exhausted in the evening.
The children were alone, playing around with some other children in the
village. In addition, there were some relatives keep an eye to see if they are
fine from time to time. Hassan said, “We are just alone, playing around, but
somehow there are some relatives around that look over us. (We) just play with
my friends, play “Gasing”…play Guli. If we are hungry, we eat “Janguih fruit or
Keriang fruit.”
The ex-prisoner stated that parenting him
was not enough and that was the culture at that time. He said,” They were going
to work in the morning and return in the evening. They felt tired… They just do
not really care about me! Because at that time it was common.” He was not
satisfied about the care, love, or tenderness of his parents towards him; on
the other hand, he accepted that reality that was common in the community he
lived in.
Education was not of his interest, as the
parents took him to school once and asked him to do so while they were outside
to work in the rice fields. He used to go three time a week, and not having
enough motivation to go there. He said,”
It depends on myself, if I want to go to school, I will go. Maybe (I go)
three time per week.” He was not considering education or having any kind of
importance in his mind. After the age of 10, quit school ultimately and started
to work with selling fish in the market, or help in bringing it to others.
On the other hand, the village chief stated
that, “At that time about 90% of my village did not go to school because the
road, at that time, to school or town (was) very challenging; it was full of
paddy fields and in some places the road was restricted by the jungle, the
bushes, and bamboo trees. Most of us was poor at that time.” This shows that
education was not of strong interest of the community at that time, and the
facilities to encourage the children to go to shcool did not exist thereby made
the decision to children either to go or stay at home. This explanation reveals
that culture and environmental surrounding play a role in shaping the attitudes
of children and their future trend as we will see in the next paragraphs.
At time of his adolescent, at 17 years old,
his father passed away and only his mother took care him. She had to work
harder and that led to leave him move freely, especially with absence of the
father’s power who used to advise him when necessary. He felt differently after
the death of his father. He said, “Yes different. When my father was alive, he
did advise me to not to do bad things, although he don’t know what I am doing.
But after he died, I felt more freedom to do anything I want.”
He had the sense of responsibility to help
his mother and to let her live in a better life standards. He mentioned, “Yes I
do feel it. I find the money to help my mom too.” When he started to deal with
drugs, his mother realized that his attitude changed, got the feeling that
there is something wrong, and started to advise him not to do something wrong.
He did not listen to her at that time. This declaration reflects the sense of
responsibility of the mother, but the carelessness and disobedience of the
adolescent.
In another context, when asked about his
sister knowledge of his drug business, he replied, “No. My sister do not know
about my business because she was married earlier before starting to sell drugs.”
The family social bonds were not enough to
stop him from committing drug selling, even though the culture helps to
straighten the attitude of family members. In addition, his best friend at that
time, who was his colleague in work, indicated that Hassan was selling drug and
he felt that. He said, “One day, when we were hanging under the tree and eating
cherry’s fruit, I asked him if he is selling drug, but he denied that. I felt
somehow he is involved with that business and I advised him to stop before
getting worse. But he did not listen to me and went away!” This acknowledges
that willpower and self-confidence can drift the individual to certain actions
and attitudes, either good or bad, if he really wants what he thinks will bring
benefit to him.
The chief of the village, who was one of
Hassan’s father relatives, declared that Hassan had many friends in the village
community, “Many people liked to be friend with him; he was handsome and
strong… if there was fighting among youngsters, he was always the one who won.
Most of the people (were) afraid of him.” It is clear that he was an
influencing and important figure of his own small community that made drug
selling easier to him. About the way Hassan got to be involved in drug, the
chief of the village stated, “Some of Hassan’s friends were bad. Some of them
took drug and sold it as well. They managed to persuade him to join them; they
told him, “If you sell drug, you will have a lot of money; and if you take
drug, you will feel like you are in the heaven!”” This is a strong indication
that the environment and the friendship or social bonds inside societies, plays
a critical role in involving juvenile in drug abuse.
In the day Hassan was caught; his friend
saw Hassan having a case and rushing. He pointed out, “I tried to catch him up,
but I did not manage to do so. That was the last day I saw him.” When he heard
that he was caught, he did not believe that. He stated, “Hassan is a good
person… somehow I do not believe that he had been caught. This is because every
villager in the village do respect him. He was very helpful and kind with
everyone!” This is a clear indication that a person may be is good, but other
factors may influence to change his attitude and render him a criminal. The
need and social pressure to become rich and live with life standards lead the
offender to think of rapid and easy way to achieve this goal.
At
the age of 20, he started to know about drug by his friend and the money that
can be obtained from selling, trafficking, or distributing it around. Hassan
insisted that he did not use the drug. He said,” I knew drug from friends. I do
not use drug… I sell drug because at that time I am so poor. I want to have a
better live.” Poverty was the main influencer toward driving him to drug
trafficking, to have better life standard and to taste life away from the poor
conditions of his family. The chief also stressed that Hassan was not taking
drug rather he was a supplier. He believed that Hassan did not take the drug
because he only wanted to get more money and live with different life other
than poverty. He said, “He became drug supplier, but he did not take the drug.
He (Hassan) supplied Morphine to pushers then the pushers process it and sold
it to others.”
In addition, he got married when he was 20
years old. He shifted to another house to live with his wife when he was at the
age of 24. He continued to work with drug trafficking until the age of 26. He
was intended to take drug to other suppliers in the main city with total
quantity of 10325 gr of Morphine. The law was so strict at that time (Act 39
(B)) that stated anyone bosses 100 gr of Morphine, will be sentenced to death.
He knew that but continued to work in that business until he got caught in 1978
when he was at the age of 26. Someone reported to the police with the huge
quantity that he intended to pass to suppliers of the main city of Alore Setar
(Malaysian city). The village’s chief said, “I knew the matter when police told
me… at that time, there were 20 pushers and about hundred drug addicts around
my area. Hassan got Morphine supply from Thailand and he supply it to other
places.”
The ex-prisoner did not have any sense of
guilt when he was working with drug trafficking, in the age between 20 and 26,
but felt happy for getting the money. He indicated that he was away from
behaving religiously and was not performing the daily prayers that wakes up the
consciousness and the human feelings. He said, “No. No. No. Never feel it
(guilt feeling). I am happy at that time. I also was not praying.” The religion
was not attracting his interest nor a priority of his life. First and foremost,
the focus of his new career was only to get money and with whatever cost that
the community will suffer from. This shows the great gap between poor and rich
of the society and reflects the lack of social support provided from government
and private business sector to poor thereby increases the feasibility of
criminality attitudes of poor and creation of offender with different
motivations against society.
4.2. Period in Prison
The ex-prisoner had entered the prison at
the age of 26 years old, and had difficult times. At the onset, he felt
depressed, and a feeling of fear and despondency of being sentenced to death
encountered him. He started to feel strange inside this new environment,
thinking of different things: his wife, the court and the death penalty, and
the previous freedom he had. When he entered the jail, he was just married for
8 months. That caused a lot of pain inside him. Even the rules and regulations
inside the prison where difficult to bear, as he was not accustomed to obey
commands since his father’s death. He stated, “I felt confined and depressed,
plus being married just for 8 months.”
Slowly and slowly, he had to adapt himself
to the new atmosphere inside the prison. He started to make connections with
other prisoners, established new friends, and everyone started to narrate his
own story of being inside the prison. He declared, “I had friends, I had. We
tell the stories of each other. There were many prisoners in one room.
Sometimes 5 prisoners and other times 40 prisoners but with bigger room.” In
this context that prisoner describes the adaptation process that took place and
this stage of being inmate is scholarly identified in many studies.
Months being in prison, his conscience started
to wake up, and a sense of guilt attacked him. He felt that life does not
deserve all these pains and sufferings. He wanted to repent; this feeling was
growing day after day; the prison, the death penalty, and leaving his wife
after dreaming to establish family made him take the resolve to repent and go
straight. He stressed, “I felt guilty when I got caught. I had a strong feeling
to learn how to pray.” The willpower was strong to lead him to go straight.
When he was asked about if any person, including the religion teacher,
influenced his positive attitude, he replied, “No, it is because I want to
change, (even) before I knew the teacher… I feel that what I (have) done is
really wrong.” The sense of guilt and the feeling that he committed crime came
because of both the environment of the jail and his inner feeling; he confirmed
that by saying, “Both, from my heart and from the jail.”
A new inmate entered the prison, this
person made the resolve to repent stronger. The inmate was a religion teacher
who was accused of killing one of his students. This new inmate, started to
teach the prisoners the importance of religion and being in the side of The
Creator to help in overcoming these difficult times of life. When he was asked,
“Why did you trust this teacher? Why did you listen to him?” He replied,
“Because he was talking about religion… and I believe on that.” The teacher
taught the prisoners to start praying, calling the lord and praising Him, to
give faith to accept all what it comes from God and the final destination, the
death penalty. The religion teacher was preaching inside the prison; they
learnt from him everything to do in order to return to God. Unfortunately,
Hassan was unable to read and write and he regret that. The religiosity inside
Hassan increased especially after knowing how to pray and how to practice the
teachings of religion. The religion role is here clear to change the thinking
of Hassan of life, and the right and wrong.
When the ex-prisoner was asked, “What made
you trust and listen to this religion teacher?” He replied, “I had already been
ready to repent, it was decisive resolve to do so, but I was in need for
someone to proffer to give his hand to me, to support me, to encourage me.” He
had the strong willpower to return to goodness and never commit this crime
again. He joined this religion teacher’s group, and the change took place in
his attitude and faith in God.
Hassan was asked about if there were any
other reasons to this change in his attitude and having the strong agency to
quit forever this crime. He proclaimed, “My wife, my sister, and my mother used
to visit me every month. They were supporting me and always pray for me that
one day, there will be a miracle that will take me outside this place. They
strengthen my faith of My Creator. I felt being closer and closer to the Lord
of heaven” It was clear that his family was another element for support and
encouragement to take him away of this despondency and to empower his agency to
take the resolve to quit and that was a guilt that he should repent from it.
Even though the visit was once a month, it was of great effect on his changing
behavior. Supporting this, the chief of the village said, “When Hassan was jail,
his mother, his wife, and sister always come and look over him at least once a
month. When his mother, wife, and sister want to go to the jail to visit
Hassan, they tell me.” Somehow, the village chief collected some money for
Hassan’s mother and sister to visit Hassan because the distance to the jail and
his house is about 40km far away. He stressed that, “Everyone in the village
like to help them because they all knew that Hassan is very kind to them and
Hassan also like to help them when was out there before he get caught.” This
declaration by the chief of the village clearly shows that Hassan was having
economic problems and this forced his to go to this path towards solve his
poverty circumstance. Additionally, the family contact strengthened his willpower
and self-efficacy to turn into a good person and reflects the importance of
social bonds in shaping desistance from crime.
Other than that, his mother told the
village chief, “She was happy because Hassan was
learning religion inside the jail from religious teacher that he met in the
jail.” The chief continued, “This is because, before Hassan jailed, he never
care about religion. When I heard about that from Hassan’s mother, I felt happy
for here, this is because, after Hassan’s father death I think of Hassan as my
own son.” This is a reflection of how Hassan was thought to be a good person
among most of the villagers, although he committed this guilt.
On the other hand, his friend was also
visiting him and still believe that Hassan is a good person. He said, “Although
he get caught of selling drug, I still care for him. I ask him about life in
jail.” Hassan’s answers was, “I’m so sorry for not listening to your advice.
Now I am learning religion. I want to be good person…I don’t want to be myself
back there.” Hassan’s friend commented, “When I heard that he will be
discharged, I was thankful to our Creator because he gave Hassan the second
chance to change.”
Returning to Hassan’s life before entering
the prison, His friend added, “One day I heard that the village chief want to
collect money for Hassan’s family. When I heard that, I went to the village’s
chief and asked him if I can help him. After that, I shocked because there were
many villagers came to give their portion of money to help Hassan’ family. It
looks like others really care about Hassan!”
When he was asked about his adaptation to
jail, his feelings until he was discharged from jail, and if he established new
friendship with other prisoners, he replied, “I felt fun, because there were
many friends in there. Yes many friends. Somehow it made me think that what I
did was wrong.” His attitude changed a lot, his willpower became stronger and a
feeling of being deviated from the right path was hurting him.
When asked about the day of hearing the verdict,
“Was there any hope that you will get free? Any miracle that will take you from
this prison and being free again?” His answer was with confident, “Yes I felt
that I will be free; I had dreams 2 time that I will be free. The first was,
being beside a huge gate, and besides that, there was a high tree; then I
climbed the tree and jumped over the wall. The second one I dreamed that I was
driving a car, in front of me there was bridge with a tiny board; then I passed
the bridge to the other bank.” He continued, “And in Ramadan (Fasting month of
Muslims where food and water is forbidden to take before sunrise until sunset),
when I practice prayers and when my head touches the ground, I felt that
something is pulling my forefront with great relaxation and blessings touches
my heart. I asked the religion teacher about that and he answered me that the
Lord of the Heaven is blessing my prayers!” He was asked, “Did you ever think
when you are out, what will you do or what you will work?” He answered with
confidence, “I took the resolve to do anything that is good, any job, even if
it is with less money.” Self-efficacy and willpower is a driver toward oneself
resolve and that is emphasized scholarly with large scale in criminological
studies.
4.3. Period after incarceration
During his stay in prison, he had fixed his
confidence on himself and sent an appeal to the court. After 6 months, he has
been released, as there were not enough evidences to accuse him of selling
drugs. After discharging from the prison, for not having enough evidences
against him, he had freedom again. The bad friend visited him and tried to
convince him to resume selling drugs. Hassan refused the invitation. He
commented, “Yes they had come to me, but I told them that I do not want to do
it again. They never disturbed me afterwards.” This strong willingness became
stronger after being in prison and learning to resume his faith in God and his
confidence on himself. He took the resolve to quit drugs and this career that
brought him to fake wealth and a life full of threats. In addition, a good
friend was visiting him regularly and advised him to stay away from that job
and to perform more supplications to God and he will help him.
The chief of the village said, “When
the day of his discharge came, his mom had come to me (village chief)…she told
me that Hassan will be release today. After that, I went with Hassan’s mother
and his sister to jail to bring Hassan back home. On the way, Hassan’s mother
had told me, “Pak Nasar, I do really miss Hassan… I want to hug him and I will
cook for him his favorite food when he is at home,” when I heard that, I just
smiled to her.” This shows how much concern was his family caring for him after
he was out of jail. They did not deserted him or left him alone because of
former offend, they on the other hand, helped him and proffered him support,
encouragement, and intention that they want him and will never leave him alone.
The aftercare family and social support is crucial at this point of re-entering
the society again as it will foster his will to go-straight and find a job that
will render him a good figure of society again and to integrate with the
community in different productive way. The chief remarked that Hassan changed
and that was evident since the day of his release, “One day in the morning
after Hassan’s discharge from jail, he had come to me and asked me if there is
any job that he can do. That made me happy! Besides, Hassan always went to
mosque. He did show an excellent result of being a good person.”
In another context, at the time of the
hearing day at court, his friend was so eager to celebrate Hassan’s release
from prison. When it was decided to release him at the court, “I went to Hassan
and hugged him. Alhamdulilah (Thank God).” That was a good indication that
Hassan was in nature a good person but there were influences that facilitated
being fallen in a pitfall of the fake happiness with lots of money. The need
for money, poverty, and environment deteriorated his good nature and rendered
him a criminal. Additionally, his friend added that the presence of Hassan in
village again changed the state of the drug sellers and thieves. He stated,
“There were much robbery, and many people selling drug around the town and
village. However, after Hassan got out, the robbery became lesser, as well as
the drug selling. This is because this kind of people do scare from Hassan.” He
added, “Besides, Hassan do like to invite others to go to mosque (place to
perform prayers of Muslims). Before he got out from prison, I was the one who
be the imam (the one who leads other in prayers) for the prayer, but now Hassan
is the one.” That is a strong indication of his complete change inside jail
that made him be a leader of goodness and a sign of piety.
5. Result
The character under investigation, Hassan,
had difficult childhood that lacked education, poor parenting standards, and
influenced and surrounded by bad persons. He stated to Ustaz Abdul, the
religion teacher inmate, that he, “never go to school, because it is away from
the town. The road at my town also not really good.” The poor parenting has crucial consequences
not only for the individual, but also for the family and a society as a whole.
It could happen because of socioeconomic deprivation. Family and social impact
is influencing in Hassan’s case as poverty plays a strong role that derive the
attention of the family to look for the essential needs and not being able or
even neglecting the needs of raising children, sending them to schools,
encouraging them to behave in a good manner and not to be drift towards bad
people. Pool (2003) stressed the importance of mother in raising children and
to provide social needs to children, but poverty pushed the parents, and mother
specifically, to find job and be away from children that impacted their
attitudes and changing their morals to be offenders. The social and family
bonds were crucial in the ex-prisoner in his attitude before, inside/outside
prison, and after incarceration. Supporting this result is according to a
leader of prison reform, Dr. Harry Wexler, who stressed that prison-based drug
abuse is effective only when it has an aftercare; therefore, that leads to
reduction of recidivism. In our case of Hassan, he could not be able to
continue to be straight forward in his behavior, unless there was a continual
follow up to encourage him to be a useful figure in the community. The family
bonds and social contact helped him in this regard.
Changing the environment to the one that
has stable circumstances, essential needs to live, and laws and regulations to
comply with it, or to face direct punishment, should affect one’s attitude.
Hassan entered the jail, environment is changed ultimately, and new faces and
new characters entered his life. He met
Ustaz Abdul, who was also waiting for death penalty, inside jail. He changed
his perception of meaning of life, of people, of community, and of oneself.
Hassan started to see himself again as good person and started to connect with
the creator that influenced the sense of fear of Him if committing offends to
others or to himself. This new environment created new friendship with Ustaz
Abdul who raised the faith of The Creator inside Hassan, and gave a positive
impact of Hassan’s willpower and self-efficacy. The religion was the way, which
Hassan believed to save him and to change his life towards being good figure.
Furthermore, religion raised his belief of taking the resolve to quit drug
selling, and reduced the possibility of recidivism and strengthened the
intention of going-straight.
In addition, being in environment providing
facilities to be educated and rehabitated raised the positive awareness level
of Hassan, helped to create new motivations towards life and maturation of self
that helped in understanding the negative side of a person. The final influencer of prisoner’s changing
of attitude is the organization or the system inside the jail. It can change
the way a person is acting or interacting with others in a systematic way and
to behave in a positive manner, (Sparks, Bottom & Hay, 1996).
Religion has a strong influence on the
change of Hassan’s perception, strengthened his faith and his willpower. Ustaz
Abdul helped him in this task and was a source of light to show him the good
interpretation of religion as a source of good life among people. Hasaan said,
“Ustaz Abdul, I feel like learning how
to read the Holy Quran. Besides, I do not want to die like this.” It is obvious
from this words that his decision is stronger when he got comprehensive
knowledge about being good and to act in a good manner.
Final findings support the Desistance
theory in that agency and willpower with strong belief is a primary mechanism
for changing behavior and desistance from crime. For example, if the offender
realizes the positive outcome of desistance, he is perceived to have enough
awareness of controlling himself. Consequently, this leads to prevent relapse
and integrates to society easily.
6. Conclusion and Future Research
The present paper attempted to probe the
factors that leads to criminal activities and careers. The interview based on
open-ended questions to explore deeply the hidden side and circumstances that
surrounded the crime development. The investigation encompasses the childhood,
the juvenile and adult periods of life of the ex-prisoner. This, in our view
would further explains the complete picture of the real factors that lead to
crime. The diamond found in prison with its several facets is enumerated as
follows: 1) The return to oneself, 2) The realization of the guilt, 3) The
resolve to repent and realization of the value of desistance, 4) The raise of
self-efficacy and awareness of self-control to live crime free life, 5) The
discovery of the fake vision of being rich with committing crimes, 6) The
realization of social support and guidance inside and outside the jail, and 7)
The self-esteem to monitor oneself of what should be done or shouldn’t in all
life aspects of life in a way not harm anyone.
Future
research needs to address the limitations of the present study and build on the
findings of this study. The sample was at convenience and cannot be generalized
to the inmate population as a whole. We recommend in future studies the random
sampling including different categories of age, ethnicity, and crime type.
These studies can be qualitative, quantitative, or even mixed of both. This, in
our view, therefore, will give comprehensive insight of factors preventing the
relapse and the return to go-straight. Additionally, this paper attempted to
explore offender’s believe of crime against society and oneself, the desistance
from crime, and the prevention of recidivism. It also highly advised to focus
on additional factors leads to crime, prevent crime, and help re-entering and
integration into society specifically education, parenting and bringing up
individuals, community social responsibility, and role of religion in
protecting community members.
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