Free Custom «Treatment of Gambling Behaviors during Incarceration» Essay Paper

Gambling is one of the most influential vices that can affect an individual in a negative manner especially if perfected to addiction. Williams defines it as the act of placing something valuable at risk with an aim of gaining anther with a higher value. This could be in the form of money or even personal items like phones. This activity is characterized by quite a number of characteristics including casual betting, speculations among many others. Therefore, it is crucial that this activity be controlled at all levels including individual, community, government, and industrial. With the help of psychologists, gambling can be studied and analyze properly, thus coming up with the most appropriate control measures.

Research has shown that most convicts engage in gambling posting the highest figure at 5 percent. This is mainly because it is sometimes the only source of entertainment within the prisons. In addition, most inmates have found themselves gambling before incarceration. To some, gambling could have contributed to their incarceration. In this regard, the government should find appropriate ways to control gambling within the prisons. This is because prison facilities are made for corrections meaning that it will be easy to treat those with pathological gambling conditions. It is also easier to control gambling when an individual is under some form of the command as opposed to when is at liberty.

 

Type of service

Type of assignment

Title of your paper *

Academic level

Pages

Timeframe

Spacing

Currency

  Order now

The environment within such facilities should be made gambling free, by ensuring that any materials that are used in the vice are eliminated or prohibited. Research ha s shown that abstinence is among the most effective treatment model for pathological gamblers. Therefore, ensuring that prisoner abstain from gambling while in prison can be particularly instrumental in treating the condition. Treatment during incarceration should be introduced while the affected individuals are in correctional facilities.

About 40 percent of all prisoners have gambled within the prison premise. This figure is alarming because it means other prisoners are at risk of getting into the addictive behavior so easily. Therefore, prison officials should consider withdrawing all forms of gambling items such as cards from the prisons. Most prisoners are dragged into the habit progressively only to find themselves deep into the vice. This means that treatment efforts should also focus on protecting inmates that have not yet developed the habit. If such measures are not taken at an appropriate time, then new gamblers may be born inside the prisons. Beside, compulsive gambling is likely to affect inmates quite negatively. Avoiding the spread in part and parcel of a proper treatment model as it ensures comprehensive address on the issue. Otherwise, concentrating on addicts or allowing the vice to take place unabated with in custody.

Treatment approaches for gabling can be facilitated remarkably well by the situation of none being in custody. This is because it involves a number of procedures used for other similar addiction treatments. Procedures such as self-help, physiotherapy, anonymous groups, and group therapy require some time with the affected persons so that they can be effective. A procedure such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is very demanding, as it requires more time to execute. It involves s identifying and attempting to change the behavior and beliefs on an addict. These behaviors include overconfidence, superstition, unrealistic belief in luck, and a distorted and a selective memory. Given the fact that gamblers are mostly criminal, it is difficult to convince them to take rehabilitation courses while at liberty. Treatment should beprovided within the rehabilitation facilities to capitalize of the status of incarceration.

A prison, like any other correctional facility, is designed to ensure that inmates are subjected to rigorous correctional procedures. This means that life after incarceration should be smoother compared to previous one since an individual should be changed. Such intentions are fundamental in establishing treatment procedures for gamblers who are expected to get back into the society as soon as they finish their jail terms. It is shocking that many people end resuming their gambling ways after incarceration thus ending up being delinquent. Some individuals could have landed in confinement just because they had committed serious social crime through gambling. Such individuals could have inflicted massive losses on the families, employers or even to themselves because of gambling. Letting them out of the prison without even attempting to treat them is hugely unfair not only to other people but also to the convicts. This is because they are likely to get back into gambling and end up causing more harm to themselves and others. Therefore, treatment for any form of gambling at the correctional facilities should be encouraged just to enable inmates fit well back into the society after release and avoid being incarcerated for similar offences.

Stay Connected

Live Chat Order now

Assessment of gambling is probably easier in prisons compared to the outside world. This is because the behavior of prisoner can be watched closely and followed up more effectively. This is despite the fact that assessment has been given least attention when approaching treatment of the condition. During incarceration, it is easier for specialists to screen for gambling among inmates; therefore, assess the severity of the condition. An inmate may not be aware of how serious is the condition her or she suffers and may continue assuming so until it gets worse. Diagnostic interview are also possible when one is under incarceration. This is because many affected individuals will shy off the problem when confronted in public. Therefore, incarceration facilities offer the much-needed privacy for openness, whereby such individual talks of the problem. This can be of significant impact in treatment if the saying ‘a problem shared is a problem half solved’, is anything to go by.

As McCullough, asserts, meeting with the affected person helps in dismissing fears of further legal repercussions because of engaging in gambling. This means that inmates are truly free to talk about their problem hence speeding up the recovery process. Since the problem is psychological, privacy is vital in initiating and sustaining a recovery path. Therefore, correctional facilities will be effective in treating individuals with gambling related problems. However, the approach may backfire if the targeted individuals are resistant to such efforts.

In conclusion, gabling is a social ill that is usually not easy to recognize. Although it takes place in underground environments, it effects cannot be hidden since they are exceedingly shouting. Crimes emanating from this activity have been reported over time thus necessitating the establishment of treatment programs while the perpetrators are in prison. Going by any standards, correctional facilities qualify remarkably well for such initiatives since the affected individuals are given personalized care. This is because studies show that more than a third of inmates do gambling. Therefore, it will be wise to arrest the situation at this point before it spreads to others thus magnifying it even more. Such measures will reduce the number of people involved in the act and at the same time deter more from engaging in the act in the future. Losses already suffered by perpetrators can also be taken care off in psychological manner thus help such perpetrators to see the truth and abandon the trade. Unless such measures of treatment during incarceration are taken, the problem will end up spreading more courtesy of the correctional facilities.