Self Renewal Quadrant Analysis to Classify Types of Prisoner

Prisoner rehabilitation is a costly affair and a heavy burden to the tax payers. Billions are spent to assist the criminals to turn over a new leaf while they are serving their sentence. The goal of rehabilitation is to reform the prisoners from committing crimes and assisting them in starting normal lives once they are released to the main stream of society. The house of rehabilitation is set up in every prison with numerous therapeutic and educational programs to assist them to self-actualize besides helping them to acquire the living skills to prepare them to earn a decent livelihood and live a normal life.

According to an online article "Prisoner Rehabilitation" (http://www.rehabilitations.org/prisoner-rehabilitation.html accessed 12 April 2012); research indicates approximately 70% of the released prisoners return to jail within a few years. They are stucked with their old, die hard habits as envisaged in the high rate of recidivism among offenders. In addition, there are cases of small offenders who evolve to become big offenders when they return to jail.

In view of the above, there is a need to develop a self-renewal quadrant analysis to enable the prison officers to identify the types of prisoners, recognize their pattern of behavior and help them more effectively to change for the better.
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Self- renewal of a prisoner is a function of the need, desire or wants to change or reform and the environment. The objective of the house of rehabilitation is to energize these inner states for change. During the period of sentencing while the prisoner is going through the rehabilitation programs, the prison officers as change agents must be able to identify prisoner with high needs, desire or want for change and those with low needs , wants or desire for change.

Hence, prisoners lie on the continuum of "I don't want to reform and live a normal life" to "I want to reform and live a normal life" as shown below:

Self renewal is also a function of how the prisoners perceive the environment. A perceived favorable environment energizes and facilitates the desire or wants to change or reform. A perceived unfavorable environment diminishes and eventually stops the want or desire to reform and live a normal life.

Hence the environment of a prisoner lies in the continuum of Perceived unfavorable to perceived unfavorable environment
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Crossing the two continuums a Performance Quadrant Analysis (PQA) is developed to classify prisoners into different types as shown in the figure below:

Q1: The early adopter

An early adopter is a prisoner who perceives the environment is favorable for him/her to reform and live a normal life and wants to reform.

Below are the behavioral indicators of the adopter:

Demonstrates positive attitude towards self and others Works hard to acquire vocational and living skills Participates actively in community services Avoids getting into trouble with psychopaths and drug addicts High commitment to change for the better Cooperative and helpful Shows matured behavior Believes in self to change for the better Readily admits and become apologetic when they make mistakes and willing to learn from them High respect for rules and regulations
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Respects others rights and properties Obeys and carries out prison officers instructions Able to take criticisms and reprimands calmly Walks their talk Trustworthy, reliable and responsible Displays great enthusiasm at work Receptive to counseling programs Helpful and cooperative Able to get along well with others

Q2: The resistor is a prisoner who has made up his or her mind initially not to reform but at a later stage is partially influenced by the favorable environment causing him or her to be indecisive to change and live a normal life.

Below are the behavioral indicators of the resistor: Demonstrates lack of trust for the prison authority Demonstrates lukewarm interest to acquire vocational and living skills Inconsistent in following rules and regulations Erratic performance
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Moderate commitment to reform Average intellectual and analytical skills Able to see parts of the big and small picture Quite stubborn and hard headed Tends to be aggressive and violent when provoked Superficial relationship with others Aloof and detached Uncomfortable working in groups

Q3: The late adopter is a prisoner who wants to reform but could not reform due to unfavorable environment, for example, he or she is rejected each time he or she applies for a job to earn a decent living. Below are the behavioral indicators of the late adopter: Susceptible to the influences of others Nave, frank and gullible Trusts others inappropriately Self-revealing Predictable pattern of behavior Vulnerable subjected to being used and abused
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Follows the crowd Indecisiveness due to lack of confidence Depends on others to help him or her to make up his or her mind Tends to use ones heart that ones brain Expresses his or her good and bad feelings openly Gregarious, outgoing and enjoy social interactions Moody and erratic

Q4: The hard core is a prisoner who sees the world as rats eating rats with the best transcending the rests. He or she is a psychopath who thinks he or she can outsmart everybody else for his or her survival and to satisfy his or her dominant needs. He or she perceives the environment whether it is favorable or unfavorable as unfavorable and has made his or her mind not to reform.

Below are the behavioral indicators of the hardcore criminal:

Able to behave like a chameleon and conceal their behavior Puts up a mask when interacting and engaging with others A wolf in sheep clothing
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Cunning, deceptive, complicated and unpredictable Revengeful know many ways to skin a cat Influential with the ability to get other prisoners to do things their way Good at persuading, convincing mobilizing others to create chaos Able to manipulate and use others to achieve his or her personal motive and agendum Able to wriggle out of a difficult situation Have many skeletons in their closet Able to size people up and treat them like puppets Able to work themselves into the good books of the prison authority Takes calculated risks Is an Egomaniac believes he or she is always right Knows who, when, where and how to use their resources to wrangle out of their predicaments Possesses an unrecognizable pattern of behavior that varies with the situation and across time