A few have speculated the Background Screening Industry could contribute
to the creation of a "jobless criminal class".
While background screeners do effectively discover criminal offenses
among job applicants, it would be inaccurate to attribute criminal
recidivism to them—no less than the laws that render criminal offenses
public, the courts that record them, the justice system that convicts
offenders or the police who arrest them.
The actual cause for criminal recidivism is a failure to rehabilitate
those within our Criminal Justice
System.
Crime is a major social problem. Along with drugs, immorality and human
rights violations it tops the list of society’s ills.
Together these tear apart the fabric of any civilization, ultimately adversely affecting
all of us.
Criminality can be difficult to confront—especially if it seems
little can be done about it beyond erecting more prisons, hiring more
police, increasing security measures and reducing civil liberty.
But factually something can be done about crime.
One organization in particular is successfully rehabilitating criminal
offenders wherever its unique program is applied.
This sounds incredible no doubt, and would probably need to be seen before believed.
For lack of a workable solution, “correctional” facilities have abandoned any real hope of rehabilitation, deteriorating
instead into punishment, which only further degrades the criminal offender and
actually hardens their anti-social behavior.
And we pay heavily for this. The annual cost of crime in the United States alone exceeds over $128 billion.
A 2006 report by the The Commission on Safety and Abuse In America’s
Prisons indicated that:
- There are nearly 5,000 prisons and jails in the United States;
- America incarcerates more people than any other country in the world;
- In the decade from 1994 to 2004 the US prison population expanded by more than half a million people;
- The daily count in U.S. prisons has surpassed 2.2 million;
- Over the course of one year more than 13.5 million people spent
time in jail or in prison—95% of which eventually returned to their communities.
In view of the fact recidivism (ex-prisoners returning to prison
after committing more crimes) is as high at 80% in some areas, it would
well behoove us to effectively rehabilitate the majority of that 95% who eventually return to their communities after their incarceration.
There is an international non-profit organization doing just that. It has been in existence for over 20 years, and is right now actively working with inmates in over 2500 prisons across the globe.
The name of this organization is Criminon—which means without crime.
Criminon’s rehabilitation technology works because it addresses the
actual causes of criminality in the individual, central to which is the
restoration of their self-respect and self-worth—for when a person loses
that, they can scarcely be expected to respect or value the lives, property and rights of others, and so becomes capable of readily transgressing against them.
With 60-80% reductions in recidivism rates common among Criminon graduates, the program is taking effective measures to return to our communities not hardened criminals primed to commit further anti-social acts, but truly rehabilitated men and women who are able to contribute to the improvement and productivity of society.
To find out more about Criminon see their white paper,
Criminon: A Program Making Criminal Rehabilitation Possible, or
visit www.criminon.org.