From their inception, prisons have struggled with the purpose of punishment and how to deal with those sent to prison. Four models have been developed and used by correctional officials to deal with the offender population. Retribution, incapacitation, reintegration, and rehabilitation models provide for varying aspects of punishment. Closer examination of these models allows for the conception of ideal types of punishment based on the severity of the model. Allen and Sorensen (1996) describe the movement from one end of the continuum to the other as a pendulum, swinging between retribution and rehabilitation. Oklahoma, with it’s high rate of incarceration of females, provides an opportunity to examine the effectiveness of one of the programs, thought to be a vital part of rehabilitation—vocational/technical education (Vo-tech). Secondary data analysis of women released from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections from 1991 to 1994 indicates that the Vo-tech programs, as they currently exit in Oklahoma, do not provide female offenders any protection from returning to the prison system. In fact, the findings indicate that those who do completed a Vo-tech program are twice as likely to return to prison than do those who do not complete a Vo-tech program.
 
 

Correctional systems have struggled with the question of what is the reason for punishment and what should be the goal of imprisonment of society’s offenders. Allen and Simonsen (1995) describe the process as a pendulum, swinging between the classical deterrence theory and the reform minded models of corrections.

Four models of corrections or theories have been used to explain the type of punishment handed down in the courts. Retribution, incapacitation, reintegration, and rehabilitation are theories on which different criminal justice systems have been founded and operated. Retribution models, or "getting even with the offender," come out of classical theory of crime, as set out in the work of Cesearia Baccaria in "On Crime and Punishment," (1963). Located on one end of the continuum, retribution is generally indicated by very long sentences handed down by courts and juries, for example, offenders have been sentenced to thousands of years for the crime of burglary. The incapacitation model works on the idea that if those who commit crimes are put in prison then crime will decrease because they are locked away and cannot commit more crime. This model is seen as less hash than retribution while allowing the society to fulfill it's need to feel safe.

Reintegration models move toward the other end of the pendulum movement. People began to come to grips with the reality that offenders would, at some point, be returning to society and the role of corrections should be to prepare the offender to be a productive citizen. Rehabilitation models of corrections look at the offender as needing to be "fixed" in order to belong to society. Often but not necessarily set under a medical model of corrections, offenders were thought to be defective and it was—and is—the role of corrections to "fix" the defective offender before returning him/her to society.

Examination of these four models indicates that the four can be placed on a continuum of "ideal" types based on the harshness of the system. The polar ends of the continuum are retribution, on the one end—seen as the harshest—and rehabilitation on the other—seen as the least harsh. As with any ideal types, these two types may not be found in the reality of correctional settings. Even during periods of "getting tough on crime," correctional facilities and officials recognize the need to provide minimal tools to help the offender be a productive citizen upon release. On the other hand, systems designed to "fix" offenders in treatment style communities must provide security, which indicates at least some degree of harshness.

Vocational (Vo-tech)education has been one of the programs offered in correctional settings almost from prison’s inception. Programs have ranged from hard manual labor—such as road building—in the early years of corrections to more educational type programs—such as data entry, and auto-mechanics—in the more contemporary period. Vo-tech provides inmates with education based on specific vocational skills, providing the inmate with the skills required in the everyday use of the vocation. The claim of many reformers was that if offenders were going to return to society, then society—in this case the institution of corrections—should provide inmates with skills necessary to keep the offender from committing more crime and returning to the prison system (following the rehabilitation model).

Women have played an important role in the discussion and decision to apply certain models of corrections (Norris and Rothman, 1995). Early in American prison history women were held in the same prisons as their male counterparts. Early reformers saw the need to treat women differently than males and to address the needs specific to female offenders.

These reform efforts towards women were based on the traditional role of women. Thinking that women did not need to learn work related or educational skills, women were traditionally provided classes such a sewing, homemaking, and child-care in hope that the offender would become a productive member of society in the role of mother and wife upon release back into the community (Norris and Rothman, 1995).

Over the past thirty years and due in large part to the feminist movement, female offenders are now provided—or at least supposed to receive—many of the same educational opportunities afforded to male offenders (Norris and Rothman, 1995; Snarr; 1992). While not always being equal, these programs at least recognize that the role of the female in society is more than just mother and wife, but also that of sole provider for the family.

Incarceration of offenders was not always the primary method of punishment used by justice systems. Offenders where only incarcerated for brief periods of time either while awaiting trial for their offenses or awaiting the sentence to be carried out, with only occasional use of incarceration used as a sentence or form of punishment (for a complete review of early forms of punishment see Morris and Rothman, 1995).

Four models of corrections have been used to describe or explain the types of punishment that have been enforced by the state. Retribution, incapacitation, reintegration, and rehabilitation are theories on which many different criminal justice systems have been founded and operated. These models may be thought to exist on a continuum based on the harshness of the punishment (See Figure 1).

Retribution or the use of punishment to get even with the offender has often been called the "just desserts" " form of punishment (Allen and Simonsen, 1995). Victims, be it on a person or societal level, want the offender punished and punished harsh enough to make the offender never want to commit the crime again. The deterrent affect can be expanded to the deterrence of criminal at large by placing extremely harsh punishment on those convicted of a crime and "sending a message" to those who might commit crimes as to the consequences of their behavior. The model of punishment is based on Ceare Beccaria’s work "On Crime and Punishments" (1963).

Incapacitation models of correctional thinking follow closely with the retribution model, but are not seen as harsh as the retribution punishments. The hope and goal of incapacitation is that while incarcerated the offender will no longer have the opportunity to commit crimes. The model does have some merit when used in the mode of Gottfredson and Hirschi’s (1996) work on the invariant idea of the age curve of offenders and crime. If the offender is kept behind bars past the age curve’s model of when offenders commit crimes, then it follows that when released the offender will not commit more crime. Also, many studies have shown that a very few criminals commit most crime. The incapacitation model would hold that if you remove those few who commit crime, then the crime rate would be reduced (Hensline, 1994). Criticism of the incapacitation model flows from the idea that as you send more to prison—or incapacitate them—others take their place in the crime scene and thus crime is not reduced at all.

Toward the right side of Figure 1, the model of reintegration is found. People began to realize as the use of incarceration increased as the primary form of punishment, that most of those who were sent to prison would be released at some point. Reformers, realizing that return to society was inevitable, began to see a need to provide offenders with the basic or minimal skills thought to be needed to return to society as productive citizens. Work skills that were marketable in the "free world" were seen as critical to keep the offender from returning to a life of crime. Prisons based on the reintegration model began to implement the necessary schooling and vocational education programs necessary to assist, or coerce the offender into becoming productive when released.

With the Enlightenment and the growth of the scientific method of inquiry, correctional methods began to move to a more deterministic mode of thought. Offenders were seen to be defective in some way—biologically (as Lombroso thought) (Norris and Rothman, 1995) or environmentally, as many sociologist emphasized—and seen as not being totally responsible for their actions. With this line of thinking came the idea that offenders could be changed and thus made productive citizens. This model would be found on the far right of the continuum of figure 1 and be seen as the least harsh. Treatment of the offender was seen as a viable punishment for the offender.

With any ideal type, pure forms may not be found in the real world and most correctional systems may be placed on the continuum as either having some form of rehabilitative element mixed in with the retributive model. On the other hand, all correctional facilities must maintain security and thus even the most rehabilitative system will have some retributive factors in it due to the loss of freedom and many of the deprivation of prison.

Today, most correctional facilities offer some form of rehabilitative programming, such as basic education programs, Vo-tech programs, drug/alcohol treatment (most in the form of AA/NA type programs), and some life skills counseling (Khatibi and Grande, 1993). For example the Eddie Warrior Correctional Center in Oklahoma provides ABE, GED, Vo-tech, and Parenting Skills to women inmates (ODOC, EWCC, 1998).

Female Offenders

Women have played a key role in the implementation of certain models of corrections (Norris and Rothman, 1995; Zedner, 1991). Early in American prison history, women were incarcerated in the same facilities as men (Allen and Simonsen, 1996; Snarr, 1993; Zedner, 1991). Reformers of the time made efforts to establish separate prisons for women with the first being the Mount Pleasant Prison at Ossining in New York in 1835 (Snarr, 1993). Early feminist—many of these women were active in other social campaigns, such as temperance movements, pacifism, and antislavery movements—activities helped expose the exploitation of women in correctional setting (Norris and Rothman, 1995).

Following the rehabilitation model of corrections women were seen as "wayward" and needed to be cured more than punished. According to Norris and Rothman:

Vocational education programs were seen as a way to treat the female offenders. But most of the programs were designed to fulfill the domestic or stereotypical role of women. Most of the Vo-tech programs centered on skills that were designed help the facility with maintenance problems such as laundry, tailoring, mending, flag making, sewing (Winifred, 1996). These types of vocational skills did not—and still do not—provide women with a marketable skill that was necessary in order to support themselves (Allen and Simonsen, 1996).

Today, in many institutions women’s needs are being developed in order to better prepare the offender for life in the "free world" (Clayton, 1997). Areas such as educational needs (Clayton, 1997; Winifred, 1996) and family needs, (Sharp and Marcus-Mendoza, 1997) are areas that should provide better assessment of the problems facing women who today are not only self-dependent, but also may be the sole-provider for the family.

Vocational/Technical Programs

According to Khatibi and Grande (1993), ". . . it appears that some form of vocational education programs is offered in virtually ever major prison nationwide" (p.152). Most of the extant literature on Vocational/Technical (Vo-tech) programs is based on men with scarcely a mention of women’s successful completion and its effects mentioned. Early in the 1970’s Martinson completed a study of programs—not just Vo-tech, but all programs—and along with his colleagues made the determination that "nothing works" in correctional programming (Martinson, 1974; Lipton, Martinson, and Wilks, 1975). In his examination of education and Vo-tech programs Martinson noted that most of the studies they examined (N=231) did not indicate empirically the value of the programs (Martinson, 1974).

Gerber and Fritsch (1995) took exception to the work of Lipton, Martinson, and Wilks in their analysis of Vo-tech programs. In their analysis of thirteen studies of Vo-tech’s effect on recidivism, Gerber and Fritsch found 10 of the studies did in fact find that "something works" as the phase was set out by Dilulio (1991). The concept of "something works" is a scientific paradigm that is attracting much attention in the criminal justice field. Lipton (1995)—formerly of Lipton, Martinson, and Wilks—has now recanted his "nothing works" position for the "something works" paradigm (Lipton, 1995). Winifred (1996) states that what is important in vocational/work related skills is that the education and skills must be marketable.

The perception of Vo-tech programs by female inmates is also important to the success of the program. Carlson, in a study of the perceptions of incarcerated women, found that inmates favor the traditional, stereotypical Vo-tech programs over non-traditional programs such as data entry, electrical, plumbing, or truck driving (Carlson, 1995). This finding indicates that female offenders also have a traditional female way of thinking, indicating that part of the educational process of Vo-tech may be the need to help the offenders identify their employment needs. Gina Hurley, as cited in Winifred’s article (1996) indicates that "The primary mission of Vo-tech is to educate, train and rehabilitate students. This often calls for a change in a person’s belief system, especially about [herself] and what [she] is capable of being in society" (Winifred, 1996, p.3).

In Oklahoma, the Vo-tech programs are conducted in conjunction with the Oklahoma Department of Vocational and Technical Education (ODVTE) (ODVTE, 1998). The Skills Centers operate in sixteen state-owned correctional facilities, one private prison, one state operated juvenile center, and two private juvenile centers (ODVTE, 1998). According to the ODVTE web site, Vo-tech programs for female offenders are limited to four programs (ODVTE, mbvtsc, 1998; ODVTE, tvtsc, 1998). At the Mabel Bassett Vo-Tech Skills Center, the maximum/medium/minimum security facility for females, women may participate in "Business & Computer Technology" or "Horticulture/Landscape Management" programs (ODVTE, mbvtsc, 1998). At the Eddie Warrior Correctional Center for women, offenders may enroll in "Electronics Technology" or "Building Maintenance Technology" programs (ODVTE, tvtsc, 1998).

Recidivism studies on the Oklahoma Department of Corrections Vo-tech programs indicate mixed results. Davis and Chown in 1991 (as cited in the Gerber and Fitsch, 1996 article indicate that Vo-tech programs do not insulate the offenders from recidivism. They found that those offenders who complete a Vo-tech program recidivate at higher rates than do non-completers. On the other hand, in an unpublished study in 1986, Udell and Morton found that Vo-tech completers did not recidivate at the higher rate of non-completers. One problem with the Udell and Morton study is the lack of a clear-cut description of the comparison group. They found that Vo-tech completers had a recidivism rate of 23.87%, while recidivism rate for the general population was between 45 and 77%. This later finding is somewhat in question when compared to the work of others (see Holley and Brewster, 1997; OCJRC, 1998).

The purpose of this study is to determine if those female offenders released from 1991 to 1994 and completed a Vo-tech program return to prison more than those who do not complete a Vo-tech program. Recidivism will be defined here as any return to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, for any reason, without regard whether the return is due to a new crime or technical violation of conditional release.

Data for this study are a sub-set of data provided by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections for a study completed in August 1997 by Holley and Brewster (1997). The original data contain over 26,000 cases for both male and female offenders released from custody between January 1991 and December 1994. This study only uses the female offenders (N=3170) released from the Oklahoma Department of Corrections from January 1991 to December 1994.

The null hypothesis of the current study is:

return to DOC as either 1 created this dependent variable, if the offender did return, or 0 if the offender did not return.

The independent variable, for this study, will be vocational education variable (VOTECH). Coding those who completed a Vo-tech program while incarcerated as 1 and those who did not complete a Vo-tech program as 0 created this variable.

Demographic characteristics of the population will be controlled. The literature is replete with statistics indicating that most of the offenders incarcerated are young, single, and black. With this information in mind the variables will be set to indicate the trend indicated. The variable age (AGE) is an interval variable created by subtracting the date of birth of the offender from the July 1997. The race (RACE) of the offender is a dummy variable is coded 1 if the

offender is Black, and 0 if the offender is not black. The marital status (MARSTAT) of the offender is coded 1 if the offender is single and 0 if married or divorced.

Logistic regression will be used for the categorical variable RECID. Both models will control for the demographic characteristics of the population of women. A population analysis will be conducted on the data, thus eliminating many of the problems of sampling from the population (Babbi, 1995; Bickman & Rog, 1998).

Analysis of demographic variables (see Table 1) indicates that the female population of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections is young, with about 50% of the population under the age of 29 years old. Table 1 also indicates the population is about equally divided between the marital status of single and that of married (34.8% and 43.3% respectively), while only 20% of the population are divorced.

The Black female is over-represented in the population of female offenders. Forty percent of the offenders were Black, 50.6% are White, with the other 10% of the population comprised of Asian, Hispanic, and Native Americans. These finding also support the findings of Holley and Brewster (1996).

Overall recidivism is shown in Table 2 and indicates that seventy-three percent of those released between January 1991 and December 1994 had not returned to the Department of Corrections as of July 1997. The result of a 26% recidivism rate supports the findings of Davis and Chown (1991) and Holley and Brewster (1997). Of the 3,170 female offenders, 125 (about 4% of the population) completed a Vo-tech program while incarcerated (See Table 2).

The results of the logistic regression are found in Table 3. Model 1 indicates that all of the demographic variables have statistically significant effects on recidivism. As predicted in the model set out in Figure 2, the variable age does have a negative relationship to the dependent variable RECID, in other words, the older the offender is the less likely she is to return to custody. The variable RACE has a positive relationship as predicted and indicates that Blacks do have a greater likelihood of returning to incarceration than do the other groups. The variable MARSTAT indicates a negative relationship between it and the dependent variable. This finding is contrary to the model set out, those who were single when they were incarcerated are less likely to recidivate than are married or divorced offenders. The –2 Log Likelihood for this model is 3174.77.

Model 2 in Table 3 adds the independent variable VOTECH. The demographic variables indicate the same relationships and significance as in Model 1. The effect of VOTECH is different from that predicted in Figure 2. While the decrease in the –2 log likelihood (3162.03) indicates significance, this finding shows that those women who complete a Vo-tech program are twice as likely to return to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.

The results of this study indicate several areas of concern. Vo-tech programs—or work skills training—have long been held out as needed by the offender to better produce a productive citizen. But the female offenders leaving the Oklahoma Department of Corrections are not helped by the Vo-tech training they are receiving.

These results support Martinson’s idea that "nothing works," but also point out many of the problems of program evaluation. This study only looks at the results of Vo-tech training from the standpoint of return to prison at one point in time, while Gerber and Fitsch note that there are many other ways to measure the successfulness of a Vo-tech program. With the knowledge gained by this study, which supports the finding of Davis and Chown, it is clear an in-depth look at the Vo-tech program is in order.

Does Vo-tech training provide access to meaningful employment or does it only make rising expectations a reality? These types of questions must be answered. What is needed is a comprehensive, longitudinal examination of those women who have completed the program in order to determine if those who complete the program are in fact able to find employment, what type of employment, and the length of the employment. A closer examination of the types of programs provided should be developed with the special needs of women in mind. Researchers, such as Sharp and Marcus-Mendoza (1997) and Clayton (1997) have begun to develop a listing of the needs of female offenders and those needs should be incorporated into the types of Vo-tech programs offered.

It is obvious that this study, while not supporting the rehabilitation model, does not close the book on the successfulness of rehabilitation in correctional training. Other programs have shown to be successful in helping offenders to stay out of prison—for example, GED programs have shown some success (See Holley and Brewster, 1997). It does indicate the need to develop programs that will be successful in producing productive citizens. Other work has provided evidence that some vocational training programs do work, as Gerber and Fitsch have pointed out, so the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, with it’s partnership with the Oklahoma Vocational/Technical Education Department need to evaluate the programs in place and determine whether a change is necessary.

This study is limited to the variables chosen and other variables—sentence length, type of release, place of release—may be useful in a complete analysis of Vo-tech programs. One of the problems of secondary data analysis is that missing variables may explain some of the variance of the study. To that degree the current study could be called preliminary or the starting point for an in-depth look at Vo-tech programs.

Vo-tech programs need to be designed to provide employment opportunities to women when released. If they do not, they may serve as a source of frustration for the women and actually—as indicated by these results—do more harm to the offender than good. The results of this study do not indicate that the rehabilitation model is being well served by the Vo-tech programs of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Figure 1. Current Correctional Models on a continuum based on harshness of punishment.

Figure 2.  Recidivism Model.
 

Table 1. Demographic Descriptions of the population of female offenders of the Oklahoma
Department of Corrections.
 
 

Table 2. Recidivism and Vo-tech Completions
 
 

Table 3. Logistic Regression Results of recidivism on age, marital status, race, and Vo-tech
completion.
 

* p > .05
 
 

Allen, H. E. , & Simonsen, C. E. 1995. "Corrections in America: An Introduction." (7^th ed.) Clifford Hills, NJ. Prentice Hall.

Babbi, E. 1995. "The Practice of Social Research." (7^th ed.) Belmont, CA. Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Baccaria, C. 1963. "On Crime and Punishment." Indianapolis, IN. Bobbs-Merrill.

Bickman, L. & Rog, D.J. (Eds.). 1998. "Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods."
Thousand Oaks, CA. Sage Publications.

Carlson, J.R. 1995. "Usefulness of Educational, Behavior Modification, and Vocational Programs as Perceived by Female Inmates." Journal of Offender Rehabilitation. Vol. 22 (3/4) p. 65-76.

Clayton, S.L. 1997. "Longtime Educator Takes Teaching to a New Level." Corrections Today. Vol. 59 No. 6. p. 70.

Dean, N.S., Hill, C.M., Schmitz, K.R., Connelly, M., & O’Connell, P. 1998. "Recidivism in Oklahoma." Oklahoma Criminal Justice Resource Center. Oklahoma City, OK. Division of the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety.

Dilulio, J.J. 1991. "No Escape: The Future of American Corrections." New York, NY. Basic Books.

Gerber, J. & Fritsch, E.J. 1995. "Adult Academic and Vocational Correctional Education Programs: A Review of Recent Research." Journal of Offender Rehabilitation. Vol. 22 (1/2) p. 199-142.

Gottfredson, M.R. & Hirschi, T. 1990. "A General Theory of Crime." Stanford, CA. Stanford University Press.

Henslin, J.M. 1994. "Social Problems." (3^rd ed.) Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Prentice Hall.

Holley, P.D. & Brewster, D.R. 1997. "An Examination of the Effectiveness of GED Programs Within the Oklahoma Department of Corrections." Manuscript submitted for Publication.

Holley, P.D. & Brewster, D.R. 1996. "The Women at Eddie Warrior Correctional Center: Evaluation of a Data Set." Journal of the Oklahoma Criminal Justice Research Consortium. Vol. 3 p.107-114.

Khatibi, M. & Grande, C.G. 1993. "Correctional Education Planning: A Systematic Approach to Vocational Training." Journal of Correctional Education. Vol. 44 No. 3 p.152-155.

Lipton, D.S., Martinson, R. & Wilks, H.K. 1975. "The Effectiveness of Correctional Treatment." New York, NY. Preager Press.

Lipton D.S. 1995. "CDATE: Updating the Effectiveness of Correctional Treatment 25 Years Later." Journal of Offender Rehabilitation. Vol. 22 (1/2) p. 1-20.

Martinson, R. 1974. "What Works? Questions and Answers About Prison." The Public Interest. Vol.35 p. 22-54.

Norris, N. & Rothman, D.J. (Eds.) 1995. "The Oxford History of the Prison: The Practice of Punishment in Western Society." New York, NY. Oxford University Press.

Oklahoma Department of Corrections. 1998. Eddie Warrior Correctional Center.
URL: http://www.doc.state.ok.us/docs/alfacdes.htm#EWCC.

Oklahoma Department of Vocational and Technical Education. 1998. Mabel Bassett Vo-Tech
Skills Center. URL: http://www.okvotech.org/scss/mbvtsc.htm.

Oklahoma Department of Vocational and Technical Education. 1998. Partnering for Success.
URL: http://www.okvotech.org/scss/partner.htm.

Oklahoma Department of Vocational and Technical Education. 1998. Taft Vo-Tech Skills
Center. URL: http://www.okvotech.org/scss/tbtsc.htm.

Sharp, S. & Marcus-Mendoza, S. 1997. "Gender Differences in the Impact of Incarceration on Children and Spouses of Drug Offenders." Manuscript submitted for publication.

Snarr, R.W. 1992. "Introduction to Corrections." Dubuque, IA. Wm. C. Brown Publishers.

Udell, D.S. & Morton, F.P. 1986. "Vocational-Technical Education: A Successful Tool for Rehabilitation." Unpublished manuscript, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK.

Winifred, M. 1996. "Vocational and Technical Training Programs for Women in Prison." Corrections Today. Vol. 58 No. 5 p.168 (3).

Zender, L. 1991. "Women, Crime, and Custody in Victorian England." Oxford. Oxford University Press.