Response paper of chapter 6 of Inside Rikers They Keep Coming Back Essay

Response paper of chapter 6 of Inside Rikers They Keep Coming Back - Essay Example For me, despite violating society’s laws, criminals should also be seen as â€Å"clients† who can be guided back to the â€Å"right track† through addressing their employability and medical needs and goals. Society cannot avoid the long-term response to recidivism and use â€Å"medical lollipops† instead (Wynn, 2001); on the contrary, the government and society should support programs that combine education, rehabilitation, and legal employment to effectively reduce recidivism among ex-convicts. Wynn (2001) explained that programs like KEEP destined convicts to fail in real life, because they offered ineffective, though cost-efficient, solutions to severe drug addictions. She narrated the roots of KEEP. She noted that when city officials became alarmed that sharing needles among addicts led to higher HIV/AIDS levels, they created the methadone detoxification program called KEEP or Key Extended Entry Program in 1987. KEEP enabled addicts to access methadone throughout their duration of incarceration, which averages forty-five days but can last a year or a year and a half (Wynn, 2001). Wynn (2001) underscored that, â€Å"Rikers Island is the only jail system in the United States where addicts can be maintained on methadone for their entire length of stay.† In this sense, she already questions why penal systems even considered using addictive drugs like methadone to end heroin addiction. Wynn (2001) is careful to avoid the excessive nullifying of the helpful effect of K EEP when it is used as a â€Å"tool to control drug use, not to cure it.† She mentioned guidelines stating that â€Å"If administered carefully, methadone can eliminate the craving for narcotics as well as the euphoric effects† (Wynn, 2001). However, she stressed that these guidelines are no longer properly applied inside and outside prison, which results in greater drug addiction for