CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction

There is no doubt that delivering counseling in prisons can be extremely challenging for the counselor, both ethically and personally. Burnout happens very quickly. Counselors need to be resilient, both physically and emotionally, and have adequate means of support. On a daily basis, the counselor working in the prison environment must wrestle with a range of diverse and complex issues, including security, confidentiality and, perhaps most significant of all, how to develop the therapeutic relationship to promote psychological growth in an environment that mitigates against such processes. Prison counselors are criminal justice and mental health professionals who play important roles in the correctional system. They help rehabilitate inmates during their stay in prison and prepare them to reintegrate into the real world once they are released. Prison counselors usually have at least a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice or a mental health-related field like social work or psychology [1].

The aim of a prison counselor is to provide guidance to inmates when they first enter prison and throughout the duration of their sentence. The first way they accomplish this is by performing assessments on new inmates. Assessments are used to help determine an appropriate course of treatment, such as whether prisoners require substance abuse counseling, and to establish behavioral goals. Counselors gather bio-psychosocial information, meaning pertinent biological, psychological and social details, for use in compiling a comprehensive case history. In some cases, counselors may interview a prisoner’s family members or significant other to obtain additional information. The case history is provided to psychiatrists and other medical staff for use in their evaluation of the inmate [2].

Prison counselors also provide education, individual and group counseling to inmates. They teach new prisoners about the rules of the facility and help them adjust to life behind bars. Prison counselors offer vocational, academic, social and personal counseling to help prisoners develop new skills and cultivate insight to prevent recidivism. Counselors might provide individual counseling on issues such as depression, stress or substance abuse. They also often lead counseling and educational groups in areas like problem solving, anger issues and stress management. They may occasionally intervene in crises [3].

Another important task of a prison counselor is to evaluate a prisoner’s treatment progress. Prison counselors determine whether an inmate has met specific treatment goals, such as demonstrating improvements in behavior or completing educational programs. They help prepare reports and other documents regarding the prisoner’s progress, cooperation and attitude for submission to the parole board. They might also be involved in recommending disciplinary action for prisoners with poor behavior or suggesting increases in privileges for prisoners who engage in positive and acceptable behaviors [4].

The duties of a prison counselor aren’t just limited to clinical interactions with prisoners. Like most mental health professionals, prison counselors must usually also complete a variety of administrative tasks. They write accurate and detailed case notes after every contact with a prisoner, compile prisoner case files and fill out treatment plans. They may perform other tasks as needed, such as filling out the prisoner’s phone or visitation list and providing prisoners with grievance forms upon request [4].

Given this immense responsibility of counselors, there is need for them to be aided by using software systems that will enable them carry out their prison counseling responsibilities effectively.

1.1 Statement of the Problem

The following are the problems that necessitated this research to be conducted: Absence of an effective computerized system for prison counselors to manage prisoners counseling records, it is difficult to retrieve counseling progress report record of prisoners, manual management of evaluation record of prisoners as regards response to counseling, It is time consuming to update the counseling record of prisoners due to the manual system of flat file organization, difficulty in accessing counseling information materials.

1.2 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of the study is to develop a prisoner counseling automated system. The following are the specific objectives of the research:

1. To provide a computer software that will ease the work of prison counselors.
2. To have a software that will aid in evaluating the progress of prisoners as regards counseling.
3. To provide a system that can be used to obtain reports of the prisoners undergoing counseling from the database of registered records.
4. To make counseling information readily available to the prison counselors.

1.3 Significance of the Project

This project work is significant in the following ways to the prison counselor:

1. It will provide a system that will aid in managing counseling record of prisoners.
2. It will make available a system that will aid in managing the evaluation records of prison counseling.
3. It will facilitate easy updating of counseling records.
4. The research work will serve as a useful reference material to other researchers seeking similar information.

1.4 Scope of the Study

This study covers design and implementation of a prisoner counseling automated system, a case study of Nigeria Prison Ikot Ekpene. It is limited to providing access to electronic materials on different subjects of prison counseling such as drug abuse, alcohol addiction and HIV counseling.

1.6 Organization of Research

This research work is organized into five chapters.

Chapter one is concerned with the introduction of the research study and it presents the, statement of the problem, aim and objectives of the study, significance of the study, scope of the study, organization of the research and definition of terms.

Chapter two focuses on the literature review, theoretical background, the contributions of other scholars on the subject matter is discussed.

Chapter three is concerned with the system analysis and design. It presents the description of the existing system, analysis of the proposed system and design of the proposed system is also presented in this chapter.

Chapter four presents the choice of development environment, implementation architecture, software testing, documentation, user manual and source code listing.

Chapter five focuses on the summary, conclusion and recommendations are provided in this chapter based on the study carried out.

1.7 Definition of Terms

Prison: A place of long-term confinement for those convicted of serious crimes.

Prisoner: A person incarcerated in a prison, while on trial or serving a sentence.

Counselor: A professional who counsels people, especially on personal problems.

Evaluation: An assessment of performance, normally conducted regularly.

Counseling record: Counseling information of each prisoner that is saved to the database for future retrieval/reference.

Database: A collection of organized information in a regular structure accessible by a computer.

Database management system: A software program for storing, retrieving and manipulating a database.