Reforming, Rehabilitating, or Giving Inmates More Responsibility

This paper examines the norms and criteria that have been retained over the years to evaluate the impact of rehabilitative measures in correctional facilities in Canada. The examination of those political and normative requirements reveals that the content of the rehabilitative ideal changes according to the circumstances. The results of our research show that the traditional narratives of reformation and reintegration have been partly relegated in favor of an emerging narrative that requires inmates to become more responsible. Those results indicate the existence of a trend in the Canadian correctional system toward giving offenders more responsibility.