ISSN: 2222-6990
Open access
Each year thousands of adolescents are discharged from incarceration across the nation. The Prison Department, Malaysia shows up that most of the adolescents who were released from the incarceration period infringe again and re-entered the rehabilitation centre. The increasing number of juvenile crimes and the escalating number of adolescents with repeated offences have challenged the effectiveness of existing intervention procedures and policies. By far, the intervention programs implemented at the approved school in Malaysia are mostly based on 'one for all' orientation. All inmates have to go through the same intervention process through this practice regardless of their different cases and background. Yet, little is known on how well incarcerated adolescents are equipped with relevant knowledge and skills to ensure their readiness to integrate with the outside social world upon their release from the approved schools. Given that, their readiness to cope and adapt with their lives upon their release remains elusive. Therefore, the present paper seeks to analyze the strengths and limitations of the existing intervention programs at approved schools in Malaysia. Also, factors contributing to incarcerated adolescents' readiness to reintegrate with society and to live independently, namely, coping resources of his/her needs of support, information, and feedback to delineate the challenges lying ahead, are scrutinized and proposed to improve the existing practices.
Abrams, D. S. (2012). "Estimating the Deterrent Effect of Incarceration Using Sentencing Enhancements." American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 4 (4): 32-56.
Altschuler, D. M., Brash, R. (2004). Adolescent and Teenage Offenders Confronting the Challenges and Opportunities of Reentry. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice.;2(1):72-87.
Bacikova-Sleskova, M., Benka, J., & Orosova, O. (2014). Parental employment status and adolescents‘ health: The role of financial situation, parent-adolescent relationship and adolescents‘ resilience. Psychology & Health, 30(4), 400-422.
Benbenishty, R., & Magnus, A. (2008). A bridge to care leavers without families: Evaluation of an intervention program. Hebrew MifgashLeavodaChinoochit-Sozialit, 28, 45-84.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Buehler, C. (2006). Parents and Peers in Relation to Early Adolescent Problem Behavior. Journal of Marriage and Family, 68(1), 109-124.
Carver, C. S., & Connor-Smith, J. (2010). Personality and coping. Annual Review of Psychology, 61, 679-704.
Clinkinbeard, S. S., & Zohra, T. (2012). Expectations, fears, and strategies: Juvenile offender thoughts on a future outside of incarceration. Youth & Society, 44, 236-257.
Daud, M. D. (2017). Globalisation in the Malaysian context: The experience of Malay adolescents with ‘conduct disorders’ (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Massey University, New Zealand.
Department of Statistics Malaysia. (2016). Children statistics, Malaysia 2016.
Department of Prison Malaysia. (2019). Rehabilitate Child and Young Offenders, 2019.
Gagnon, J. C., Houchins, D. E., & Murphy, K. M. (2012). Current juvenile corrections professional development practices and future directions. Teacher Education and Special Education, 35, 333-344.
Gergelis, K., Kole, J., & Lowenhaupt, E. (2016). Health care needs of incarcerated adolescents. Rhode Island Medical Journal, 99(9), 24-26.
Jasni, M., Abu Bakar Ah, S., MohdYusoff, J., Shahid, K., Omar, N., & Azman, Z. (2019). Family refusal as a contributing factor to the homelessness problem among former prisoners in malaysia. Sarjana, 34(1), 23-37.
Marsh, S. C., & Evans, W. P. (2009). Youth perspectives of their relationships with staff in juvenile correction settings and perceived likelihood of success. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 7(1), 46-67.
Mayock, P. (2008) Young people’s homeless pathways and the offender-victimisation nexus. In D. Downey (Ed) Perspectives on Irish Homelessness: Past, Present and Future. Dublin: The Homeless Agency. pp. 76–86.
McCaskill, J. W., & Lakey, B. (2000). Perceived Support, Social Undermining, and Emotion: Idiosyncratic and Shared Perspectives of Adolescents and their Families. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. 26(7), 820-832.
Moses, J. O., & Villodas, M. T. (2017). The potential protective role of peer relationships on school engagement in at-risk adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 46(11), 2255–2272.
Newman, B. M., & Newman, P. R. (1979). An introduction to the psychology of adolescence. Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press, 19(1), 541.
Newton. (2018), The Impact of Vocational Education and Training Programs on Recidivism: A Systematic Review of Current Experimental Evidence. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, Vol. 62(1) 187–207.
Ng, E. E., Daud, M. N., Arshat, Z., & Azam, N. D. (2020). Social Preference towards Reactive Aggression among Justice-Involved Adolescents in Malaysia. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 10(7), 265–279.
Reisz, Z., Boudreaux, M. J., & Ozer, D. J. (2013). Personality traits and the prediction of personal goals. Personality and Individual Differences, 55(6), 699-704.
Schulenberg, J. E., & Zarrett, N. R. (2006). Mental Health During Emerging Adulthood: Continuity and Discontinuity in Courses, Causes, and Functions. American Psychological Association, 135–172.
Smetana, J. G. (2017). Current research on parenting styles, opinions, and beliefs. Current Opinions in Psychology, 15, 19-25.
Stein, M. (2006a). Young people aging out of care: The poverty of theory. Children and Youth Services Review, 28 (4), 422–435.
Stein, M. (2006b). Research review: Young people leaving care. Child and Family Social Work, 11(3), 273–279.
Stein, M. (2008). Resilience and young people leaving care. Child Care in Practice, 14(1): 35– 44.
Swindle, R., Heller, K., &Frank, M. (2002). Differentiating the effects of positive and negative social transactions in HIV illness. Journal of Community Psychology;28,35–50.
Tolan, P. H., Gorman-Smith, D., & Henry, D. B. (2003). The developmental ecology of urban males' youth violence. Developmental Psychology, 39(2), 274-291.
UNICEF. (2013).The State of the World’s Children 2013, Children with Disabilities.
Wade, J. (2008). The Ties that Bind: Support from Birth Families and Substitute Families for Young People Leaving Care.British Journal of Social Work, 38(1), 39 - 54.
Wrosch, C., Scheier, M. F., Carver, C. S., & Schulz, R. (2003). Theimportance of goal disengagement in adaptive self-regulation:When giving up is beneficial. Self and Identity2, 1-20.
Yates, T. M., & Grey, I. K. (2012). Adapting to aging out: Profiles of risk and resilience among emancipated foster youth. Development and Psychopathology, 24, 475-492.
Zeira, A., & Benbenishty, R. (2011). Readiness for independent living of adolescents in youth villages in Israel. Children and Youth Services Review, 33, 2461–2468.
In-Text Citation: (Chelvam et al., 2021)
To Cite this Article: Chelvam, T. T., Daud, M. N., & Azam, M. N. D. (2021). The Readiness for Independent Living among Incarcerated Adolescents in Malaysia: A Conceptual Paper. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 11(9), 1159–1168.
Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode