Weight Lifting in Prison

¶ … weightlifting program in correctional institutes. It has 4 sources in APA format. When a person is serving term in a correctional institution he ceases to exist for the society and he cannot carry out activities which otherwise would have been considered to be normal. However, the reality is that the American correctional system provides almost all aspects of life as much as possible to its inmates and recreation is one of them. Recreation in the form of sporting activities, in-house cable TV, arrangement for competitive events, championships etc. are some attempts.

Among the sporting activities, weightlifting in the recent years have become quite popular for the reason being that recreation correctional officials believe in the value of sports for the inmates while the inmates considers it to be satisfactory activity to channel their frustrations (Telander 1988). Apart from that, the National Correctional Recreation Association (NCRA) which upholds and promotes this activity because they believe that weightlifting maintains professional standards in correctional recreation apart from sustaining interests, developing positive attitude and constructive leisure for inmates during the period of incarceration (StrengthTec, 2003).

The NCRA rationale their objectivity for installing weightlifting programs in correctional institutions with the fact that most of these inmates are sent to prison for their misconduct in the society when they use intoxicants, firearms or engage in violent activity. The physical strengths bottled up within the inmates are often channeled through brawls or other such violent occurrence, thus weightlifting is an ideal anticipatory program. It not only supports emotional, psychological and physiological needs but also the inmates' social needs. Research by Sandra L.

Little in 1995 indicated that recreation programs in correctional settings are imperative for reducing the rate of violence among inmates or with correctional officials. Controlled group activities such as basketball, gym weights, watching television all help in constructive incarceration. Setting standards through sporting events and championships only allow inmates to explore their skills in weightlifting so that once they have passed their term of incarceration they may pursue the same in the society.

Thus, weight lifting programs introduced by the NCRA are good for rehabilitation and help in management of the inmates. Instead of extensive budget on security, counseling and experts for such purpose, weight lifting has gained popularity because of its cost benefits. Once the investment for the equipment has been made, the correctional institution benefit from it for years (Strength Tech 2003). Despite these facts, some faction of the society are of the opinion weightlifting has negative effects on correctional management.

They argue that the prisoners may develop strengths that eventually lead to their ability to combat with correctional institutes' officials and hence only increase chances of violence rather than diffusing it. Furthermore, since most of these weightlifters form groups when they engage in weightlifting activities, chances of grouped violence may eventually lead to problems within the prison walls. Not only that but once they come out of prison, the strengths and violent attitude.