Can Rehabilitation Work in Military Prison? A Theoretical Framework Based on the Israeli Case

• Author: Lea Itzik
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00328855231154594
• Published date: 01 March 2023
• Date: 01 March 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Can Rehabilitation Work

in Military Prison? A

Theoretical Framework

Based on the Israeli Case

Lea Itzik

1

Abstract

Israel’s military prisons operate a rehabilitation program for imprisoned sol-

diers based on a psychosocial diagnosis. The program’s essential aim is to

help soldiers complete their service and avoid re-incarceration. This article

describes the program, its function related to the integrative law court,

and its role as the army’s probation service. It further presents a unique per-

spective regarding military rehabilitation programs, demonstrating how reha-

bilitation leads to recidivism. It concludes with a recommendation for

incorporating an organizational change in the program that involves redis-

tributing the existing sections to operate under two different authorities.

Keywords

military prison, military incarceration, imprisoned soldiers, rehabilitation

program

Introduction

Military service in Israel is a watershed event for the conscripts and their fam-

ilies. Meisels (2002) claims that Israeli society views military service as signif‌i-

cant not only for the security and defence of the country and its citizens, but also

1

Ashkelon Academic College, Israel

Corresponding Author:

Lea Itzik, Department of Criminology, Ashkelon Academic College, Yitshak Ben Zvi St. 12,

Ashkelon, 78211, Israel.

Email: Leaitzik@edu.aac.ac.il

Article

The Prison Journal

2023, Vol. 103(2) 177–193

© 2023 SAGE Publications

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/00328855231154594

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for its central role in national life in terms of the numbers of the population

involved, the duration of service, and the intensity of the experience. Israeli

society also regards army duty as critical to youth maturation, hastening the

process of character building and serving as a critical stage in preparation for

a future career and place in society (Livio, 2011). These developments often

occur as part of a complex set of challenges facing the soldiers related to their

roles in the army and their family, health, economic, and social status.

However, an examination of the challenges of military service does not

provide an adequate basis for understanding the phenomenon of imprison-

ment in military prisons. Data on incarceration in the Israel Defence Forces

(IDF) show that despite its moderate decrease between the years 2000 and

2014, with a total of 13,140 and 12,144 soldiers’serving sentence, respec-

tively (Shawn, 2015), the number of soldiers in prison is still high. These sta-

tistics call for an in-depth investigation into the factors leading to

incarceration, an examination of the experience itself, and a study of the

Israeli military system’s capacity for preventing recurrent imprisonment. As

well, the high number of incarcerated soldiers can be attributed to the fact

that most serve short sentences, ranging from several weeks to a number of

months, and never more than one year. Thus, the data refer to those impris-

oned for the f‌irst time and those who have returned to prison several times

in the same year.

Civil prisons in Israel and other parts of the Western world operate a range

of rehabilitation programs that seek to support successful prisoner reintegra-

tion into society. Research has found that carceral treatment programming can

have a favorable impact on an individual’s rehabilitation. Programs with a

religious orientation, for example, were found to have a positive effect, result-

ing in a decrease in participants’recidivism (Haviv et al., 2019). A research

study by Timler et al. (2019) illustrated how a rehabilitation program focused

on vegetable garden cultivation with products donated to a disadvantaged

population restored incarcerees’self-esteem. In addition, another study on

the impact of an animal rehabilitation program found it to be effective in alle-

viating the pains of imprisonment (Hill, 2020).

The current article describes the Gahelet (the Hebrew acronym for Factors

in a Return to Regular Service) rehabilitation program operating in military

prisons in Israel since 2003. A study of the program would enable the existing

theoretical discourse on army service in the country to be expanded by airing

issues related to how the IDF supports its imprisoned soldiers as well as the

army’s interrelationship with its soldiers. In the f‌inal analysis, it would also

include the status of the IDF as a force to be reckoned with in determining

acceptance in or exclusion from society. The following is a description of

army service in Israel in its various manifestations, the connection between

178 The Prison Journal 103(2)