THE OKLAHOMA BAR JOURNAL 30 | FEBRUARY 2026 Criminal Law Habilitation, Not Just Rehabilitation: A New Approach to Justice for Male Offenders By David C. Phillips III, Dr. F. Daniel Duffy and Lindy Myers REHABILITATION VS. HABILITATION: KEY DIFFERENCES Rehabilitation traditionally means restoring someone to a previous, healthier state. In criminal justice, it assumes the offender once led a constructive life, experienced a crime-attracting event and only needed to return to their good life. However, this notion often does not apply to juvenile and young adult offenders who have never demonstrated a prosocial entry into adulthood. As Peter C. Kratcoski notes, “Many offenders never experience anything in their lives resembling satisfactory adjustment, and such persons are candidates for ‘habilitation’ rather than rehabilitation.”2 In other words, there may be no prior positive condition to “restore.”3 Habilitation, by contrast, takes a developmental approach by helping individuals develop fundamental life skills and prosocial behaviors for the first time. It means fostering “familiarity with and adjustment to normal society” and helping them adopt values and habitual skills aligned with community norms and laws. Rather than assuming a base of life skills, habilitation programs begin by looking for the missed developmental milestones that resulted in a young person’s antisocial attitudes, values and SUCCESSFUL JUSTICE REFORM REQUIRES MORE THAN TWEAKING TRADITIONAL rehabilitation. For many young, justice-involved males, the challenge is not regaining lost virtues or good behaviors but building virtuous skills and habits they never developed. This article makes a persuasive case for habilitation services (developing knowledge, skills and values not yet learned) over purely rehabilitation ones (restoring misdirected knowledge, skills or values). The rehabilitation model works well for middle-aged adults who have successful lives cut down by the disease of addiction or the healthy person healing from a devastating accident. We have become convinced that it does not apply broadly to prison diversion programs, especially for young criminals. By examining the 1st Step Male Diversion Program in Tulsa (1st Step) as a case study, we will illustrate how a habilitation approach can transform lives, speed desistance from crime, reduce recidivism and deliver strong returns on investment for communities and funders.1 Statements or opinions expressed in the Oklahoma Bar Journal are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Oklahoma Bar Association, its officers, Board of Governors, Board of Editors or staff.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTk3MQ==