Correctional Counseling and Rehabilitation

Emily J. Salisbury, Patricia Van Voorhis

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000530643
• Edition: 10
• Topic: Jura
• Subtopic: Strafrecht

This text presents the foundations of correctional treatment and intervention, including overviews of the major therapeutic modalities that are effective when intervening with justice-involved individuals to reduce ongoing system involvement and improve well-being. The text also focuses on diagnosis of mental illness, correctional assessment and classification, case planning strategies, and the necessary counseling and human service skills for working alongside system-involved people.

Specific chapters focus on working with women, individuals struggling with substance abuse, and clients with severely antisocial behavior such as psychopathy. Written to help students prepare for a career in correctional counseling or forensic social work, the book also assists working professionals (e.g., institutional and community corrections staff) to determine which strategies might be most effective with their clients. Revised using person-centered language, the tenth edition includes a new chapter focused on the necessary relational skills that probation and parole officers must have to be agents of behavior change. The content is divided into four parts: (1) A Professional Framework for Correctional Counseling; (2) Client Assessment, Diagnosis, Classification, and Case Planning; (3) Contemporary Approaches for Correctional Counseling and Treatment, and (4) Effective Correctional Interventions for Special Populations.

This book is appropriate for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students in Criminal Justice and Criminology, Psychology, and Social Work programs, as well as correctional practitioners looking for professional development to enhance behavior change among clients.

Part IA Professional Framework for Correctional Counseling

The purpose of Part I of this text is to encourage the reader to develop a personal sense of what correctional counseling is about. Prior to presenting specific strategies and theories of counseling in later chapters, we wish to devote some time to what the career is like. Such an awareness includes a general understanding of essential counseling skills and responsibilities. It is also important to examine more specifically the professional context of correctional counseling; that is, how it relates both formally and informally to the rest of the correctional process. Part I also discusses a number of challenges unique to correctional counselors in comparison with counselors working with people who are not involved in the justice system. Part I concludes with how community corrections staff, though not called “counselors,” are increasingly expected to possess basic counseling skills to improve the likelihood of their client’s success and behavioral change.

In Chapter 1 (The Process of Correctional Counseling and Treatment), several key professional and human dimensions of the counseling relationship are presented. The chapter discusses the importance of timing, motivation, effective risking, and the characteristics of a therapeutic relationship. Readers are introduced to the essentials of effective communication and the importance of developing sensitivity to gender and ethnic differences. The authors show how varied the counseling function is across different correctional settings (community versus institutional), as well as across different contexts such as probation, parole, education, recreation, institutional counseling, psychotherapy, and spiritual counseling.

Chapter 2 (Understanding the Special Challenges Faced by the Correctional Counselor) helps readers to better understand the world of corrections through the eyes of the correctional counselor. Particular attention is paid to such job stressors as prison overcrowding, excessive paperwork, involuntary clients, large caseloads, conning behaviors of incarcerated people, and staff burnout. Readers are introduced to valuable strategies for coping with challenging environments and system-impacted people who are resistant to treatment. A discussion of ethics and standards of practice for counselors is crucial to anyone in the role of therapist or counselor.

Finally, Chapter 3 (Community Corrections Officers as Change Agents) reminds readers that community corrections officers are human service agents, and as such, the chapter focuses on the critical relational and motivational interviewing skills these staff must possess for client behavioral change, even though they are not counselors or clinicians. The dual role orientation is an important concept in this reading, noting the effectiveness of shifting probation and parole officers’ function from purely enforcement agents to change agents as well. Justice-involved people on community supervision have far better outcomes when their supervising officer displays firm, fair, and caring supervision strategies with appropriate professional boundaries while teaching clients skills.

Part I encourages the reader to become personally involved in the correctional counseling process, to understand that there is an inevitable blending of personal beliefs, professional feelings, and practice. To the extent that the goal of this part is realized, the remainder of the book will become more interesting and meaningful. Correctional counseling is more than learning about counseling techniques. It is also vitally involved with learning through experience: clarifying and developing one’s own feelings and beliefs concerning helping others, particularly those impacted by the justice system.

Chapter 1The Process of Correctional Counseling and Treatment

Michael Braswell, Jennifer L. Mongold, and Emily J. Salisbury

DOI: 10.4324/9780367808266-2

Key Terms

case management

change talk

community-based counselors

effective risking

institutional counselors

meta-analysis

Motivational Interviewing

professional humility

psychotherapy

storytelling

therapeutic intention and outcome

timing

What does it mean to be a correctional counselor? A related question could be “What does it mean to be a well-integrated, helpful human being?” In its broadest context, correctional counseling is about helping persons who are troubled in one way or another and in most cases “in trouble.” School teachers and guidance counselors, concerned neighbors, family members, and other grounded and compassionate persons may proactively intervene in the troubled lives of youth and adults. Such actions in some instances may help in ways that keep troubled individuals out of the justice system altogether. In a more professional and specific context, correctional counselors have studied both the science and art of human behavior and been trained to utilize therapeutic intervention strategies. At the outset, it seems important to note that a well-educated and well-trained counselor who is also a compassionate and helpful human being will end up being a better, more effective counselor. Conversely, no matter how highly educated one might be or what level of technical competence one might possess, without the human component—genuine care and commitment to the helping process—therapeutic outcomes for both the client and the counselor will fall short.

Correctional counseling and treatment services span numerous correctional and pretrial settings, including correctional institutions, community-based residential settings, probation and parole, human service programs that contract with correctional agencies, and, most recently, specialized mental health, veterans, and drug courts. In addition, more recent restorative justice programs include more informal community settings that include victims, justice-involved people, their neighbors, and criminal justice professionals (Van Ness & Strong, 2015; Wozniak, Braswell, Vogel, & Blevins, 2008).

Correctional counseling requires a combination of skill, knowledge, and experience—all of which shape the counselor’s professional attitude and style. Each system-impacted person presents the counselor with a unique counseling situation and challenge that, in many instances, offers little promise of an adequate resolution. For example, imagine yourself the counselor in the following case (Braswell, Miller, & Cabana, 2006):

John has been in prison for two years. He is a likable guy who works in the prison library. Usually quiet, John has a remarkable talent for repairing damaged books. He has saved the prison library hundreds of dollars by his efforts.

As his counselor, you try to see him at least once a month to find out how he is getting along. He always indicates that he is doing all right and that he is optimistic regarding his parole hearing, which is only nine months away. John has some reason to feel good about his chances for making parole—this is his first time being involved in the justice system. As a result of getting into a drunken brawl at a bar and seriously injuring another man, he was sentenced to six years in the state penitentiary. Although John had experienced severe drinking problems for a number of years, fighting had never been a part of the problem. Since being in prison, he has completed intensive substance use therapy, joined Alcoholics Anonymous, and has even successfully completed several college-level courses in library science. Needless to say, counseling John is a pleasant experience for the most part because of his own motivation.

However, in the last several weeks John’s behavior and attitude have changed. His wife, who has been visiting him faithfully every Sunday, has not shown up for the last two visitation days. The cell block rumor is that she is seeing another man and is planning to file for divorce. To make matters worse, the man she is involved with is an alcoholic himself. John has quit coming to work and keeps to himself in the cell block. He has also been losing weight and looks haggard and distraught.

As his counselor you want to help, but John, who has always been quiet, has now become even more withdrawn. You are not sure how to approach him. You have considered talking to his wife or his parents. If John’s depression continues to worsen, his behavior may become unpredictable. He might become aggressive and get into a fight with someone in the cell block or he might turn his anger inward and attempt suicide. You have to approach him, but how? You have to do something in an attempt to help him, but what?

As a correctional counselor, you are aware that the odds are substantially against a marriage surviving the extended imprisonment of one of the spouses. Yet John is your client, and he is distraught. Will his unhappiness explode in a cell block confrontation, endangering the safety of prison staff or other incarcerated people? Or will it, perhaps, result in an internal explosion in the form of emotional illness or self-inflicted injury? Although your therapeutic options and resources are limited, you will have to do the best you can. Will your counseling efforts be successful in resolving John’s crisis? If they are not, will you and John be able to live with the consequences? The chapters in this text will attempt to:

1. Introduce you to some of the professional and human dimensions of the correctional counseling process.
2. Help you to better understand characteristics of justice-involved clients and correctional counselors.
3. Explore the role of diagnosis and classification in the treatment of people involved in the justice system.
4. Examine a variety of correctional counseling approaches.
5. Explain how correctional counseling has changed in theory and practice.
6. Consider selected special issues and problems in counseling the system-impacted population.

GOALS OF CORRECTIONAL COUNSELING AND TREATMENT

This book focuses on “correctional” counseling and treatment. While it seems that current politics favor the term “correctional,” the idea of “correctional” counseling may not be compatible with what most counselors consider the legitimate interest and purposes of helping people impacted by the justice system. For instance, is the primary goal of counselors who work in prison one of correcting individuals for successful readjustment to the outside world, or is their primary role concerned with adjusting them to the institutional world of the prison? Or should correctional counselors be concerned with both possibilities, including the client bec...