Life Skills in a Canadian Federal Penitentiary: An Experimental Evaluation

Reker, Gary T.; Meissner, John

doi:10.3138/cjcc.19.3.292

Cited by 8 publications

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“…A detailed life skills curriculum has been designed for correctional inmates (Conger, 1973a(Conger, , 1973bWilliams & Wardell, 1973). An evaluation of the program showed positive effects in terms of client satisfaction and attitudes, but no data were presented regarding either skill acquisition or reductions in recidivism (Reker & Meissner, 1977). A contingency management approach to basic literacy and mathematics This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.…”

Section: Life Skills Deficitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The treatment of mentally disordered offenders.

Rice¹,

Harris²

1997

Psychology, Public Policy, and Law

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However narrowly defined, mentally disordered offenders (MDOs) are heterogeneous in demographics, diagnoses, offense characteristics, risk, and clinical needs. Treatment planning for MDOs should begin with an assessment of risk of future violent behavior in the community and risk of violence toward self or others inside an institution. Purposes of treatment among MDOs include treatments both to reduce risk of future violence and to alleviate the mental disorder. Relevant outcome measures include criminal and violent behavior, psychiatric symptomatology, admission to correctional or psychiatric facility, and quality of life. Clinical problems include aggression and problems of institutional management, criminal propensity, life skills deficits, substance abuse, active psychotic symptoms, social withdrawal, and depression. Because evidence relating them to risk of future violence is highest for the first 4 problems, it is argued that inpatient treatments should especially target them. Whenever risk levels and legal circumstances permit, community treatment is to be preferred. Sex offenders are discussed as a group for whom specialized services are indicated. Relapse prevention and program development evaluation are recommended methods for guiding treatment planning at both individual and system levels. Obstacles to implementation of empirically based treatments are discussed, as are suggestions for overcoming such obstacles. Finally, promising directions for future research are suggested.The term mentally disordered offender encompasses a heterogeneous and poorly defined group. In its narrowest interpretation, the category is a legal one and includes insanity acquittees, persons found guilty but mentally ill, persons found unfit to stand trial, mentally disordered sex offenders, sexual predators, and prisoners transferred to mental health facilities. In a 1978 survey , 7% of all the offenders detained in the United States were officially designated as mentally disordered. Of these, 8% were insanity acquittees, 32% were incompetent to stand trial, 6% were mentally disordered sex offenders, and the majority (54%) were convicted prisoners who had been transferred to mental health facilities. By any definition, the overwhelming majority of mentally disordered offenders are men (e.g., Menzies, Chunn, & Webster, 1992;Steadman & Halfon, 1971). Even in its narrow interpretation, however, this population includes a diverse group with a wide range of treatment needs.Most would concede that the true number of mentally disordered offenders is many times higher than that described above. Studies of the prevalence of mental disorder among incarcerated offenders reveal a surprisingly high prevalence. In one study (Hodgins & Cote, 1990), which used the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (Robins, Helzer, Croughan, & Ratcliff, 1981) to establish diagnoses, only 5% of penitentiary inmates in one Canadian province were found not to have a mental

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Section: Life Skills Deficitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The treatment of mentally disordered offenders.

Rice¹,

Harris²

1997

Psychology, Public Policy, and Law

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Impoverished problem-solving abilities have also been considered to be a characteristic common among prisoners (Zamble & Porporino, 1988), with particular focus on avoidant and impulsive styles of problem solving. Indeed, some researchers have gone as far as to suggest that problem-solving deficits may be a contributing factor to the impulsive behaviours that can lead to incarceration (Reeker & Meissner, 1977). To date, there has been a paucity of systematic studies examining problem-solving abilities of offenders (Grier, 1988;Higgins & Thies, 1982;Ivanoff, Smyth, Grochowski, Jang, & Klein, 1992;Pugh, 1993).…”

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confidence: 99%

A Controlled, Problem-Solving, Group-Based Intervention with Vulnerable Incarcerated Young Offenders

Biggam

Power

2002

Int J Offender Ther Comp Criminol

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Recent research has indicated that vulnerable incarcerated young offenders--such as those at risk of suicidal behaviour, those on formal protection due to their inability to assimilate into mainstream, and those who are bullied but remain in normal circulation--display impoverished problem-solving abilities. Furthermore, deficits in their problem-solving skills are significantly correlated with levels of anxiety, depression, and hopelessness. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a time-limited, group-based problem-solving training intervention compared with a no-treatment control for vulnerable, incarcerated young offenders. A total of 46 young offenders were equally allocated to intervention or control groups. Intervention participants experienced significant reductions in their levels of anxiety, depression, and hopelessness and improvement in their self-assessed social problem-solving abilities. Gains in aspects of self-assessed problem-solving ability and mental health for the intervention group continued to be evident at 3-month follow-up. Methodological concerns in this study and directions for future research are discussed.

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“…Past research supports life skills traininig efficacy among a wide variety of groups including penitentiary inmates (Marshall, Turner, & Barbaree, 1989;Reker & Meissner, 1977); veteran psychiatric patients (May, Gazda, Powell, & Hauser, 1985;Powell & Clayton, 1980;Powell, Illovsky, O'Leary, & Gazda, 1988); the mentally retarded, learning disabled, and emotionally disturbed (Gresham, 1981); young adults with chronic mental disorders (Lehman et al, 1986); short-term psychiatric inpatients (Griffin-Shelley & Trachtenberg, 1985); long-term psychiatric inpatients (Griffin-Shelley & Wendel, 1988); psychiatric outpatients (Falloon, Lindley, McDonald, & Marks, 1977); individuals who display avoidant personality disorder (Stravynski, Lesage, Marcouiller, & Elie, 1989); and chronic schizophrenics (Brown & Munford, 1983). Although the improvement of psychosocial adjustment is a major aim of life skills training (Gazda & Powell, 1981), few studies have examined the degree to which psychosocial adjustment may change as a result of participation in such a program.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Improvement in psychosocial adjustment for psychiatric patients after a 16‐week life skills education program

et al. 1996

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The Holden Psychological Screening Inventory, a 36-item screening inventory for psychosocial adjustment, was administered pre-and posttreatment to 31 psychiatric patients enrolled in a ldweek life skills education program. Statistically significant improvements in the Depression Symptomatology, Social Symptomatology, and Total scores were obtained, but the Psychiatric Symptomatology scale did not improve significantly. Size of effect was larger for Depression Symptomatology (52) and Social Symptomatology (.30) than for Psychiatric Symptomatology (.23). On a 6-point scale all patients rated their overall satisfaction with the program on the two most favorable categories, excellent and very good. The results provide support for life skills education programming for psychiatric patients as part of the treatment and recovery process.

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Life Skills in a Canadian Federal Penitentiary: An Experimental Evaluation

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

The treatment of mentally disordered offenders.

The treatment of mentally disordered offenders.

A Controlled, Problem-Solving, Group-Based Intervention with Vulnerable Incarcerated Young Offenders

Improvement in psychosocial adjustment for psychiatric patients after a 16‐week life skills education program

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