Therapy with exonerated clients: review and recommendations

Abstract

Purpose The conviction of innocent individuals has emerged as an international concern, resulting in substantial attention to the legal needs that stem from exoneration. However, many other challenges can also arise in the aftermath of an exoneration, including financial, psychosocial and mental health needs. Relatively little has been written about the particular reentry needs of individuals who are exonerated of their charges, and even fewer studies have considered the effectiveness of various treatment approaches. The purpose of this paper is to reviews the available literature, identifies gaps and provides clinical recommendations for the development of treatment interventions for exonerees. Design/methodology/approach The research addressing the needs and challenges that arise in the aftermath of exoneration is reviewed and analysed for implications that can guide treatment-planning in this area. Findings This paper reviews key finds from the literature and provides recommendations for developing a semi-structured approach to treating exonerees. Practical implications Practical applications for the development of effective therapeutic interventions for exonerated individuals are identified and discussed. Originality/value Currently, there is very limited literature addressing the specific reentry needs and effective therapeutic interventions for exonerated individuals.

The Exoneree Health and Life Experiences (ExHaLE) Study: Trauma Exposure and Mental Health among Wrongly Convicted Individuals

“…The growing exoneree population combined with their increasing access to mental health services creates a clear and urgent need to identify effective therapeutic interventions for this population. To that end, Heilbrun et al (2020) recently reviewed common mental health effects of wrongful incarceration (e.g., depression, hypervigilance, shame, anger, social withdrawal) and used the existing literature on trauma victims in general to propose various treatment approaches for exonerees-but they also noted that there is currently no empirical research to inform the efficacy of interventions with exonerated clients specifically, which "limits [their] ability to draw informed conclusions relevant to practice" (p. 131).…”

Therapy with Exonerated Clients: Domains of Need

“…This may yield a combination of personal response to wrongful conviction with harm stemming from deprivation of liberty. The literature appears largely limited to observations regarding post-exoneration mental health needs (e.g., Campbell & Denov, 2004;Grounds, 2005;Westervelt & Cook, 2012) and one attempt to provide a comprehensive review followed by specific recommendations (Heilbrun et al, 2020). Accordingly, we contextualize our exoneration-specific review in this section by first summarizing the available information on the treatment needs of justice-involved individuals.…”

“…In this section, we expand upon previous recommendations for treatment that have been offered (Heilbrun et al, 2020). We do so in consideration of a detailed review of relevant treatment domains offered in this chapter.…”

“…That is what we have done in a prior review and in the current chapter. Our previous review (Heilbrun et al, 2020) involved recommendations in several steps. Each step would reflect an open and respectful partnership between therapist and client.…”

“…However, there is another important consideration with respect to exonereesthe provision of services facilitating reentry into the community following exoneration and release from incarceration. This chapter builds upon a recent review (Heilbrun et al, 2020) of the needs of some exonerated individuals for therapy following their release from incarceration and return to the community. That article offered recommendations for providing such therapy although these recommendations were based on the limited information available in the literature and our own limited professional experience.…”