The Present Status of Group Therapy in United States Correctional Institutions

A time-limited group treatment program focusing on mothers of toddlers with a borderline personality disorder is reported. The project involved two intersecting groups—the toddler group and the mother group. The focus of the work with the children was to promote their social interests and skills to an expanded world beyond the maternal dyad. The focus of the work with the mothers was on their difficulties with emotional separation-individuation and on strengthening their ego functioning, particularly in the area of mothering so that they could participate positively in their child's separation-individuation phase.

Representative group process is presented as it organized around three distinct phases. The initial phase was marked by intense resistance, and ambivalence. During the middle phase, group cohesion developed around shared feelings and issues. The termination phase focused insistently on issues of separation. Conclusions drawn from the project include the utility of a group approach in influencing maternal behavior.     

Countering Correctional Discourse

SUMMARY

This article discusses the development of a feminist support group for women prisoners enrolled in a six-month substance abuse treatment program in an adult correctional facility in Guam. After the completion of five Group cycles, a follow-up study was conducted in the community using qualitative, feminist, and participatory methods. Results indicate that the Group was successful in helping women prisoners to address trauma, addiction, and the stresses associated with incarceration. Nevertheless, participants reported having significant difficulty transitioning into the community upon release and 23% were sent back to prison for parole violations. Recommendations are outlined for gender-responsive programming, both within women's prisons and in the community, to support women offenders after release.     

The Use of Standardized Intraoperative Language Tests in Awake Craniotomies: A Scoping Review

Neuropsychology Review - Assessment of speech and language functions is an essential part of awake craniotomies. Although standardized and validated tests have several advantages compared to...     

A Study of the Use and Interpretation of Standardized Suicide Risk Assessment: Measures within a Psychiatrically Hospitalized Correctional Population

The reliability, validity, and utility of the Adult Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire (ASIQ), Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSS), and Reasons for Attempting Suicide Questionnaire (RASQ) with correctional mental health populations was evaluated. Evidence was found indicating good to excellent reliability for all measures. Each of the measures significantly differentiated multiple attempters from single attempters and nonattempters, providing evidence of convergent and divergent validity. Logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic analyses revealed strong associations between multiple attempts and the ASIQ, BSS, and RASQ, but not the BHS. Implications for suicide risk assessment processes in correctional settings are discussed.     

Evaluations of Tests Used for Making Selection and Promotion Decisions

Participants (N= 212) rated the fairness, job relevance, appropriateness, and invasiveness of 16 tests that could be used to select or promote people into production or management positions. Fairness, job relevance and appropriateness were highly correlated, and were combined to form a composite evaluation scale. Evaluations and invasiveness ratings varied among the 16 tests, with the most positive ratings given to interviews and work samples and the most negative ratings given to astrology, graphology and polygraphs. Evaluations of four tests were affected by the position (manager vs. production worker). Evaluations of 11 tests and invasiveness ratings of two tests were affected by respondent experience with the test. Respondents who had experienced the tests evaluated them more positively and considered them to entail a smaller invasion of privacy. Responses were not affected by whether the test was to be used for selection versus promotion decisions.     

Group Counseling in a Correctional Setting

This article describes a model of group counseling with prison inmates. Members assume responsibility for what transpires and structure is not imposed by the leader. This format contrasts with the high degree of control and rigidity found in the institutional environment. The stages of a typical group are reviewed. The counselor's personality is seen as a crucial variable in the group's success. Those counselor qualities that engender positive group outcomes are explored. The author stresses that highly structured environments, such as prisons, need not be barriers to meaningful counselor intervention.     

Psychological Resources in Australasian Correctional Departments

The past and present delivery of psychological services to correctional departments in Australia and New Zealand was surveyed via questionnaires. Responses were received from six of the eight Australian jurisdictions surveyed and the one New Zealand department. Considerable variation in size and range of service was evident. Clinical work, particularly treatment, was the central activity in all cases. Recent developments, such as larger-scale treatment programs for special groups (e.g., sex offenders) and contributions to overall correctional management were repotted by some respondents. The restructuring of psychology sections in some departments had produced problems in relations between psychologists and their employing departments. Similarities in developments and issues in correctional psychology in the United States, England, and Wales were noted.     

Correctional Literature and Other Resources

The preceding articles offer many new and exciting ideas in the field of corrections. As counselors, community workers, and educators, you may now have more specific questions regarding an area that is of particular interest to you. There are many new-approaches in penology and widespread manifestations of the old. Presented here is a wide cross section of some of the newest and boldest thinking in the correctional field.     

Assessing the Reliability of Situational Judgment Tests Used in High‐Stakes Situations

Assessing reliability of situational judgment tests (SJTs) in high‐stakes situations is problematic with reliability inappropriately measured by Cronbach's alpha when test items are heterogeneous. We computed the corrected, weighted mean alpha from 56 alpha coefficients, which produced a value of α = .46 and reviewed appropriate types of reliability to use with SJTs. In the current longitudinal study, SJT test–retest reliability was r = .82, compared with internal consistency, α = .46, and stratified alpha, α = .45 at Time 1 and α = .52 and stratified α = .51 at Time 2. We used a student sample (Time 1: n = 185; Time 2: n = 132) with items from a credentialing exam with ‘should do’ instructions. The SJT correlated significantly with cognitive ability, r = .30, and agreeableness, r = .24. In Study 2, we assessed test–retest reliability with Human Resource professionals (Time 1: n = 94; Time 2: n = 32) who had been recently credentialed and who participated in a pilot test of new SJT items with ‘most likely/least likely do’ response options. The SJT test–retest reliability was r = .66 compared with internal consistency, α = .43 and stratified α = .47 at Time 1 and α = .61 and stratified α = .67 at Time 2. We discuss the theoretical implications of the Study 1 results as well as the practical implications for use of SJTs in credentialing examinations.     

Implementing Trauma-Informed Care in Correctional Treatment and Supervision

ABSTRACT

This article provides a rationale for trauma-informed care (TIC) in correctional services, and challenges readers to think about offending behavior through the lens of trauma. Based on interdisciplinary research and cross-theoretical literature, TIC can help in our quest to develop relevant and successful programs, practices, and policies, and the best methods for delivering them. Using Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)’s core principles of TIC, this article will make suggestions for the implementation of trauma-informed service delivery and practices across correctional settings. The authors translate trauma-informed concepts into practice behaviors through the acronym SHARE (safety, hope, autonomy, respect, empathy), which honors the principles of TIC recommended by SAMHSA and the principles of effective correctional rehabilitation. TIC in corrections may help improve the desired outcomes of successful re-entry and reduced recidivism.     

Using Sand Tray Therapy With Juveniles in Correctional Settings

The authors propose sand tray therapy as a developmentally appropriate, trauma‐sensitive, engaging intervention in counseling juvenile offenders as an aid in rehabilitation. The authors present a fictional case study to demonstrate the use of sand tray therapy with a juvenile offender in a correctional setting.     

7. Guided Group Interaction in a Correctional Setting

Review of the origins of group psychotherapy reveals concerns with social as well as with personal “psychopathology.” Thus, group processes have been mobilized for curative or change purposes for ideological as well as individual therapeutic goals. Psychopolitical as well as personal change are the goals for some groups. The ethical problem stems from a persistent assumption that the group's processes are inherently benign and curative and beneficial to individual participants. A more sophisticated understanding takes into account their essential neutrality and their potential use (or abuse) for purposes of ideological persuasion that may or may not be personally therapeutic. As in other ethically implicated issues in the psychotherapies, the question becomes one of treatment versus exploitation, or therapy for the individual versus recruitment on behalf of a cause.     

Correctional suicide prevention in the year 2000 and beyond

Although the problem of suicide in jail and prison historically has been ignored, significant insight has been gained over the past several decades due primarily to increasing litigation. This article provides a brief overview of the progress in research, programming, and policy. The new millennium offers exciting opportunities for continued growth in correctional suicide prevention. The key areas of process research, risk assessment, and public and penological policy changes are reviewed and considered vital for the field's advancement.     

Supervision Needs of Correctional Mental Health Counselors

Supervision of mental health counselors and psychologists is a developing field within psychology. Supervision models and needs are being researched and defined. Supervision for correctional mental health counselors and psychologists is an important part of correctional psychology, but has received very little research attention. There are many aspects of correctional psychology that are unique from the field of psychology as a whole; this is certainly true for supervision of correctional mental health staff. This article examines the supervision needs of correctional mental health counselors and psychologists. An application of one supervision model to correctional psychology is presented.