NCJ Number
151357
Date Published
1993
Length
102 pages
Annotation
The curriculum for a drug abuse intervention program for inmates is presented.
Abstract
This curriculum provides a life-long strategy for managing criminal tendencies in a program that purports to work for the toughest criminals. In this course, criminals are taught to recognize their thinking errors and shown how to correct them. Participants are confronted repeatedly as they exhibit these errors during the course. The participating criminals come to see that they are not in control of their lives, that their thinking errors control their behavior, constantly leading them to jeopardize their future and hurt others. As they are constantly presented with the truth about themselves, a confrontational skill called mirroring, they reach a point of self-disgust about their behavior and thinking sufficient to motivate change. There is a significant parallel between this course and a 12 step substance abuse treatment program. Materials include numerous exercises and worksheets for the criminals participating in the program to complete. Counselor materials also are provided. Five units included in the course address: defining the criminal; tactics of power and control; how criminals view themselves; making better decisions; and the path of change. The ideas in this curriculum are adapted, in part, from the criminality programs at Riverview Release Center in Newton, Iowa, and at Rock Valley Correctional Programs in Beloit, Wisconsin.