NCJ Number
76157
Journal
Professional Psychology Volume: 10 Issue: 1 Dated: (1979) Pages: 8-14
Date Published
1979
Length
8 pages
Annotation
The transition from traditional group psychotherapy with its intrapsychic concerns to increased responsibility and to prisoner-gurard relationships is presented as a study in institutional and individual change at a community corrections center in north central Florida.
Abstract
Ultimately numbering 15 members with one-third blacks, the inmate group met weekly for 2 hours under the direction of University of Florida psychology interns. Group members labeled as 'drug problems' tended to be younger, better educated, and more articulate than other prisoners at the facility. After resolution of hostilities by airing of mutual recriminations and learning of group-appropriate discriminations, the focus of the group widened to include the issue of staff-prisoner relationships. The shift in coping strategies among the group from passive and self-defeating to active and adaptive was illustrated by the considerable discussion about one guard who was being provocative toward the inmates. Subsequently, a process for future institutional change developed out of a series of meetings between the inmate therapy group and the supervising guard. Initial confrontations that developed between the supervising guard and the group over infractions of correctional center rules did not necessarily result in consensus. The confrontations did bring about the therapy group's acceptance of responsibility for continuing to pursue needed changes in the center and for preserving and extending new approaches to conflict resolution and self-responsibility. It is concluded that training clients to either change or avoid aversive influences in the corrections environment can be an appropriate and profitable focus for therapy. Nine references are provided.