NCJ Number
153986
Date Published
1995
Length
78 pages
Annotation
This workbook of information and exercises teaches offenders how to resolve their feelings of grief and loss in a positive manner and stop the cycle of negative choices that led them to their incarceration.
Abstract
In focusing on issues of grief and loss, the first chapter profiles losses of material goods, job, the physical self, control, personal freedom, relationships, childhood, spirituality, through death, and dreams and goals. The second chapter discusses the modern view of death and loss, including styles of grief. Some of the myths of grief and loss are addressed in chapter three, followed by a chapter on the effort to avoid the pain of loss by engaging in substance abuse. Grief associated with incarceration is the focus of the fifth chapter; topics considered are denial, protest, grief proper, and acceptance. Denial and protest are examined in greater depth in the subsequent chapter, since these are the first two phases of the grief cycle. Both the positive and negative aspects of theses responses to loss are identified. Grief proper and acceptance -- the third and fourth phases of the grief cycle -- are also examined in a separate chapter. Reinvestment and resolution are discussed as the final aspects of the grief process, as those who have experienced loss reinvest their lives in positive and constructive endeavors.