NCJ Number
178293
Journal
Corrections Management Quarterly Volume: 3 Issue: 3 Dated: Summer 1999 Pages: 57-65
Date Published
1999
Length
9 pages
Annotation
The current "get tough" approach to criminals has created a difficult dilemma for correctional officials, who must create a safe and secure environment in overcrowded prisons with inmates serving longer periods of time; the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) in Greenville, Illinois, has created a unique program based on the responsibility model to teach inmates values.
Abstract
The responsibility model is the frame of reference for the Residential Values Program (RVP) implemented in 1995 at the FCI, a 750-bed, medium-security facility housing about 1,000 male inmates. The RVP begins with a 20-hour Living Free Program that introduces inmates to a prosocial lifestyle and includes discussions on costs and benefits of criminality, the need to assess personal values, the identification of destructive thinking patterns, the desirability of altering negative personal habits, the influence of family and values on personal behavior, and the need to create personal goals. Each 6-month RVP cycle admits 30 inmates, and inmates with upcoming release dates receive preference. An evaluation of the RVP had three objectives: (1) assess inmate perspectives on program content and delivery and motivations for participating; (2) assess the program's effect on longitudinal misconduct rates within the general population; and (3) assess program graduate rates of misconduct after completing the RVP. Incident report data showed that the FCI's misconduct rates were lower than those in other similar FCIs, although attributing lower misconduct rates to the RVP may be an ambitious claim. Nonetheless, the RVP appeared to have succeeded as an experiment in low-cost, volunteer-based, innovative programming; to have improved the quality of life for inmates; and to have contributed to the successful community integration of inmates. 9 references and 3 tables